Quote:
Originally Posted by Panurge
What about the Xerox machine? That hasn't been part of this debate for decades, but when it came out, it prompted the remark that everyone could now be his own publisher.
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True. They also thought that, after the '69 Moon landing, we'd have dozens of colonies there by 2000. Chalk that up to wishful thinking.
Fact is, reproducing the book is easy, and only one of many other steps involved in book production (not the least of which is writing it!). Besides, publishers, aware of the ease of duplicating their books, quickly acted to alter reproduction laws, and even put pressure on copier makers to limit the effectiveness of bulk book copying, to avoid the scenario you suggested. So for publishing, the copier's usefulness is limited at best.
The only real advantage of the photocopier is its ability to make 1 copy as cheaply as many... an economy that a printing press cannot equal, and something that an individual who wants to can take advantage of, as you have. But in bulk, a printing press beats out a copier economically by a mile.