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Originally Posted by alex_d
There are only two schemes that could work. Two schemes that would give the sort of limitless, zero-marginal-cost access to content that would make iPods and eBooks work. Either monthly subscriptions (which haven't took off mostly due to half-hearted marketing) or government-funded mandatory licensing (sounds commie but translates to digital libraries. it even has a benefit of reducing commercialism and promoting quality).
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Subscription plans are okay... as long as you can keep your content once the subscription lapses. If I let my Scientific American paper magazine subscription lapse, my last five years of SA aren't going to spontaneously combust on my shelf. If you lose the material with the subscription, that's not a subscription... that's a lease.
Government-funded mandatory licensing (of what? The books? The readers?) will not work internationally, will only hand commercialism over to Big Business, and will put quality control in the hands of the government. Right.