Posted on 03/29/2005 9:21:06 AM PST by TommyDale
Agreed. He'd be a lot happier on DU if he actually believed what he was writing.
Because I can't take a computer with me to a quiet diner and read the book. Besides, I like turning pages. :)
This is the crux of the issue. The average joe with a home computer knows that it costs mere pennies to burn a cd. Nobody wants to pay $18 for a cd that they know damn well only costs the company a half dollar to make and distribute.
John Ringo is awesome. He got me hooked on Sluggy Freelance, too.
Time to die, Posleen-boy!
I have found that using Kazaa, Ares and Limewire to get music can be quite time consuming. It really isn't even fun for me. But I am in a cover band and sometimes need to download a lot of "sample" songs to learn them. The funny thing is that I own copies of most of the songs, but I need to compile them in one folder on my computer that I then use in my studio for playing along. The easiest and fastest way to do this is to search the songs out, download them and then send them to a file and use Winamp to create a songlist.
I also use Kazaa to sample music. I must admit I have not bought a CD since the 20th century, and most of the ones I bought in the last five years of that century were used. Recorded music is just a cheap commodity to me. And that perception is directly gotten from being able to download reasonable quality music from the internet.
And that is the REAL problem with music file sharing: Kids (the lions share of the business) do not percieve recorded music as something of much monetary value. Therefore, they don't buy it.
The times and culture, they are a changin'.
Hah, I went the other way around - Torg was reading a John Ringo book one day and I had to find out who he was...
He was, I swear! I think it was around the time of the evil-moths!
Here it is, a mere two days after the introduction of emergency pants:
http://sluggy.com/daily.php?date=020410
So, you don't let public libraries lend out your books, right?
I previously addressed this issue. (I believe it was Post #24.) Briefly, the library pays for its copy of my book; the library lends it out, but only to one person at a time; and if someone wants his own copy of the book, he has to buy it.
Downloading is different. It is as if the library were to print unlimited copies of the book to give away, without paying royalties to the copyright holder.
Don't you see why an author might object to the latter arrangement?
I agree with you: I much prefer reading an ink-on-paper document rather than an electronic one. But book in this context could mean either one. So the question remains: If you could get a book, why would you pay?
It has been a long day. Time to go home.
There, it's fixed.
Kinko's.
Don't you see why an author might object to the latter arrangement?
What do you say to the Baen Free Library? Granted, they chose to put their works up there for copying.
Actually, I seem to recall that Kinko's lost a lawsuit over copyrighted material. If I am not mistaken, that is one reason they no longer provide university course packets.
At the moment, at least, Kinko's is no serious threat to book copyrights. Photocopying an entire book is time-consuming and fairly costly; the copy is usually inferior to the original. (Nevertheless, as I mentioned earlier, some students will photocopy textbooks if they are expensive enough.)
That could all change with the wide availability of e-books and digital color printers/copiers. Then it would be easy to download and print a book that would differ from the original only in the quality of the binding.
What do you say to the Baen Free Library? Granted, they chose to put their works up there for copying.
Yes, we discussed Baen earlier. They have an interesting business model that I will be watching closely. Baen is not simply giving away free books as a public service; they are in business to make a profit. By offering free downloads of the initial novel (or two) in a series, they hope to entice buyers to pay for the rest of the series. And it appears they may turn a profit that way. Whether this model will work with textbooks or other nonfiction remains to be seen.
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