4 ms·

Your logic doesn’t make sense to me. Pre-digital, a book could just be shared with a friend one at a time (unless you wanted to xerox the whole thing which I’ve

Your logic doesn’t make sense to me. Pre-digital, a book could just be shared with a friend one at a time (unless you wanted to xerox the whole thing which I’ve seen but it’s always low quality). Pirate Bay does that at scale—millions of “friends”, and all at the same quality. It’s unsustainable to authors. Don’t tell the authors to find “a new framework”. What do you expect them to do? Force users to sign up for a weekly subscription and email out individually DRMed copies of the chapters each week? Unless you can actually propose a good idea with the mechanics of why it works for both parties in economic terms, don’t go around shaming the authors.

pessimizer 4y ago
> Pre-digital, a book could just be shared with a friend one at a time (unless you wanted to xerox the whole thing which I’ve seen but it’s always low quality). Post-digital, a legally purchased book can be shared with no friends, none at a time.
thomastjeffery 4y ago
> Pirate Bay does that at scale—millions of “friends”, and all at the same quality. It’s unsustainable to authors. Don’t tell the authors to find “a new framework”. I'm not telling authors to find a new framework. Such a thing doesn't exist. I'm not even sure it could exist. And that sucks, because authors need a new framework. > What do you expect them to do? I don't. I have zero expectations. > Unless you can actually propose a good idea with the mechanics of why it works for both parties in economic terms, don’t go around shaming the authors. I'm not here shaming anyone. I'm just being honest. This system is broken. We're all looking at the same shattered pieces. It's wild that I'm the only one here who isn't pretending everything is OK.
everforward 4y ago
> Your logic doesn’t make sense to me. Pre-digital, a book could just be shared with a friend one at a time (unless you wanted to xerox the whole thing which I’ve seen but it’s always low quality). Sure, but books also had a much higher value due to a relative lack of competitors. Books now have to compete with a plethora of free media available on YouTube, forums, blogs, etc. Some of them may be of lower quality, but it's hard to beat free. Lots of us have taught ourselves skills via free resources that we probably would have had to pay for at one point. It's much harder to charge for knowledge than it once was.
xani_ 4y ago
Well, post digital era we still buy/rent games, video and music. I don't see why something similar couldn't be done, pay monthly and you can read whatever your want, and what you read depends on where the money from your subscription goes. And as distribution costs are lower, higher % of it should go to the writers. Hell, amazon could just do that, except of course they wouldn't give a fair cut... At zero cost to try new authors it could possibly be a good way for more niche stuff, you can just page thru any book that you want with no cost but time > What do you expect them to do? Force users to sign up for a weekly subscription and email out individually DRMed copies of the chapters each week? There is actually one guy doing it on patreon but he already have YT audience for music gear reviews (book is about electronic music ideas and tips). So it is possible, just kinda hard as you already need to have publicity.

pessimizer 4y ago

> Pre-digital, a book could just be shared with a friend one at a time (unless you wanted to xerox the whole thing which I’ve seen but it’s always low quality). Post-digital, a legally purchased book can be shared with no friends, none at a time.

thomastjeffery 4y ago

> Pirate Bay does that at scale—millions of “friends”, and all at the same quality. It’s unsustainable to authors. Don’t tell the authors to find “a new framework”. I'm not telling authors to find a new framework. Such a thing doesn't exist. I'm not even sure it could exist. And that sucks, because authors need a new framework. > What do you expect them to do? I don't. I have zero expectations. > Unless you can actually propose a good idea with the mechanics of why it works for both parties in economic terms, don’t go around shaming the authors. I'm not here shaming anyone. I'm just being honest. This system is broken. We're all looking at the same shattered pieces. It's wild that I'm the only one here who isn't pretending everything is OK.

everforward 4y ago

> Your logic doesn’t make sense to me. Pre-digital, a book could just be shared with a friend one at a time (unless you wanted to xerox the whole thing which I’ve seen but it’s always low quality). Sure, but books also had a much higher value due to a relative lack of competitors. Books now have to compete with a plethora of free media available on YouTube, forums, blogs, etc. Some of them may be of lower quality, but it's hard to beat free. Lots of us have taught ourselves skills via free resources that we probably would have had to pay for at one point. It's much harder to charge for knowledge than it once was.

xani_ 4y ago

Well, post digital era we still buy/rent games, video and music. I don't see why something similar couldn't be done, pay monthly and you can read whatever your want, and what you read depends on where the money from your subscription goes. And as distribution costs are lower, higher % of it should go to the writers. Hell, amazon could just do that, except of course they wouldn't give a fair cut... At zero cost to try new authors it could possibly be a good way for more niche stuff, you can just page thru any book that you want with no cost but time > What do you expect them to do? Force users to sign up for a weekly subscription and email out individually DRMed copies of the chapters each week? There is actually one guy doing it on patreon but he already have YT audience for music gear reviews (book is about electronic music ideas and tips). So it is possible, just kinda hard as you already need to have publicity.