08-16-2012, 09:14 AM | #76 | |
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If you accept only manual labour as worth of being recognised devaluing what is the think-part of doings, there would be only a small logical step of adapting this system to other activities apart from work or creation. Neglecting IP says "how something was done doesn't matter" (no difference if something was copied or created only the mere existence of the item counts) I just showed where this line of reasoning would end. |
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08-16-2012, 02:53 PM | #77 |
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08-16-2012, 03:13 PM | #78 | |
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Historically, the method of transferring economic compensation for creative labor consists of buying a physical object, in this case, a book. But putting aside situations where the book itself is an artistic creation, the book is not what is actually created. That is, a book is just a container for a narrative performance which is itself the creation of the author's labor. Copyright is merely the legal protection of the compensation stream. It insures that the compensation is actual paid, and goes to the laborer author rather than some other person. So the ethical argument for copyright is derivative - there is no actual ethical component to copyright itself. Further, I don't see how encouraging the creation of IP is a matter of ethics. It's a matter of culture or esthetics, or so it seems to me. Last edited by Harmon; 08-16-2012 at 03:21 PM. |
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08-16-2012, 03:26 PM | #79 | |
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08-16-2012, 03:40 PM | #80 | |
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Accidentally of course if someone got it illegally without your knowledge and gave it to you. The author/publisher gave it to you. You found the electrons making up this digital copy lying abandoned somewhere. Perhaps it is merely a moral issue, that of right or wrong of which we all have differing standards . |
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08-16-2012, 03:45 PM | #81 | |
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Helen |
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08-16-2012, 04:13 PM | #82 |
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I'm sorry, but I don't get your point. You are going to have to be more specific about what you are getting at before I can respond.
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08-19-2012, 03:57 AM | #83 | |
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And yet most of the money does not go to the laborer but to the middlemen. |
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08-19-2012, 06:27 AM | #84 |
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08-19-2012, 06:49 AM | #85 | |
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e.g. 5,000 hardback print run. $25 dollar retail price $12.50 wholesale price $2.50 print cost. 10% retail price royalty $10,000 advance. Only sells 3,000 copies. Publisher costs: $10,000 advance $12,500 print cost Publisher income: $37,500 Publisher profit(loss): $15,000. Author royalties: $7,500. Didn't earn out the advance. Keeps all of $10,000 advance. The book didn't earn out the advance. The publisher still made 50% more than the author. |
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08-19-2012, 07:01 AM | #86 |
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08-19-2012, 07:03 AM | #87 | |
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But I've dragged the thread off-topic again. Sorry. |
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08-19-2012, 07:12 AM | #88 | |
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08-19-2012, 07:19 AM | #89 |
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Oh, yes. There are indeed all those costs. And those costs certainly reduce the publisher's profit on a book. But I hope you're not suggesting that they come to more than $15,000 in the example I gave, or that publishers expect to make no profit on a book unless it earns out the advance.
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08-19-2012, 08:14 AM | #90 | |
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If the publishers were just middlemen, I don't think there would be such a focus on them. There are some books where the publisher didn't contribute much beyond marketing. In a case where the book started out indie, and was taken up by a publisher (50 Shades franchise), we have proof of it. But almost all the time, when I read a book, I have no idea whether the publisher just took what was submitted, or did a total rewrite. You could say that in the case of a rewrite, most of the money didn't go to the laborer either, it's just a different laborer who was ripped off (editor instead of author). However, it's not like everyone is sitting around publishing houses gossiping while the authors and editors do all the work. The work of the HR people and supervisors who hire the kind of editors that make books better rather than worse is also critical. And no one would be there without the finance people. Or the janitors. There are companies where most of the revenue goes to executive salaries and profit. The big six are not among them. They don't spend much on lobbying the government, either. Most of the revenue goes, directly or indirectly, to creating product and getting it to readers. |
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