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Do you pay for computer hardware and accessories? Do you pay for ISP for an internet connection? Do you pay Microsoft for Windows? Do you pay for a dropbox acco
by barrysteve 3y ago
Do you pay for computer hardware and accessories? Do you pay for ISP for an internet connection? Do you pay Microsoft for Windows? Do you pay for a dropbox account? Do you pay for movies and digital media? Do you pay for books?
Why are books (and probably movies) the only one you don't pay for?
Information is not free, information requires 24/7 elecricity to be pumped through thousands of internet connected computers, manned by thousands of engineers keeping the whole thing working. The information requires thousands of writers/coders to be created.
It is a peak luxury to sit back in a Herman Miller Aeron chair in a tech company, sipping lattes and say something like 'information should be free' while millions of people are working to keep the whole charade that 10101 (binary code rising out of electricity) actually means something legible to human eyeballs at all.
Writers are just another brick in the wall, another link in the chain. Pay them like we pay everything else, that fits.
- DoItToMe81 3y agoMy ISP isn't funded by my taxpayer dollars and does not use said money to squat materials that it had no hand in creating. Research publishers do exactly this, while paying researchers a pittance. I am also not convinced that this is harmful to the field whatsoever, when it has done no damage to art, music, film or video games.
- beej71 3y agoThey're different because the MPAA and big book publishers are actively abusing the system and their customers to fatten their bottom lines. I gladly pay authors and creators every chance I get, but it's getting to the point where it's ethically questionable to pay a big publisher, movie studio, or streaming provider.