Yet Another Study Shows How Copyright Can Hinder The Spread Of Knowledge
from the but-of-course dept
A bunch of you have sent over the article from Spiegel about new research (the latest in a very long line) again pointing out that copyright gets in the way of a thriving writing industry (that's the Google translate version of the original German report). The research compared the book markets in the UK (with a strong copyright law) and Germany (with either weak or non-existent copyright), and found much more writing going on in Germany and (more importantly) much more innovation in the bookselling market. In the UK, where copyright limited printings, books were expensive and only owned by the wealthy and elite. In Germany, where copyright was weak or didn't exist, certainly there was a fair amount of copying of other books, but it resulted in widespread innovation in the book market, including segmenting the market into hardcovers (for the wealthy and the elite) and cheaper paperbacks for those less well off.Not only that, but the sorts of works created again favor the lack of copyright. While writing in the UK tended to focus on what the wealthy and the elite wanted to ponder (literature, philosophy, language and history), written works in Germany focused on the practical and useful (chemistry, mechanics, mechanical engineering, optics and steel production).
And, despite what copyright defenders will tell you, this system appears to have worked out much better for the authors as well. That's because the rampant competition from other printers meant that printers were in dire need of new and unique material. That meant that the actual writers had the upper hand in negotiations with printers, who always wanted to "break" new publications and get them out to innovate and be ahead of what other printers were doing. The article notes that authors were able to earn quite a lot of money by working with various printers without copyright. As copyright law changed in Germany, and became more widely adhered to, many authors were actually upset as the prices of books rose, and their market and earnings diminished.
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What is this
The print has all moved to china or the other asian markets where they can exploit the labor. Germany is probably one of the most expensive place to print anything.
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Re: What is this
The print industry is certainly not dead. At least every year you need to print new school manuals. That alone is a LOT of books.
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We cannot compete on price here in the US only when there is a time constraint do we keep the money makers (books and pubs)
Why don't you have a look and see how many print shops have gone out of bus. in the last 5 or so year.
The book business is mostly in the chinese, sing. phill, (you pick your asian country).
The issues of the past , customs, has mostly been resolved and the quality of the product is far superior in both material (paper) and production. We cannot compete with their pricing even when they have to ship around the globe.
Please submit a quote for a hardcover textbook both here and over there, the disparity will be shocking.
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"many print shops have gone out of bus."
"The book business is mostly in the chinese, sing. phill,"
(I know this is going to seem like a cheap attack, but) Ok, I can see why your business is failing. Can't bother to finish words and (at least try to) use proper grammar?
Seriously, that weakens your argument and makes it look like you just want to dump the blame on someone else instead of analyzing your own business and try to fix it.
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The textbook industry is a scam. They make a few simple changes to a text and then call it a "New Edition", and charge school districts and colleges a premium for it. Its one of the things that keeps higher education "high". This is ONE VERY GOOD REASON to switch to digital media. They can't continue to overcharge and scam college kids for a simple change to a dm master. It simply wouldn't work. Too many people would call them on it.
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Re: What is this
In journalism perhaps, but I still suggest that for fiction it's a different story. Unlike with copies of CDs or DVDs, there is something about having that paperback or hardcover book. Honestly, I don't know what it is, I'm just glad it's there....
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Re: What is this
It's that weaker copyright creates a more competitive and vibrant book market in a jurisdiction regardless of where ink meets paper regardless of where that occurs.
It's also about the fact that writers actually earn more as a group when this is the case as opposed to where copyright is strong.
Might this explain why the book industry is in trouble? The elite and those with pretentions to that (see Monty Pyton: Upper Middle Class Twit Walk for more details) limits the market to a few rather than all of society. You can charge more per copy but if your market is reduced to a small percentage of the population no matter what you're gonna sell less and earn less over all.
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Since we are talking about the past
I think today's environment is a technology issue rather than a copyright issue. You can self publish, so you do.
My feeling is that there is an explosion of all the creative fields. Lots of people doing photography, music, writing, design, etc. It's the democratization of the arts.
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