Book People Archive

Re: another idea


On Tue, 21 Jan 2003, Tony Kline wrote:

>
> Michael Hart wrote:
> > Don't we WANT "reasonably agile newcomers" that can undersell the
> > current prices, rather than "unreasonable arthritic olde boyes" who can't?
>
> Absolutely Michael. The problem being that each book copyright
> is a licensed monopoly. Only governments can control monopolies because
> the rules of open market competition no longer apply.

This problem has been "manufactured" by the politicalization of copyright
. . .which did not happen with patents.  Patents still expire quickly
enough to insure progress. . .copyrights are bascially now permanent.

It is obvious that the US fears information flow more than the flow
of durable patented goods.  No one cares that the patents on the old
chips have expired, so why care about the programs that ran on them?

I'll tell why:

"Pay Per View"

A "Rentier" economy is what the rich want, where you can never OWN,
but always have to rent..  . .


Thanks!!!

Michael S. Hart
<hart@[redacted]>
Project Gutenberg
Principal Instigator
"*Internet User ~#100*"



> One way would be
> to insist that copyright to books is only granted if there is an
> electronic version available distributed via the Net at true production
> cost plus a regulated profit percentage, say 20%. As we know e-production
> and distribution costs are less even if you are an inefficient publisher,
> and therefore the price of copyrighted e-books would plummet. I suggest
> an attack using a variant of the monopoly laws a la Microsoft might be
> investigated. I have no idea if this has any legal viability. But
> monopolies are what we are dealing with here.