If books can be freely downloaded, why in the world would a publishing company pay decent advances, even to bestselling authors? That advance money is all-important, as it might be the entirety of what an author makes on his/her book. I was in a big Barnes & Noble yesterday, place was almost deserted, half of the "bookshelves" were filled with other stuff. It's such a pity!
Good luck to you, Logophile.
Thanks.
It will be ineresting to see if anyone posting to this thread can answer my question.
The whole nature of intellectual property is being radically transformed by technology in a way that has not been seen since Gutenberg invented moveable type. The SCOTUS can't even hope to stand in its way, it would be like trying to declare void the law of gravity.
Your local library has CDs, DVDs, and books to lend .The library buys one and thousands of people get to use it ( for free ) They can even download it to an MP3 player or rip the DVD and/or copy the CD at home and nobody knows . . Is that not "sharing" also ???
which is why book publishers have been hestant to adopt a uniform standard for mass distribution of ebooks.
Huh? When you start spinning to support you side, something's wrong. Book sales have been up every year since 1982. Industry report here.