Quote:
Originally Posted by Pardoz
DRM and geographical restrictions are two huge ones, but I'd argue that there's a third that's as important as either: availability. A huge percentage(from what I've seen, a commanding majority, at least in fiction) of what's out there is scanned copies of books that simply aren't available in electronic form, and a good percentage of those aren't available new in any format, paper or digital - The Real Caterpillar comments on this in the interview linked above.
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Quite right. And I suspect that some people who have gone to a week's work scanning and proofing a text may "darknet" said text in order to save other people that week's work.
In the end, those people who scream author's right aren't talking the economics of it, but the control aspect. Mine! Mine! I rule on what happened to it, and the world will bow to my power over the work.
Look at the Google orphan work hoo-rah. If the author's guild had
really cared about orphan works, and the revenue attached to them, they could have set up a deal with the publishers themselves. But they weren't.
The sad thing about it is if you had people scanning their favorite obscure works, and proofing them, for free, why publishers and the guild wouldn't take advantage of all that free labor is beyond me. You mean to tell me you can't make money off of
free product? But I've had various small publishers here state that since they couldn't
control the timing, they couldn't use the free product.
No idea of a Guild website for orphan works, common for most publishers, where scanners could post their work, and let it be resold for a modest fee (say $5 per book)? Splitting it with the publisher for an agreed to fee? On properties not generating a dime otherwise to all? Instead of prosecuting, profiting? Getting the moral high ground like Baen?
Of course not! Authors and publishers might lose some
control! And that seems to be more important that money...