[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by AMacD

My brother was a geology professor. He lived under the "publish or perish" environment of the university system. He spent years writing a text book in joint authorship with the head prof and then could sell all of 50 copies at a time. His readership was sharply limited. Even if he had been able to capture the entire US geology market, he would still have sold a limited number of copies, which he didn't get much of a royalty on anyway, considering all the glossy paper and graphics it included.

So he didn't expect to make a killing. why is this story sad?

Would any of the pirates out there write a book with a guarantee of making less than $100 a year off of it? Not only no, but hell no. We're not talking about a romance novel that gets cranked out in 3 months, but years of research, learning, drafting and writing.

Of course we're not. We're talking about a guy who is already on a salary, who can often get grants to write/finish books, and who is not going to be able to survive off those royalties anyway, even if "everyone" bought it. Also, book writing in academia is not really "special", it's something you do to stay relevant. (Or well, you research to stay relevant, but article/book writing tends to be part of this, as unpublished results are worthless.) As such, the time he spent on writing cannot be worth more than he is paid during that time, and is generally worth less, as he is also doing other things.
If you want to become rich, write trash novels, or perhaps write something slightly more informed, like Jared Diamond (though I find this guy overhyped) or Neal Stephenson does; if you want to work in a field like academia, write journal articles (and sometimes books). If you write well, you might be rewarded, but the point of the exercise is and can never be the reward, it's the proliferation of knowledge/understanding.

Piracy cannot be justified under any heading. Piracy=Theft. You're a pirate, you're a thief.

This works because everything repeated thrice immediately becomes true?

Repeat after me: Infringement (1: the act of infringing; violation, 2: an encroachment or trespass on a right or privilege) is not theft (1a: the act of stealing; specifically: the felonious taking and removing of personal property with intent to deprive the rightful owner of it, 1b: an unlawful taking (as by embezzlement or burglary) of property).