Dan, this is all fine and well in theory, but the publishing industry
has incredible clout here in the US (not the authors, who are but
chattel). So unless the *publishers* see an economic advantage and are
aboard, this is just a numbers game. I agree that it *should* be
possible, but *should* doesn't get us very far.
This doesn't mean that things will not change. Initially the
publishers were totally against the concept of ebooks because they
feared massive piracy a' la Napster. It took a few years of
experimentation for them to come around, but now ebooks are the
fastest growing product of the publishing sector (albeit still a small
percentage of sales).
The plans to pay publishers for public use, however, seems to me to be
a slippery slope. Already the Assn of American Publishers has been
stating that they should get payment for every book lent in a public
library (as is done in some countries). This is more complex than it
may seem on the surface, in part due to the great variety of
jurisdictions under which public libraries operate, and the fact that
some number of those jurisdictions (including the late great state of
California) are near bankruptcy. (As is the federal government.) No
additional public monies are available, the politics of increasing
taxes is incendiary, and the country is hurtling down the road of
"there's no government like no government." This is a reality that has
to be taken into account.
kc
Quoting Dan Matei <Dan_at_CIMEC.RO>:
> On Mon, 8 Nov 2010 00:40:10 -0800, Karen Coyle said:
>
> <snip>
> rothman has been pushing this for at least 10 years, but I think he
> doesn't understand the basic economics. What he wants is for there to
> be one, big public digital library that lends digital books to anyone
> for free. So... where would revenue for the publishers come in? He
> thinks that some kind of monolithic fee system would satisfy the
> publishers, but where would the money for a tempting fee come from?
> </snip>
>
>
> Well, I'm not so concerned about the publishers' revenues. I'm more
> concerned about the authors' revenues. But I know of an example of a
> reasonable "business model" for a national digital
> library:
>
> www.pim.hu/object.90867f8f-d45e-40f9-8a6b-fe0034f0db87.ivy
>
> The Hungarian Government pays copyright fees to the most important
> contemporary Hungarian authors (including the Nobel Prize winner
> Kertész Imre) and publishes their oeuvre online (for free) !
> Bravo, I would say !
>
> Having my country (Romania) in mind, let's imagine a (much
> simplified) scenario.
>
> Say: a successful contemporary novel: 3 printings of 5,000 copies
> each, $10 a copy, all sold, i.e. $15,000 revenue.
> Say: 10% copyright fees, i.e. the author makes $15,000.
>
> Now, suppose my brave government wants to offer the digital version
> of the book for free.
> Say: it pays $15,000 to the author.
> Say: it pays a publisher $5,000 for the production of the e-book version.
>
> (All the numbers are exaggerated, I'm sure).
>
> That is, for $20,000 the e-book could be offered to the public "for
> free". That is, for $1,000,000 the National Digital Library could
> offer 50 successful Romanian contemporary novels "for free".
> (Or ten times more poetry books !)
>
> How many copyrighted books could be offered with the public money
> spent for a bomber ?
>
> Dan Matei
>
>
>
> PS. It's "funny": in order to buy bombers, we never think of private
> money (foundations etc.). But in order to buy books for the public
> libraries (including the digital public libraries), the
> private money comes to mind !
>
> So, I could easily imagine an e-book offered for free, carrying the
> mention "Published with the generous support of Good Samaritan Co."
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Dan Matei, director
> Institutul de Memorie Culturală - CIMEC
> Piata Presei Libere nr. 1, CP 33-90
> 013701 București [Bucharest], Romania, www.cimec.ro
> tel. (+4)021 317 90 72; fax (+4)021 317 90 64
> www.cimec.ro
>
--
Karen Coyle
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net
ph: 1-510-540-7596
m: 1-510-435-8234
skype: kcoylenet
Received on Mon Nov 15 2010 - 02:00:39 EST