Quote:
Originally Posted by amgoforth
Is Corry Doctorow and others like him right, or are those who fight to protect their work from Piracy right? If I ever finish one of my two books, that were supposed to be finished months ago and saw they up for free download I would be very angry. At the same time I might later, on reflection be angry that they weren't there. What is the answer?
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I think the answer is a business model which relies on people's innate sense of gratitude, fairness and natural justice. If they have an easy and convenient way of paying you 2-3 bucks for your book which they have read and liked - and an author doesn't get more than that from each paperback sold in any case - they will pay you. The rest of the price of a paperback is used to support the unwieldy and restrictive distribution model made unnecessary by IT progress.
Cut out the middlemen, the distributors, the warehouses, the bricks-and-mortar shops, the lawyers and managers. Leave the author, the editor paid by the author from his own income, and a reviewing and rating system to help the consumer navigate in this sea of books. All we really need is five or ten competing central repositories of catalogues, reviews and ratings linking to the author's book and getting a small cut from every link clicked or every book sold, plus an easy and trusted system of micropayments. The rest of the publishing industry can then die and unlamented death, while the readers will have access to all the books ever written, and the authors will be properly rewarded for their work.