We have been over this repeatedly, depending on assumptions the ideal length of copyright for a book, from a purely economic perspective, is somewhere between 6 and 2 years. Current copyright tends to be upward from 80 years, which means that it is too long by an order of magnitude.
The real problem with free distribution of books is that it tends to increase the blockbuster effect (eg one work takes a vastly disproportionate share of all the money spent in the system.) this is not yet settled science and has not yet been observed because studies so far have focused on small sets of books, not entire markets, where the effect of free copies has been demonstrated to be remarkably good advertising, but the money spent on those books was not spent on something else.
And digital distribution has much lower barriers to entry, so the middlemen might face more competition and not get as big a cut, which means that everyone but the middlemen would benefit (eg creators get more money, consumers get cheaper goods).
In any industry where the consumer had a choice unskippable adds on DVDs against piracy would sink the company, ad yet somehow that is not the case with entertainment. Similarly out of print books should be put online for free, or for a small fee, since if it's out of print it clearly should be worthless.
Current Intelectal Propety laws are a travesty that harm society as a whole. Studies have indicated that there is a net cost to having the patent system as opposed to not having it, and with copyright drastically shorter terms should be used to make economic sense. There is some call for a far more radical rethink of how copyright law should work, but I haven't seen any alternatives that would work well. I apologize for just linking to an article instead of some actual papers, but I am too tired to track down the papers I have read on the subject.
These days I pretty much only buy my books from bean because they give it to me as html files. not ideal but I can always process it myself if I want something better. Some of the books I read for free I have bought copies of,including several copies of 1632, mostly as Christmas gifts. Most I have decided where not worth it, and several of the books I did buy I never would have bought if I had read a bit of them first.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
The real problem with free distribution of books is that it tends to increase the blockbuster effect (eg one work takes a vastly disproportionate share of all the money spent in the system.) this is not yet settled science and has not yet been observed because studies so far have focused on small sets of books, not entire markets, where the effect of free copies has been demonstrated to be remarkably good advertising, but the money spent on those books was not spent on something else.
And digital distribution has much lower barriers to entry, so the middlemen might face more competition and not get as big a cut, which means that everyone but the middlemen would benefit (eg creators get more money, consumers get cheaper goods).
In any industry where the consumer had a choice unskippable adds on DVDs against piracy would sink the company, ad yet somehow that is not the case with entertainment. Similarly out of print books should be put online for free, or for a small fee, since if it's out of print it clearly should be worthless.
Current Intelectal Propety laws are a travesty that harm society as a whole. Studies have indicated that there is a net cost to having the patent system as opposed to not having it, and with copyright drastically shorter terms should be used to make economic sense. There is some call for a far more radical rethink of how copyright law should work, but I haven't seen any alternatives that would work well. I apologize for just linking to an article instead of some actual papers, but I am too tired to track down the papers I have read on the subject.
These days I pretty much only buy my books from bean because they give it to me as html files. not ideal but I can always process it myself if I want something better. Some of the books I read for free I have bought copies of,including several copies of 1632, mostly as Christmas gifts. Most I have decided where not worth it, and several of the books I did buy I never would have bought if I had read a bit of them first.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."