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nikkie · 02-20-2010, 12:52 AM

I buy eBooks all the time, even though they are almost all DRMd and it makes me feel sick inside because I know I'm throwing my money in a hole, BUT...

<politics>I'm pretty sure Ben Franklin would agree with the last option. Libraries are available to the public to decrease the knowledge gap between people of varying advantage levels, whether geographic or socio-economic. It is a huge part of what makes first world nations places where people can move between classes, because they can educate themselves out of lower classes if they want. (<rant>Or at least that's the rhetoric they teach in our schools these days. I've yet to determine if it's really possible. So far I'm 25 and it's promising, but getting somewhat bleaker due to tax laws on middle class citizens. And greedy corporations in general. </rant>) Anyway, libraries ARE socialist, but in a very capitalist way.</politics>

On the OTHER hand, I do believe the author/editor has EVERY right to determine the licensing and pricing of their works. I don't think the publisher has ANY right to determine pricing or licensing for eBooks unless they offer useful and significant marketing. If I was an author right now, I would honestly use the publisher for all the publicity I could get, and then drop them like a rock when my books got enough positive reviews for new readers to know they are quality.

My hope is that in the future, most works will be Creative Commons and the author will specify exactly what copy rights they would like users to have, and that most authors will be liberal about it.

EBooks and software distribution are very similar problems, and software is turning into a solved problem. They both take a lot of time and effort to get right, and can be very easily pirated. I think the Apple App Store (and Steam) show quite clearly that "free" and "cheap" are excellent business models because people are much more likely to part with "a buck" than "twenty-five dollars".

The future looks good. Less pirating. More authors getting paid. And more legitimate and free data transfer.

02-20-2010, 12:52 AM	#147
nikkie Guru Posts: 614 Karma: 73700 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: WA, USA Device: Android, Kindle Paperwhite, lots of ancient readers	I buy eBooks all the time, even though they are almost all DRMd and it makes me feel sick inside because I know I'm throwing my money in a hole, BUT... <politics>I'm pretty sure Ben Franklin would agree with the last option. Libraries are available to the public to decrease the knowledge gap between people of varying advantage levels, whether geographic or socio-economic. It is a huge part of what makes first world nations places where people can move between classes, because they can educate themselves out of lower classes if they want. (<rant>Or at least that's the rhetoric they teach in our schools these days. I've yet to determine if it's really possible. So far I'm 25 and it's promising, but getting somewhat bleaker due to tax laws on middle class citizens. And greedy corporations in general. </rant>) Anyway, libraries ARE socialist, but in a very capitalist way.</politics> On the OTHER hand, I do believe the author/editor has EVERY right to determine the licensing and pricing of their works. I don't think the publisher has ANY right to determine pricing or licensing for eBooks unless they offer useful and significant marketing. If I was an author right now, I would honestly use the publisher for all the publicity I could get, and then drop them like a rock when my books got enough positive reviews for new readers to know they are quality. My hope is that in the future, most works will be Creative Commons and the author will specify exactly what copy rights they would like users to have, and that most authors will be liberal about it. EBooks and software distribution are very similar problems, and software is turning into a solved problem. They both take a lot of time and effort to get right, and can be very easily pirated. I think the Apple App Store (and Steam) show quite clearly that "free" and "cheap" are excellent business models because people are much more likely to part with "a buck" than "twenty-five dollars". The future looks good. Less pirating. More authors getting paid. And more legitimate and free data transfer. Last edited by nikkie; 02-20-2010 at 02:23 AM.