09-27-2012, 03:36 PM | #181 | |
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After all, copyright didn't do him much good, did it? He still had to slog his guts out at "real jobs" to make a living. |
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09-27-2012, 04:09 PM | #182 |
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He may have not been able to make his living solely with his writing, but without copyright, he would have had to have worked even more at his day job to make a living.
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09-27-2012, 05:51 PM | #183 |
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So, what's your authority for the proposition that "Sholem Aleichem wouldn't have written it without copyright"?
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09-27-2012, 06:54 PM | #184 | |
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It's possible that some authors would have written purely as a hobby if it were not for copyright, but there would be far less written. |
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09-27-2012, 07:22 PM | #185 | |
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Of course, your claim that there would be far less written if it wasn't for copyright is equally unsupported. It is often put forward in this bald way as a support for the copyright regime, without any supporting evidence. |
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09-27-2012, 07:30 PM | #186 | |
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Authors need money to eat. If they could not make money from writing, they would have to work more at other jobs. If they had to work more at other jobs, they would have less time to devote to writing. If they had less time to devote to writing, there would be less books written. Therefore, if it were not for copyright, there would be less books written. |
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09-27-2012, 07:37 PM | #187 | |
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09-27-2012, 07:41 PM | #188 |
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Right, I mean, authors made money before copyright, they will make money after copyright, it might be argued that they make less under copyright, but you can of course argue anything you want.
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09-27-2012, 07:42 PM | #189 |
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If my aunt had testicles, would she be my uncle?
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09-27-2012, 07:57 PM | #190 |
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I don't know the answer to your question.
I do know that if someone told me their aunt had testicles, I would want some evidence before I believed them. But in practice I would probably be prepared to leave the issue unresolved. |
09-27-2012, 07:58 PM | #191 | |
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09-27-2012, 08:01 PM | #192 |
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That simply isn't true. Publishers make money on public domain stuff now, even though it's readily available for free elsewhere. There are a number of public works (thousands, I suspect, but at least hundreds) for sale on Amazon and B&N that are available for free (and often of higher quality) through Project Gutenberg, and they do sell.
New material gets published for free, as well, with authors being given money even though there's no requirement. There's a whole line of computer games that are distributed on the basis of "pay us whatever you feel like" that has made millions. I agree that a heck of a lot less new material would be available without copyright, but making absolute (and untrue) claims like that doesn't help the argument any. |
09-27-2012, 08:03 PM | #193 |
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So what's your evidence for this??? You keep challenging everyone else's lack of evidence for their claims/comments but haven't produced any evidence to support your contrarian position...
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09-27-2012, 08:03 PM | #194 | |
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For example, you can argue that if pizza was given away, pizza chefs would make at least the same amount of money, because of all the people who would donate cash, and the possibility the government would step in and compensate pizza creators. I don't believe it. Do you? Now, actually, there are a few chefs who live on donations, such as in connection with churches. And, getting closer to books, maybe calibre creator Kovid Goyal is doing OK, although I wouldn't count on it. But being able to live on donations is unusual, because the supply of generous people is limited. If the generality of chefs give away their services, the generality of chefs will, in the US, live on food stamps, and, in many other countries, starve. P.S. Re Mr. Goyal, he also has a special situation because cost of living in his country (India) is much lower than in the countries where his software is mostly used (US, Britain, Canada, Australia). But most authors primarily write for people in their own country. Last edited by SteveEisenberg; 09-27-2012 at 08:21 PM. |
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09-27-2012, 08:05 PM | #195 |
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Tags |
drm, ebooks, ethics, piracy, price |
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