Re: "The Elusive E-book"

From: "Robotech_Master"
> On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 6:34 AM, Mary E Tyler 
> <[email protected]> wrote:

> Wasn't that one of Mark Twain's predictions when he argued in 
> favor of
> perpetual copyright a hundred-odd years ago?


I thought that that was something we were arguing over a couple 
of years back on ebook-community.   Then I thought I was being 
told that this copyright postition had been reached !!

But perhaps there is a stronger creative tradition in the UK and 
Europe because they have accepted the concept of rewarding the 
author with control of his works for over a hundred years.

I strongly suspect that
> every time there has been any kind of sea change in the 
> publishing
> industry, going all the way back to the invention of the 
> printing
> press, someone has argued that it will stop writers from 
> writing
> because there will be no money in it anymore for them.

Can you explain how that applies?   I don't see any comparison. 
Quite the opposite since improvements make the prodution costs 
cheaper and usually mean hungrier presses.   Printer and 
publisher were one and the same for a long time, and the number 
of authors and of the educated public were both smaller in 
absolute and percentage terms.

>
> I don't think it's come to pass just yet. Maybe if people keep
> predicting it, sooner or later they'll be right. But it reminds 
> me of
> the old joke about the farmer selling watermelons for one 
> million
> dollars each. "You can't sell all your watermelons for a 
> million
> dollars each," a bystander said. The farmer replied, "I only 
> have to
> sell one."
>
> -- 
> Chris Meadows aka | WWW: http://www.terrania.us | Somebody 
> help,
> Robotech_Master | ICQ: 5477383 AIM: RoboMastr | I'm trapped in
> [email protected] | Skype, Gizmo: Robotech_Master | a 
> sig file!
> [email protected] | Yahoo: robotech_master_2000 |
>

But you are objecting to the selling of watermelons - or books 
for any price.   The marketplace is a real thing.   It is simple 
economics to understand that wages and workers are elastic 
markets.   The less you pay the fewer the workers willing to sell 
their time.   Increase the number of workers [immigration, 
training] and wages will go down but the  smartest and most 
adaptable will move elsewhere either job type or geography wise.

Joseph 


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