[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

It has been suggested that "supply is kept low by artificial means to make a profit". That is, of course, incorrect. Just like pbooks, where you print x number of copies, with ebooks the natural way is to make new copies as they are bought. It is only through illegal means that the socalled "unlimited supply" is achieved. So illegal reproduction is what is artificial.

Making reproduction illegal is artificial means.

Pbooks are limited because paper, ink, and printing technologies are limited. It takes time & money to make copies of pbooks; that's why the cost is where it is. While it's illegal to make additional copies, that doesn't stop most people--many college students make copies of textbooks, up to the limit they can afford to copy. The copies cost money because the paper & machinery costs.

The control on the copies is, in large part, the physical limitations of technology.

Ebooks are limited because someone decided "these should be limited; we shall tell people they're not allowed to make copies." The copies themselves cost nothing to make. Distributing the copies takes almost no effort.

That's an artificial limitation, an illusion of scarcity created to increase demand. That's not necessarily a bad thing; the artificial scarcity can encourage authors to release ebooks that they otherwise wouldn't.

But limitations of law are not the same as an actual shortage of supplies. The reason ebooks are limited in number is entirely because someone said they should be--that's an artificial scarcity.

Yes, with digital files stealing is incredible easy and efficient -- that is why we do need a consensus that one should pay just like for a pbook and have the same rights as with a pbook. Only then will we not be saddled with DRM anymore and everybody wins.

We need people to stop calling copyright infringement "stealing," for starters. It implies criminal behavior instead of civil violation, and that kind of imprecise insult is exactly why most filesharers ignore pleas to stop. If complainers don't even know what they're really doing, why should they listen to the complaints?

We also need publishers to acknowledge that it's legal to give away and resell ebooks, just like it is for pbooks. When publishers start treating ebooks as having the same rights as ebooks, the customers are more likely to do so.

I choose it because a most people could reproduce a perfect copy of the original flower from a seed with relative ease and little knowhow.

I couldn't. (I have a black thumb. I have killed aloe vera and air ferns; I no longer attempt to grow plants of any sort.) And even those who are skilled at it, it takes more than a seed--it takes seed, the right kind of dirt, the right amount of water and light, and time--those all combine to make a scarcity that drives the market.

If flowers could be created by pushing a button that says "insta-copy," there'd be a lot less interest in buying them.