Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
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If the "new model" cannot support the creation of digital content, then content creators will suffer. Fortunately, this does not necessarily have to occur, as long as most readers can be encouraged to pay for what they read, hopefully by setting a reasonable price.
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Good point.
As a reader, I am willing to pay for what I
read, and I'm willing to pay for paper, ink and for the work behind it even if don't read a word in it.
But I'm not willing to pay for what I
download (aside from a contribution for bandwith cost) if I don't actually read it.
Let me do a little statistic:
My reading average is about 2 books/month, meaning something close to 250 books in ten years. If I pay 5€ per book (a little less than a paperback price), I can have my ten years worth of reading if I go to the bookstore and buy 1250€ of books.
In your opinion, will an e-book dealer grant me a unlimited 10-years access to his catalogue for 1500€?
No, because in his mind I'm getting 25.000 or so books, even if I'll get just the 250 I'll read... Not to mention if I download some more than I read...
Now, if I go to the darknet and download thousands of books, what I'll read in the next ten years will be those same 250 books, more or less. I'll just have more choices every time I want to open one.
But, in dealer's mind, I'm stealing thousands, even if I don't even open the file.
What I mean is, in the case of a digital copy of a book, I'm not really owning or possessing it until I actually
read it. And that's the moment I'll agree to pay a fair amount
for the content. But, If a file is in my hard disk, it's not a book until that moment. It's just a bunch of zeros and ones.
Like the Odyssey was not a poem until Homer started to chant it.
That's what I think is a "new model".
I pay a fixed fair amount for unlimited access.
I don't distribute what I download.
I send periodic statistics on what I really read (and maybe a feddback about quality)
On the other side:
Distributor/publisher is paid with a percentage of my fee for his costs and work
Authors are paid proportionally to what I read with another percentage of it.
A small percentage of the fee will go in a pension fund for widows and children: copyright dies with the author.