[QUOTE=Voyager]
The reader does have a chance to sample the novel, either at the bookstore or by a sample page on Amazon. However, since the value of a book goes down dramatically after it is finished, because few are reread, paying after won’t work. Since music is listened to multiple times, it is a better fit for this model.
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A better fit, that’s true.
I guess I’d have to take that into account. The hypothetical then would be how much you’d pay for a book you could only read once (you pay each time you read) and an album you can only hear once (pay each time you listen). My point was just exploring what kind of exchanges would result from that; and actually, I think the idea of paying for something – both reading and listening – for each time you experience it may not be that far off. Stephen King did it with some shorts too.
Which leaves the question of what’s the most moral type of transaction open, I guess; and, of course, the morality of royalties without new labor of some kind expended each time by the recipient in support of generating that new income.
[QUOTE=Voyager]
I just read an article about how universities are increasingly cutting professors in on patent licensing deals. For industry, besides the good point about independent contractors, it is often very difficult to value a patent. Only a very few make money by themselves, most, like my four, get tossed into a big pot of company patents. In the old Bell Labs you got a framed certificate for your first and a folder for subsequent ones, since inventing stuff was part of our jobs.
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This is an aside, but that’s so cool to have invented stuff
Which leaves the question of what’s the most moral type of transaction open, I guess; and, of course, the morality of royalties without new labor of some kind expended each time by the recipient in support of generating that new income.
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Ah, but what is the morality of the publisher getting extra money each time the factory turns the crank and spits out another DVD or book? About the same as the writer getting some money, I’d say. I think I agree with those who say this isn’t a moral issue.
[QUOTE=Voyager]
Ah, but what is the morality of the publisher getting extra money each time the factory turns the crank and spits out another DVD or book? About the same as the writer getting some money, I’d say. I think I agree with those who say this isn’t a moral issue.
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The morality might be that it takes labor to crank out another DVD or book along with all the attendant costs of maintaining a going enterprise and employees.
The author, by contrast, does precisely nothing whatsoever to cause that new income to be generated. No overhead, in other words.
