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At this point the ethical thing to do is to pirate the book and donate the money to the author. Like, if I were him, I would just put the PDF up on the pirate b
by Asooka 8y ago
At this point the ethical thing to do is to pirate the book and donate the money to the author. Like, if I were him, I would just put the PDF up on the pirate bay with a link to my patreon.
Edit: I see it's also on Google Books, which I presume has a more ethical paying structure. Sadly, that's not available in my corner of the EU yet.
- sgroppino 8y agoAre there no other publishing platforms that do this for a flat fee? Apart from taking payment and applying DRM, what else is involved? Checks to ensure the author is the legal owner of the copyright?
- dpwm 8y ago> Checks to ensure the author is the legal owner of the copyright? As far as I can tell, the check is basically a tick-box declaration that you have the rights to publish. Amazon also want tax and payment information. Some self-publishers publish on Kobo, but they're a bit opaque on what their cut is.
- golergka 8y agoThis is completely unethical to the entities the author have given the rights for distribution to.
- dpwm 8y agoI really can't tell if this is satire or serious. On each pirated book, the e-book "distributor" (i.e. google play) is doing nothing. They won't be doing any marketing, they won't have any distribution costs: it'll just be as if it were a less popular book than it actually is. I'm sure the author could have set up such an arrangement for the e-book himself if he preferred it. Bear in mind that actually running a payment page results in a whole world of pain surrounding stolen credit cards, refund requests, compatibility problems and technical support demands. If you enjoy the writing, you probably don't want to be doing that.
- golergka 8y agoNo, I'm completely serious about it. > On each pirated book, the e-book "distributor" (i.e. google play) is doing nothing. They won't be doing any marketing, they won't have any distribution costs: it'll just be as if it were a less popular book than it actually is. The author knew that, and yet he made voluntarily decision of going into an agreement with them. Disrespecting this agreement is disrespecting this decision and, therefore, the author himself.
- ouid 8y agoWait, what? Amazon is a monopoly. They aren't charging a fair competitive price. Your "argument" only works if the author has other options for distribution. Otherwise it's not a decision.
- tzs 8y agoAmazon doesn't have a monopoly on physical book production or distribution. As the author notes in TFA, he looked at other production options and they were roughly the same as Amazon.
- golergka 8y ago> Amazon is a monopoly. Can you please back up this claim with some data? Certainly doesn't look as a monopoly on book distribution and online book sales from here.
- s_kilk 8y agoYeah but fuck 'em
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- dzamo_norton 8y agoIf the author signed an exclusivity agreement with Amazon then he'd be in breach and Amazon could seek penalties. Otherwise he would not be in breach and Amazon should expect him to use other distribution channels as the fancy takes him. That's about the extent to which ethics enters into it, as far as I can see.