> That creates a precedent that would allow everyone to take > another licensing right from me just because they could.
Does it? What right is being taken away? The right to ensure that people don't apply some kinds of algorithms to your work? Which kinds of algorithms? And what if I buy my own software to read text and connect it somehow to my Kindle? Should I send you a check if I feed your book via Kindle into it? And flip the precedent argument over: should we pursue every possible licensing right just because we could? (I strongly believe that if American public libraries were not started when they were, they'd never have occurred -- corporate interests and many writers alike would today decry them as theft if the precedent were not already established and someone tried to start a public library now.) > Why shouldn't I and every writers group fight that? Because a machine is reading it. It's not a performance. There's an algorithm between the purchased text and the reader/listener. What's the idea here? When people read the book without any intervening machinery that's OK, but if they apply some machinery to it then the author should be paid extra? This is a digital reader -- it's code all the way down, it's all machine. What if I plug a Kindle into my computer so I can read a book on a bigger screen (whether the Kindle allows this is irrelevant -- suppose a future version did)? Should the Guild demand the reader should have to pay again, this time for bigger font rights? What if Kindle came out with an add-on screen that was more colorful? Should readers be paying more-colorful- reading rights? And if not, what's the difference? It's code doing the major work in all these cases -- whether putting it to a screen or "reading" it. Worst case scenario: should all digital books include DRM that prevents digital readers from being able to (audibly) read them? No doubt our idiotic guilds will soon ask for this. The guilds should be trying to find ways to support the long tail, and ensure narrow distribution and consolidation do not crush the long tail. Instead, they act like the film industry trying to stop the VCR. New media defenders have longed observed that anything Jack Valenti fought for was sure to be the very worst thing for the future of film and for the relevant forms of creativity; I fear that might come true of our guilds too. cd --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
