Re: Code donations for RPGUI initiative

Or you could sell a book for so cheap it doesn't make sense to bother
copying a PDF for a friend. Just look at sites like Orielly's Safari where
you basically "rent" a book shelf and you can put any books on your shelf
and read them when you have time or have need.

I bought a PDF book on Apache's Tapestry project about 3 years ago. It had
a mechanism to lock the PDF so only I could open it (I don't remember what
it was). Anyways, that PDF version cost me $10 and the paper version was
something like $50.

I don't think the publisher will really ever be eliminated - they key is to
find an up-to-speed-with-technology publisher. It drives me nuts to have
tech books in paper form because many times they need to be searchable. I
wish I could have my book be electronic (and less expensive), but
unfortunately I didn't really get a say :-(

In the end you are always going to have piracy. The key is to not protect
yourself so much that you make it hard for people that WANT to pay. Things
like music are easy to access legitimately and free now-a-days. For
example, I have been making extensive use of www.GrooveShark.com as of late
- simply an incredibly service that is FREE (or you can upgrade to their Pro
version for $3/month).

Aaron Bartell
www.SoftwareSavesLives.com

On Fri, Jan 8, 2010 at 4:02 PM, Kelly Cookson <KCookson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Peter wrote:

Nowadays, the author/inventor/composer can produce, promote and

distribute

their product themselves, for very little expense, leaving the
publishers/promoters out in the cold.

I'm not sure how well this works for music or film artists. I've heard
arguments that free songs and films on the Internet inspire people to go buy
licensed copies or pay to see the performers live. I have yet to see this
argument supported by research. Sounds like denial and rationalization to
me.

If I want to publish my own book, I could create a PDF version and set up
my own website with PayPal. But what will it cost me to create, maintain,
and drive people to my site? If someone buys my book and likes it, what
would keep them from distributing the PDF to their friends (and to their
friends and to their friends) for free? If I want to make money from a
book, I might prefer going with a publisher. A publisher can probably market
my book better than me, and you can't easily copy a physical book to
distribute among networks of friends.

Kelly