If print books were something that someone could reasonably make an identical copy of before passing along, the argument that the publishers should get a cut of any resale monies might hold a small dribble of water. That is entirely not the case. A photocopied fiction book would hardly be readable, and would probably cost more to reproduce than a new copy. A scanned book would hardly be better. To think that the reader retains an exact copy in their mind is ludicrous. The number of people with perfect recall is vanishingly small. The number of people who buy a book and read it once is appallingly (to my my mind) large. (I don't like to buy books without the expectation that I'm going to want to keep the book.)
I would have gone utterly mad in my teenage years if not for used books. I need constant intellectual stimulation or I create my own, and not always in wholesome ways.
The thought of people throwing out unwanted books is a horrible one. I don't even like to throw out books that I didn't even like, because I'm sure that someone else would like it.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-02 08:32 am (UTC)I would have gone utterly mad in my teenage years if not for used books. I need constant intellectual stimulation or I create my own, and not always in wholesome ways.
The thought of people throwing out unwanted books is a horrible one. I don't even like to throw out books that I didn't even like, because I'm sure that someone else would like it.