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One more time about Copyright
Jun. 17th, 2006 03:28 pmThe synonym for it is HYPE. We are just back from an English second-hand book sale. 4 paperbacks for 3 euro, hardcover for one (anyone, be it a dictionary, encyclopedia, or an album of photos, etc.). All in good and some in perfect state. So this is the real price of the question (in fact, much lower, since I bought just a few dosen books out of thousands), and the price on the cover, which is 5-10 times more explains why there are "issues with Copyright".
It's simple. There are people who sell books, for them books are just another kind of merchandise as shampoo, toothpaste or food. Though with some twist. You need food, toothpaste and shampoo for your everyday life. You can live without reading books or watching films for months. That explains why there are ratings, top sellers, bestsellers when it comes to books, music and films. Salesmen need hype in order to turn books into mass products, artificially increase prices and make extra profit. Why artificially? Because here are all these Arthur Haileys, Jeffrey Archers and others in cardboard boxes for 80 cents a piece, here are blockbuster films in boxes nearby. Are they less interesting than 20, 10 or 5 years ago, when they where hyped by the publishers and sold for ten fold prices? Are they more interesting than Dickens, Shakespeare? No, of course not. Since some of these books still sell quite well in shops, and thus second-hand sale hurts those guys, maybe they should send police and close all second hand book sales?
I don't like society in which "chewing gum" sellers dictate the laws that prohibit to download a math book from the Internet. On the Internet I pay for the information by paying for the traffic to my service provider. When someone places a book on-line I don't see a big difference with a second-hand sale. By downloading it, I pay with my traffic. I would agree to pay 10-20 euro per month more in order to forget that a word "copyright" exists.
It's simple. There are people who sell books, for them books are just another kind of merchandise as shampoo, toothpaste or food. Though with some twist. You need food, toothpaste and shampoo for your everyday life. You can live without reading books or watching films for months. That explains why there are ratings, top sellers, bestsellers when it comes to books, music and films. Salesmen need hype in order to turn books into mass products, artificially increase prices and make extra profit. Why artificially? Because here are all these Arthur Haileys, Jeffrey Archers and others in cardboard boxes for 80 cents a piece, here are blockbuster films in boxes nearby. Are they less interesting than 20, 10 or 5 years ago, when they where hyped by the publishers and sold for ten fold prices? Are they more interesting than Dickens, Shakespeare? No, of course not. Since some of these books still sell quite well in shops, and thus second-hand sale hurts those guys, maybe they should send police and close all second hand book sales?
I don't like society in which "chewing gum" sellers dictate the laws that prohibit to download a math book from the Internet. On the Internet I pay for the information by paying for the traffic to my service provider. When someone places a book on-line I don't see a big difference with a second-hand sale. By downloading it, I pay with my traffic. I would agree to pay 10-20 euro per month more in order to forget that a word "copyright" exists.
