Re: Paul Krugman holds forth on the future of publishing

I think you're all mis-understanding the position of the "info wants
to be free" crowd. They're not saying that they think information
*should* be price=0, they're saying that given

* it's ultimately impossible to use technology to protect information
(DRM, etc.)
* it's ultimately impossible to enforce intellectual property law
(anonymous super-distribution)
* there's an explosion in the number of creators

The price of information gets pulled (not pushed) toward 0.

Therefore the sooner you find a new way to get paid, the better off you will be.

On Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 9:13 AM, Mary E Tyler <[email protected]> wrote:
> So NYT columnist/economist Paul Krugman held forth on the Kindle and
> the future of publishing today...
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/opinion/06krugman.html
>
> My response to him:
>
> Re: the Kindle and information wanting to be free...
>
> I've been "in ebooks" (and publishing, written 2 pbooks) for about ten
> years now. And I know people making livings from publishing them. They
> make money from books, not appearances by authors, which had you
> checked in the last decade, no one but the largest authors even draw
> remotely large crowds even when said appearances are free.
>
> There is another alternative to "they must find a way." It's that they
> won't find a way and that the intellectual property will just go away.
> It will never be created in the first place. People who otherwise
> would have written great books will flip burgers or go into investment
> banking. They will be tired and sapped of creativity at the end of the
> day and they will never write because they have lives and families and
> like to eat and have shelter just like the consuming public.

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