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The real question is - would people be foaming at the mouth if this was an e-compilation that didn't cost you anything to download?
by alfredp 17y ago
The real question is - would people be foaming at the mouth if this was an e-compilation that didn't cost you anything to download?
- j-g-faustus 17y agoI think it would be much less anger if the collection was free. But why is that the real question? If your blog quotes from and links to my blog, that's an endorsement, and I would probably be happy about it. But if you print out my blog and sell it on Amazon, I would definitely be pissed off. Some behavioral economists say that people operate in two modes: A "warm and fuzzy reciprocity" mode used with friends/family/neighbours/colleagues and a "coldly calculating market" mode used whenever there is money involved. If you collect a few entertaining tweets and publish them on your blog, most people would probably consider it within the spirit of reciprocity - it's a shared resource with no specific owner. But by selling the collection, you are breaking the implicit social contract that governs reciprocity and switching to market mode. In market mode I will obviously demand my fair share of the profits, and by not offering it you are breaking the social rules for market interaction as well. (See "thief" - exploiting other people's effort for profit and offering nothing in return.) So yes, selling the book probably generates more anger than giving it away. But it's not much of a mystery why that is so, is it?