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> The entire framework we have for paying authors is through distribution cost. This isn't true through. The price in funding creation of the book (there is va

> The entire framework we have for paying authors is through distribution cost. This isn't true through. The price in funding creation of the book (there is value on having the author focus exclusively on writing the book rather than finding time while doing a full time job), editing, marketing, etc. It's like saying the price of a phone is simply a tally of the cost of each individual component, where you have to factor in engineering, R&D, etc.

thomastjeffery 4y ago
The price of a phone is paid when you buy the phone. That's when and where the transaction happens. If that transaction doesn't happen, then none of the other things you mentioned get funded. You can't get the phone without a transaction happening. It's a physical object, so moving it has a distribution cost. You can get the contents of a book without doing a transaction. You can share the contents of a book just as freely as I'm sharing this comment. Because there isn't a transaction happening, there is no source of income. There is no time or place to ask readers for money. Money isn't even involved in the first place; neither are goods or services - apart from a trivial amount of bandwidth. Treating arts like they are singular objects to be made only once (or services to be performed once) doesn't work anymore. Now they are instances. They can be recreated or performed for free. By anyone. Anywhere. At any time. Without anyone else watching. You simply can't hijack every instantiation to involve a transaction. You can never stop the signal.
- sosborn 4y ago
  >You simply can't hijack every instantiation to involve a transaction. IMO, you shouldn't hijack someone else's work to make it free. If the person creating it wants it to be distributed freely, they have the option to make it so. > You can't get the phone without a transaction happening. This is also the case (not always) for a book, because the creation has a cost. Again, the author can choose to make it free, but they should also be free to charge a fee for it. It's pretty arrogant to take that choice away from them.
  - thomastjeffery 4y ago
    I'm not taking anything out hijacking anyone. I'm not here to talk about whether piracy is or isn't moral. Believe it or not, that's totally irrelevant. The cold hard truth is that an author can't choose to make their book free, because they can't choose to make it - the book itself - cost. Books aren't individual objects anymore. They cost nothing to reproduce. They cost nothing to redistribute. Any value we assign to a book can be infinitely diluted by anyone at any time, because it's free and instantaneous for them to make new copies and share them. It's pretty arrogant to tell authors that copyright will provide any guarantee to protect their income. It doesn't. It can't. It's pretty arrogant to blame the death of copyright on piracy. Piracy is not the cause, it's the result. It's not the knife, it's the open wound.
    - sosborn 4y ago
      This point of view ignores the fact that books have a cost to create, unless you think they just wave their hands and the content comes out fully formed. > It's pretty arrogant to tell authors that copyright will provide any guarantee to protect their income. It doesn't. It can't. > It's pretty arrogant to blame the death of copyright on piracy. Piracy is not the cause, it's the result. It's not the knife, it's the open wound. I have made no comments about either of these subjects, so I don't see how it is relevant.

thomastjeffery 4y ago

The price of a phone is paid when you buy the phone. That's when and where the transaction happens. If that transaction doesn't happen, then none of the other things you mentioned get funded. You can't get the phone without a transaction happening. It's a physical object, so moving it has a distribution cost. You can get the contents of a book without doing a transaction. You can share the contents of a book just as freely as I'm sharing this comment. Because there isn't a transaction happening, there is no source of income. There is no time or place to ask readers for money. Money isn't even involved in the first place; neither are goods or services - apart from a trivial amount of bandwidth. Treating arts like they are singular objects to be made only once (or services to be performed once) doesn't work anymore. Now they are instances. They can be recreated or performed for free. By anyone. Anywhere. At any time. Without anyone else watching. You simply can't hijack every instantiation to involve a transaction. You can never stop the signal.

sosborn 4y ago
>You simply can't hijack every instantiation to involve a transaction. IMO, you shouldn't hijack someone else's work to make it free. If the person creating it wants it to be distributed freely, they have the option to make it so. > You can't get the phone without a transaction happening. This is also the case (not always) for a book, because the creation has a cost. Again, the author can choose to make it free, but they should also be free to charge a fee for it. It's pretty arrogant to take that choice away from them.
- thomastjeffery 4y ago
  I'm not taking anything out hijacking anyone. I'm not here to talk about whether piracy is or isn't moral. Believe it or not, that's totally irrelevant. The cold hard truth is that an author can't choose to make their book free, because they can't choose to make it - the book itself - cost. Books aren't individual objects anymore. They cost nothing to reproduce. They cost nothing to redistribute. Any value we assign to a book can be infinitely diluted by anyone at any time, because it's free and instantaneous for them to make new copies and share them. It's pretty arrogant to tell authors that copyright will provide any guarantee to protect their income. It doesn't. It can't. It's pretty arrogant to blame the death of copyright on piracy. Piracy is not the cause, it's the result. It's not the knife, it's the open wound.
  - sosborn 4y ago
    This point of view ignores the fact that books have a cost to create, unless you think they just wave their hands and the content comes out fully formed. > It's pretty arrogant to tell authors that copyright will provide any guarantee to protect their income. It doesn't. It can't. > It's pretty arrogant to blame the death of copyright on piracy. Piracy is not the cause, it's the result. It's not the knife, it's the open wound. I have made no comments about either of these subjects, so I don't see how it is relevant.