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> If you care about reading or ideas or literature, the choice between these visions is not a difficult one. Is it really an easy choice though? As a reader,
by wsxcde 12y ago
> If you care about reading or ideas or literature, the choice between these visions is not a difficult one.
Is it really an easy choice though?
As a reader, I want access to interesting content and it seems that pushing the price down to the cost of production makes it harder to produce good content.
Another way of looking at it is the following. We as a community say that we ought to charge based on value produced and not cost of production. Shouldn't book sellers and author's be able to do the same?
- rwmj 12y agoThis "sweat of the brow" argument doesn't cut it. Books have long been unprofitable for the majority of writers. At the same time, it's now easier to publish than ever -- look, I'm doing it right now! The question here is should publishers be allowed to control and make large profits (the authors weren't in any case), and I think the answer is clearly no.
- alttab 12y agoThis. In addition, if we charged to the "value" of a book, then only shitty magazines will be available to the masses. Doesn't seem like a great formula for spreading said "great content".
- Shivetya 12y agoWho is to say the cost of production isn't artificially high because of all those legacy costs? If the prices fall then the barrier for entry should be lower as well. Currently many of these publishers decide whom we get to read. Still you can follow conversations on this very site which rail against the costs charged for music and movies and yet they have high costs of production as well. Another article I read today talks about how traffic on the internet has been shaped by the users to where very few sites, just a few dozen, are responsible for half of the traffic. I am in the camp of, the legacy systems are doing their damnedest to stay relevant in a world where they are not, it is as if the milk man refused to stop delivering milk and wanted to and succeeded in stopping stores from selling it.
- icebraining 12y agoShouldn't book sellers and author's be able to do the same? Sure. What's stopping them? Authors are free to charge whatever they want. Hell, they even have a state-granted, life + 80 years monopoly on their works. What they can't is force Amazon to sell their books for whatever price they want.
- worklogin 12y agoWell, they can. They can say "Amazon, you must pay us $8/ebook you sell from us." - this forces Amazon to charge at least that amount.