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Computers, speakers, monitors, and printers didn't exist for most of human history. Reproducing a work was quite an ordeal, you couldn't just upload it to your

Computers, speakers, monitors, and printers didn't exist for most of human history. Reproducing a work was quite an ordeal, you couldn't just upload it to your website where anyone could google it and download it in two seconds. Also, for most of human history, artists were funded by doing commissions. People wouldn't create music and movies for their fans, they would do it for the millionaires who could afford it, a la Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. As for programming, maybe you don't care about your IP, but your company sure does. How would your company be funded if anybody could download its product? A few products might be able to survive just by being developed just for government contracts or for other large companies, but any care for ordinary consumers would be gone. And there is no similar market for books. Sure you could set up a book-writing company like you could now but where would the money for those salaries come from? No one will pay the company for a book they can download for free more easily.

int_19h 6y ago
How about sane copyright terms at least, for starters?
Fargren 6y ago
There are many things to answer to here, but let me pick at least a few > As for programming, maybe you don't care about your IP, but your company sure does. I don't think they do. The software I write is used by workers in my company's warehouse. It's valuable because it makes their job easier. Sure, we don't give the software away, but we also don't sell it. We would lose very little if we released it for free. I know this doesn't apply to all software, but it applies to a sizable amount of it. It would be interesting to measure which fraction of time spent writing software is for projects like this, I don't know how to even begin estimating it. > Sure you could set up a book-writing company like you could now but where would the money for those salaries come from? Some ideas, in no particular order. Asa I said before, maybe reduces the amount of books that get written, but can't say for sure. -Preorders. The publisher commits to only releasing a book once it has received X orders for it. GMT does this for boardgames. -Patreon-like model, or plain subscriptions. Customers commit to paying for whatever is released, or just pay periodically and the publisher/author commits to releasing stuff that makes customers happy. -Making nice editions: this could get very competitive, but surely a publisher who makes nice editions would still sell them. The publisher would be incentivized to pay popular authors to create books so it has more stuff to sell, even if other people could make other editions.

int_19h 6y ago

How about sane copyright terms at least, for starters?

Fargren 6y ago

There are many things to answer to here, but let me pick at least a few > As for programming, maybe you don't care about your IP, but your company sure does. I don't think they do. The software I write is used by workers in my company's warehouse. It's valuable because it makes their job easier. Sure, we don't give the software away, but we also don't sell it. We would lose very little if we released it for free. I know this doesn't apply to all software, but it applies to a sizable amount of it. It would be interesting to measure which fraction of time spent writing software is for projects like this, I don't know how to even begin estimating it. > Sure you could set up a book-writing company like you could now but where would the money for those salaries come from? Some ideas, in no particular order. Asa I said before, maybe reduces the amount of books that get written, but can't say for sure. -Preorders. The publisher commits to only releasing a book once it has received X orders for it. GMT does this for boardgames. -Patreon-like model, or plain subscriptions. Customers commit to paying for whatever is released, or just pay periodically and the publisher/author commits to releasing stuff that makes customers happy. -Making nice editions: this could get very competitive, but surely a publisher who makes nice editions would still sell them. The publisher would be incentivized to pay popular authors to create books so it has more stuff to sell, even if other people could make other editions.