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09-10-2007, 01:20 PM | #16 |
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Whether it is Government supported or not, it would be another that the Government (and others) could/would gather statistics on us & use them to (try to) control our activities & knowledge.
Also who would have the right to determine which books to ban in the "Universal Library". In some "Theocracy" type governments, this would be a real issue. Even in a democratically governed country it would be an issue. |
09-10-2007, 04:18 PM | #17 | |
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How many books are banned by the US government (hint: 1st amendment), and how many by the wonderful democracies of Italy (hint: famous woman writer), Germany (no hint necessary), France and so on... |
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09-10-2007, 04:35 PM | #18 | |
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But seriously, any government could be susceptible to undue influence... including our own. That's why an independent non-profit organization is best: Compared to governments and businesses, they are least likely to be so influenced from within or without. And the "subsidy" is really still a payment to the organization, placing the government as middleman to hand them your money (collected through taxes) in one lump sum. Think of it like the "donation" boxes you might check for a direct donation to a political party or an environmental fund: The money specified goes straight to the fund without being "tapped" by the tax system. The Universal Library tax would be like that: Everybody pays X added dollars with their tax assessment, and that X dollars goes straight to the UL fund, no more, no less. So it might "technically" be a subsidy, but in reality it's X dollars-times-number of citizens, going straight to the UL in one big check. Again, one check versus billions is easier to handle by any organization. |
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09-13-2007, 08:42 AM | #19 |
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Given the current US Government, I'd expect more restrictive DRM then we have now.
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09-17-2007, 08:16 AM | #20 | |
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Govt?
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Few people (I am one of them <G>, and probably so are many active members of this site) spend anywhere near 2K per year on books. Students at University might be an exception, and e-books could save lots of money there, but the textbook publishers are entrenched and making good money- will take something like a revolution to change that market. Boycotts seem to have worked in other markets- selective boycotts might work here to get the message to publishers that e-book readers don't like overpriced goods. Ridiculous when I see ebooks priced several dollars more than the same newly published paper books at bookstores. Anyways, my idea for gently introducing publishers to the ebook market is use of backlists. Publishers have tens of thousands of good books on their backlists that are not in print and hence generating no income- start publishing these as ebooks at reasonable prices ($4 or $5). Genre markets like SF might do very well. So might books that were good but not very big sellers. The reason that ebooks have not "taken off" is publisher greed and lack of vision. |
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09-17-2007, 09:27 AM | #21 | |
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That's a great idea, though there is one problem that applies to many books; who owns the digital rights? All the recent contracts go into this in great detail, but this was not case 10, 20, 30 years ago, so I think that's a big hurdle for publishers; when the stake is high they will go for it (see Disney's battle about Winnie the Pooh's subsidiary rights with the estate of the author), but for marginal books and for so many of them, they do not have the incentive, manpower.. |
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09-17-2007, 09:59 AM | #22 |
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every book in the world, sounds like the new york public library down the street
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09-17-2007, 10:29 AM | #23 | |
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09-17-2007, 03:43 PM | #24 |
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You have something like that.
It´s called public library and works not that bad. The second option would be illegal ... anyway it exists |
09-17-2007, 05:48 PM | #25 |
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Well, my public library offers ebooks BUT the software only runs on Windows. Not all that useful to me (and, yes, I have complained).
As far as I can tell, the content is not downloadable, either, so you can't read on an ereader device, only on your computer. I'd say the technology has a ways to go yet - to be polite about it. |
09-17-2007, 09:19 PM | #26 | |
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The problem is, getting the publishers so inclined. However, if older agreements and contracts did not cover digital rights, the authors may be free to pursue e-book release with other publishers. Authors so inclined could find themselves moving to independent publishers, once existing contracts expire, and authors refusing to renew old contracts without an e-book clause could make the big publishers sit up and take notice. |
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09-17-2007, 09:56 PM | #27 | |
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Some authors are taking the issue in their hands, releasing cc e-books or trying to get deals through e-publishers, the problem is that there are very few "established" e-publishers out there... Maybe if Amazon does something with their trolling message and gets big time in e-books, more authors will go that route... |
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09-17-2007, 10:07 PM | #28 |
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Of course, we are talking about e-books... they're not that difficult to produce and sell online. If authors could convince publishers to release their rights to produce and sell their own e-books, the authors set up the sites and sell their e-books independently of the publishers.
Possibly offering the publisher a "percentage," essentially for past promotion or somesuch, would be enough incentive for the publisher to release the rights. That way the publisher continues to make profit on old books, without having to do any additional work. |
09-18-2007, 07:20 AM | #29 |
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I think you'll both be right. When POD first becoming commonplace, there was a quick surge in out-of-print books being brought back. Some was done by authors whose rights had reverted and some was done by small POD houses. I suspect e-book editions will go the same way.
Liviu_5 has it right as far as the hassle of securing e-rights, though. That's severely going to limit what major publishers do with their back catalog, whether the titles are in or out of print. If the author is still with them for current books, or if the author is with another house, but selling well, it would be worth it to them. Mid-list authors, as usual, will likely be out of luck. That, however, opens a really nice market niche. A small specialty house, just like some POD houses do currently, can focus on bringing back out-of-print titles by appealing to authors directly. As to free CC books, keep in mind that it's really an interim marketing method, unless an author is willing to try donationware. Right now, most free e-books are put out with the idea that it helps sell p-books, which it does. As e-books become more accepted, and more readers start choosing e- over p-, that's likely to change. Initial releases would be pay-for e-books, and older titles would be free (or maybe just cheaper). |
09-18-2007, 08:45 AM | #30 | |
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