[CentOS] Another Fedora decision

Wed Feb 11 04:23:06 UTC 2015
Always Learning <centos at u64.u22.net>

On Tue, 2015-02-10 at 21:04 -0700, Chris Murphy wrote:

> What libraries offer is not only legal, it's important to keep this
> intact. Publishers have variably been very unreasonable abrogating the
> first-sale doctrine when it comes to ebook versions. It's a case where
> I believe in no shade of gray. If I'm led to believe I've bought an
> ebook, not merely renting it, then I should have the right to give
> that ebook to a library, school, friend, leave it in an estate to
> children. And quite a number of publishers deny this doctrine applies
> to ebooks. Not good.

My considered opinion is:-

PDF copies, as produced by the publisher, should be sold for no more
than USD $ 10.00 per copy with 30% going directly to the author. At
present publishers are far too greedy. Their lust for the public's cash
is detrimental to learning generally and to the distribution of
knowledge. 

Many years ago, before I sold my soul to the computer world for GBP £2
per week extra pay, bookshops received between 45% and 55% discount.
PDFs require no storage space in premises, no heating, no building
insurance, no public liability insurance, no staffing costs etc. etc.
Consequently it is unreasonable for the publisher and/or the distributor
to retain most of the income from PDF and other e-book format sales.
They are doing virtually no work but profiteering enormously from the
author's hard work.

Admittedly it is possible for sellers to sell cloned copies of PDFs.
However it must be possible to overprint every page in a PDF with a
sellers receipt number or publisher's copy-serial-number which could be
entered on a web site when seeking errata and extras associated with
possession of the publication - or even registering possession of a copy
for future updates and associated information.


-- 
Regards,

Paul.
England, EU.      Je suis Charlie.