Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
It is better because it is a system that can work in the long run. The current system will soon collapse.
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We’d better be clear on this: you cannot hold these two beliefs on pain of inconsistency:
1) Most people will pay voluntarily if given the chance for something they can easily get for free;
2) The system in which people pay for what they read is doomed.
A good reason to be against DRM is 1. 2 is a good reason for wanting a good DRM system in place — and the best kind of system so far is iTunes and ePub with DRM. Both suck, but work for most people. Now, if we push for a tax system, it is because we do not believe in 1. This means the tax system is competing not with people paying for what they read, but with a DRM system. What on earth can make anyone believe that a tax system, with all its Orwellian shadows, is better than DRM?
A payment system is fair if 1) pays the authors and 2) those who use what the authors created are the ones who pay them. A system is unfair if 1) authors are not paid, either directly or indirectly and 2) it is not those who use the authors’ creations that primarily pay them, but rather someone else.