Re: Editors: threat or menace?

On 2007-08-16 09:27:11 -0700, Patrick Baldwin <pax@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:

Kurt Busiek <kurt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 2007-08-15 13:30:03 -0700, Patrick Baldwin <pax@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> said:

Is this good? Would it really be different if I downloaded
things instead of going to B&N?

Downloading them requires someone to violate the copyright on them, and
publish new copies.

You can't read that copy at B&N and then turn around and hand out
40,000 free copies of it to your closest friends.

No, but they can all go to B&N and read it just like
I did.

In which case, a few things happen. First, the copies get so beat up that B&N has to get new ones in, and second, they have to come in to the bookstore, where they get exposed not only to that book, but to others, and they're all for sale. A variant of that happens on line with things like the Amazon Look Inside program, but not so strongly with the "Have a free illegal electronic copy, and if you feel like it, seek out the printed version someplace else" system.

Reading a copy you don't own is perfectly fine, whether it's a friend's
copy, a library copy, a copy at a store that allows such things, or
even a copy you found in the gutter. None of those require the
creation of a new copy.

Is the creating of a new copy actually that bad? In my job,
I often run into people who get stuck on method, instead
of focusing on the goal they're trying to use a particular
method to achieve. I assume your goal is selling books.

Not quite. My _publisher's_ goal is selling books,* and while I have a strong incentive to want him to do that, my goal is to create stories, which I then license or sell the copyright to, for money. So having the exclusive right to license who gets to make copies does matter to that, and the growth of a widespread system that ignores that right threatens that goal. Simply selling books is not an author's primary goal -- otherwise, a system that, say, eliminated royalties in favor of putting that money into promotion would be attractive to authors.

*I'll note here that the publisher's goal is _usually_ selling books. Sometimes it's selling movie rights to the books, or T-shirts, Underoos and dolls, and the publishing is merely a means to that end.

Does it really matter if that happens because I read a copy
at B&N, then bought it, or if I downloaded a copy before
buying instead?

Yes, because it creates a system where people can simply download it and keep it, and never go buy that copy. You don't get to keep the copy you read at B&N; you do get to keep the download -- and while that may not be enough for you, it's enough for many.

Do you really think the people who would have bought it
won't because they can download it?

I don't think that all the people will do any one thing or another, but since there are people who brag about not buying stuff because they just download what they want to read, then yes, I think there will be people who will do that. As noted earlier in the thread, everything DC puts out in a week gets pirated on the day of release, and there's one site that does over 40,000 downloads of the weekly DC bundle, which is (a) more than most of those books sell, and (b) only a single site.

I also think that as e-readers get better, and as a generation of readers emerges that doesn't have any built-in loyalty to paper, there will be more people who won't care if they own the paper version as long as they have digital files -- or who'd prefer to have it as files. So I don't imagine that everyone who downloads books goes out and buys whichever ones they like, and I also think that the proportion of those who don't will only grow, if nothing happens to change the system.

So far, my publishers have been spectacularly inept at changing the system, and equally inept at defending the one they currently depend on. As far as I can tell, prose publishers are farther behind the curve, but I don't think they should be unconcerned -- they're simply not as readily targeted by pirates yet over more visual media, but they have no greater protection from them.

I don't think the answer is draconian enforcement of the old system, but I don't think it's the abandonment of copyright in the hopes that the majority of people will decide to pay for material they can simply get for free, either.

These copyright discussions always make me wish there was
some way to do an experiment to see how it's actually
all working, but I can't think of a good way to have a
control group. Even if I could persuade an author to
get on board. ;)

I don't know how you'd run the experiment either. But I'm sure you could get authors on board for a test of a new publishing system, provided you had a backer who could pay them what they reasonably expected to get under the old system. If the new system works better, it's a bargain for the new publisher while the test phase lasts, and if it doesn't, the authors aren't the ones who take it in the shorts in the process of finding out.

kdb

.

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