4 ms·

The Life and Death of an American Indie Press

36 points by samclemens 7y ago

mxuribe 7y ago
Ugh, this is just awful. > Unfortunately, for writers in these situations, there is not much recourse. According to Jonathan Kirsch, a publishing industry attorney, lawsuits are not the answer for everyone, or even most people. "When I started out [in law], people would say a $20,000 claim cannot be litigated in a cost-effective way. Today, I wonder if a $100,000 claim can be litigated in a cost-effective way. So that’s one issue. It’s just expensive." This is just one of the things i really hate about capitalism (and it's not specific to the publishing industry): in our modern-day environment, we have little power to protect ourselves against richer/more powerful entities. Basically, whoever has more money wins; and this deeply saddens me.
- CM30 7y ago
  It's probably insane, but this sort of 'rich seem to get an advantage in legal situations because of resources' issue makes me wonder how the world might work if we actively restricted rights based on wealth. What if people and companies couldn't sue anyone poorer than themselves? How would that affect the legal system? Or if the richer party always had to pay the legal fees? Then again, on a more controversial level, what if actual human rights started vanishing as you crossed wealth thresholds? Would people and companies still want to be billionaires if that meant losing the right to vote?
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    " Would people and companies still want to be billionaires if that meant losing the right to vote?" No problem there. Use your money to make other people vote for your stuff. That's what's happening already anyway.
- ColanR 7y ago
  This seems like a symptom of the rules involved; when courts enable endless litigation, whoever can afford it comes out on top. If, on the other hand, legal machinations rewarded concise litigation (and public defenders were far more easily available and of high quality), I think the problem would be solved. On that note, what if our best lawyers became public defenders? What if we petitioned our government to make that job extremely high-paying and extremely competitive? It seems like a small edit to the system, that would create an immense amount of good.

36 points by samclemens 7y ago

Ugh, this is just awful. > Unfortunately, for writers in these situations, there is not much recourse. According to Jonathan Kirsch, a publishing industry attorney, lawsuits are not the answer for everyone, or even most people. "When I started out [in law], people would say a $20,000 claim cannot be litigated in a cost-effective way. Today, I wonder if a $100,000 claim can be litigated in a cost-effective way. So that’s one issue. It’s just expensive." This is just one of the things i really hate about capitalism (and it's not specific to the publishing industry): in our modern-day environment, we have little power to protect ourselves against richer/more powerful entities. Basically, whoever has more money wins; and this deeply saddens me.

CM30 7y ago
It's probably insane, but this sort of 'rich seem to get an advantage in legal situations because of resources' issue makes me wonder how the world might work if we actively restricted rights based on wealth. What if people and companies couldn't sue anyone poorer than themselves? How would that affect the legal system? Or if the richer party always had to pay the legal fees? Then again, on a more controversial level, what if actual human rights started vanishing as you crossed wealth thresholds? Would people and companies still want to be billionaires if that meant losing the right to vote?
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  " Would people and companies still want to be billionaires if that meant losing the right to vote?" No problem there. Use your money to make other people vote for your stuff. That's what's happening already anyway.
ColanR 7y ago
This seems like a symptom of the rules involved; when courts enable endless litigation, whoever can afford it comes out on top. If, on the other hand, legal machinations rewarded concise litigation (and public defenders were far more easily available and of high quality), I think the problem would be solved. On that note, what if our best lawyers became public defenders? What if we petitioned our government to make that job extremely high-paying and extremely competitive? It seems like a small edit to the system, that would create an immense amount of good.