Re: Neat summary of Google strategy

From: "Mary E Tyler"

dej,

Two excellent lines of argument. I am not so sure we are all 
as far apart as you fear for, apart from the 'everything 
free' and the 'copyright for ever' extremes, we would all 
like an agreed way ahead.

> I was thinking about a solution the other day. And it 
> seems to me that
> there are very few people who care about having nearly 
> endless
> copyright terms. And those people can bribe congress 
> indefinitely to
> extend and extend and extend to their heart's content. 
> Meanwhile, the
> vast majority of people who don't really care about 
> endless copyright
> have it and it's of no value to them.
>
> Maybe we need to rethink copyright or at least the way we 
> charge for
> it. So those who don't care about their copyrights--for 
> ephemeral
> things like emails or technical books that go 
> obsolete--only get them
> for a reasonable amount of time. Let's say 15 years, the 
> original
> term. But people who really care about their copyright can 
> pay
> periodically every 15 years to extend it up to the 
> theoretical 150
> years now allowed. Incorporate a tracking requirement 
> (like with
> domain names) where you have to keep current contract info 
> or risk
> losing the rights. That way, Disney gets to keep the mouse 
> and we're
> not protecting people's emails for 150 years. If you care 
> that damned
> much about protecting your copyright, you register it for 
> the extended
> protection.

This would be an argument for the deep pockets, but it is in 
those very early years that a writer struggles [and you 
argue this below] and may do their best work. They might not 
be able to afford renewal of copyrights and that would again 
let others - big business - benefit; a twist on the argument 
of artistes i nthe music areas.

Perhaps someone can structure an argument that will actually 
offer a way ahead on term; all solutions otherwise are 
creative ;-); but we need definitive reasons.


>
> Not that it'll ever happen, but there HAS to be a more 
> functional
> method than this.
>
> Since we have such a difference of opinion, what would the 
> ideal
> system look like?

I would like to slightly change the basis of your thinking 
;-)! Copyright is all-embracing, commercial exploitation is 
a sub-division. Both are protected by the same law. I see no 
reason for lifting the first, though there may be ways of 
improving the sub-division. On the other hand the second is 
more about the practical, than the ideal.

And let me reiterate as I have iterated and earlier stated: 
term is not copyright; changing term can be and is done 
without the basic law and rights being affected.

>
>> And, yes, I know that there are a lot of amateurs who are 
>> happy to
>> work for accolades. Unfortunately, the vast majority of 
>> them are
>> amateurs for a reason at the moment. I don't think that 
>> many of them
>> will ever have the time to raise their technique to the 
>> level we
>> currently demand of pros in any future world, unless we 
>> let their work
>> earn them a living wage. And I don't see any viable way 
>> to do that
>> unless we sell the copies.
>>>
>
> You know, I'm not sure there's an argument there. At least 
> where
> fiction is concerned, you DON'T "make it" until you're 
> soup... and
> crackers with a silver spoon on a fancy tray. You develop 
> your craft
> largely--if not wholly--unpaid for the effort. And there's 
> no
> guarantee you'll make it even if you do become great, 
> unless you find
> the right editor on the right day with socks the right 
> level of
> tightness who **gets** your work.
>
> People will still write fiction if no one ever pays them. 
> Some will
> become very good at doing it, even producing great art. 
> But overall,
> there will be less art, because everyone will have to have 
> day jobs-- 
> which truthfully, is pretty much the case now. Only the 
> biggest of the
> big can just write. Everyone else has a day job, even if 
> their title
> is "Mom."
>
> With non-fiction, you're more likely to get paid at least 
> bit and
> pieces along the way to that first book length contract. 
> But the
> amounts are generally small and grow--maybe--as your 
> skills grow, but
> not always.
>
> There is, flat out, less connection between writing and 
> getting paid
> and it's been going that way for the last 50 years. People 
> were
> freelancing for a buck/word in 1960 and they're doing it 
> today.
> Magazines were paying $0.04 for fiction in 1960 and 
> they're paying it
> today. It just goes a LOT less far.

What you say here really sums up beautifully another 
confusion in argument. In the commercial area the arrival at 
ability or saleability is a professional business. The 
'Daisy Ashford' phenomenon is a rare one. And so much 
depends on those other professionals and the distribution 
chains, even in ebooks! It is a big and strange industry.

Everybody [almost] can write, and many do that for 
themselves or a small audience without wanting a commercial 
side - and often without the time or ability to go further. 
But many authors themselves decide that not everything they 
write should be published - and changes in basic copyright 
may cause difficulties here, possibly with unintended 
consequences.

>
>>> In such an environment, ebooks will probably disappear 
>>> along with
>> everything else, IMNHO, UNLESS we can get people to shift 
>> toward an
>> ethos that demands buying copies of them, as they 
>> currently buy copies
>> of p-books.

I am less pessimistic. I think there is a very large number 
that already pay cheerfully for ebooks, and those who pursue 
the 'free' path are in no doubt about its meaning, 
implication, or what it says about them.

>
> I was thinking this morning about what might be the result 
> of the
> Accelerated Reader program and the almost insane emphasis 
> on reading
> in the schools. I don't have numbers on the AR program, 
> but in
> encouraging--even forcing--more kids to read and maybe to 
> be
> proficient readers, could we possibly be creating the 
> biggest
> generation of readers we've ever known? It could be that 
> the industry
> will stop its long slow decline...
>
> What say you?
>
> dej

Certainly the previous big expansions in sales have 
accompanied advances in education, and the last quarter of 
the nineteenth century is arguably the start of the modern 
mass industry. Of course incomes and technologies have also 
improved the access and affordability.

Marion mentioned the days of 50K titles, and even as 
recently as 2002 they were only in the 80Ks [US figures]. 
With around a half-million within the stats [how may others 
we have no idea!] it seems to me, Twainwise, news of early 
death are exagerrated.

This leaves the issue of pricing and sales volume for single 
titles. But there is massive room here for adjustment - not 
always helful to marketing - since the approach to costing 
has become bean counting. This method tends to be lost in 
the woods, since over all costs are in the project planning. 
Some concepts have already been stood on their heads by POD 
and the digital file, by the net, and by the need to have 
universal agreement on IP.

When I consider all this I get a little puzzled by the 
people prepared to spend hundreds, even thousands, of 
dollars or pounds on dedicated readers, or devices that will 
include that for the extra dosh, for a library of free books 
[which they will possibly read few of] and complain about 
the prices of paperback and sold ebooks.

While it is poor logic to be ad hominem, the source of an 
argument can inform on the purpose of such an argument; we 
need to think carefully about the effects, not only where we 
have our interests, but on the whole IP value to the 
community in the 21st century.

Joseph Harris 



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