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Let me throw this wrench in the works. What if I buy a used (game/book/music) at Half Price Books? What if I borrowed it from a library and returned it? This still deprives the producer of revenue beyond the first user. I am paying for ownership in the first case, but that's only going to the store has the game, not the intellectual owner. And that, in essnce, has been their argument--it doesn't matter if Joe Blow bought the game, the minute he started sharing it with others, that's suddenly illegal.

What it really comes to is not about sharing. That argument cannot be legitimately made unless they go after used book/music/game stores and libraries. It's about the item can now be shared with thousands all at once.

If they really want to term it otherwise, it might be closer termed as counterfieting as you are making an unoffical copy of the software, movie, etc., much a one would make counterfit money.

For the record I buy very few games these day--not because of piracy--but because they mostly suck. I don't buy music at all--they don't make much for my generation any more. The music they put out are for the same people who are more likely to download than purchase. However even with piracy, if you make a great game you're still going to make money. I'm looking forward to SPORE coming out. Yes, the pirate will serve that one up too, but it will still make money if it's as good as it looks. Another Wil game, The Sims--look how many that's sold or the And that's the main point: What a lot of publishers want to blame on priacy is really more due to putting out a poor product.

Half Price Books is my used bookstore of choice. our city has several of them, and my wife and son go at least once a week. we head straight for the clearance section, and while the majority are $2-3 (usually the hardbacks), they're always selling some books for $0.50-$1 as well.

You can't always find the exact title you want, but I've found some books I forgot about that I'd read when I was a kid, and my son loves browsing through the kids' clearance section.

I have seen some forums where fantasy readers will trade/share their used copies of books (eg, The Dragonlance forums, among others). This could help you track down copies, plus would be another good resource for asking that specific group of fans where to find more of them.

I have had some luck increasing my fantasy library through used bookstores such as Half Price Books.

Advanced Unix Programming came out with a 2nd edition in 2004, and I was lucky enough to spot it in a Half Price Books here in Indy. This is very similar, in terms of upgraded content.

In particular, the test systems are the same between books. (FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, Darwin.) Both books have grown considerably to take on the growth of Unix and the various flavors.

Of course, AUP came out in 1985, so it had a little more turf to cover.

For those not familiar with AUP, it is a slightly different beast from APUE. It only covers Unix system calls in C categorically, whereas APUE covers a wider range of tasks and subjects within Unix.

They still do. (pops)

And from all of their locations. Shipped even.

They should go to Half Price Books where you can literally buy books 'by the yard'. You can fill up your shelves with all sorts of fancy books for pennies on the dollar.

Half Price Books.

That's where I get my fix. I'm hooked on reading books, can't stand reading anything other than code on a monitor. If I have to read someone else's code, and really take it apart, I print it out. Call it a failing if you like, but I'm addicted to the printed word.

If I could get a good, functional tablet PC - not running windows - I would give it a try, at least for the content that's available digitally. But it's not there yet as far as I know, so the only avenue I have for the things I like to read is paper. There's nothing like cracking open a good sci-fi, fantasy, or computer science book and digging in.

A bit more on-topic, I'm not surprised in the least. Quite a few people I knew when I was younger wouldn't read a thing unless they had to, so those are the people that turn to the net for their information, but don't read other than that. Those are also the people who memorize things and do not get a goddamn thing out of them. Nowadays, almost everyone I know reads a lot, and they fall into 2 categories : the people who read a lot of books and net, or the ones that just read a lot of books. The ones that read both are my technical compsci friends, the others are my friends that I've grown up with, who mostly discovered the wonders of reading in jail.

Hmm, this topic reminds me - I need to get some more bookshelves...all of mine are stacked 3 deep and look like they're about to topple...

I know of at least two collections of Hugo short story winners from the 50's and early 60's. They were called The Hugo Award Winners, Volumes I and II. They were edited by Isaac Asimov, so his name features prominently on the covers. The bad news is I'm sure they've been out of print for years. I found my copies at a local used bookstore, so you could try one of those or maybe Halfpricebooks.com

Half-Price Books is not nationwide, but does have locations in eleven states (WHQ is in Dallas). As a fellow Columbusite, I second FMC's complimentary post. As with most used book stores, though, you have to purchase what you can get when you find it, 'cause the next time you visit, it might be gone!

This is really no different then selling anything else in a Pawn Shop. They need a record in case the material turns out to be stolen.

I frequently take old CDs, DVDs and books that I no longer need to Half Price Books to help clear out the clutter in my home (I own 500+ legitimately purchased CDs, thousands of books, etc). They routinely ask for identification, make sure that the name and signature match the receipt that I sign and then hand me my cash. I don't know if they keep a record or not, but they don't copy my driver's license or ask for a SSN or anything like that.

I'm as protective of my privacy as most knowledgable geeks are and I don't have a problem with this.

Then again, I've had my book available for free online since I wrote the first 30 pages or so. And I intend to keep the free version available after it is printed by No Starch in a couple of months. I guess I'm one of them weirdos who thinks content creators shouldn't extract money from their customers at every possible opportunity. I like musicians who sell their records for reasonable prices (Dischord records, That Dog before they split, etc.) and authors who don't really think everyone should have to pay $45 for their books (Bruce Eckel). I'm all for getting paid, and paying folks who have done the work, but I'm also for letting people decide if a work is worth shelling out the dough for.

I guess this Open Source thing has gotten to me. Or maybe it was the punk rock thing ("give the kids their moneys worth"). Regardless, prices on new books are probably higher than they ought to be, and if I often buy used ones if I can't get it new for a reasonable price--the new price always dictates whether I get it at my local Half Price Books or at BookPool.

That's my take on the issue anyway.

Turtledove has long been talked about on Usenet's alt.history.what-if and is known for his meticulous detailing of historical events. Other books he has out discuss alien invasions in the height of WWII, Columbus finding apemen in the new world, and alien colonization. Check him out -- I picked up all his books at Half Price Books for under $25.

As at least one other poster has commented, 1/2 Price Books (they use php) sometimes has a good selection of O'reilly books; I got Linux in a Nutshell there about 2 months after it came out. The spine was a little unglued (maybe Oreilly sells 'seconds' to HPB?) but that was fine with me -- good trade :)

Dunno how different their stock is city to city; I frequented several of their Austin locations and preferred them to the various Big Full-Price Chains when it comes to having a more interesting (not always more complete) stock, but I have two gripes about HPB:

1) They ought to wake up and serve the coffee :)
If anyone from HPB is listening, *please* at least establish a pilot program (who knows, maybe they already have) serving hot cocoa, tea, coffee, snacks ... I know there is a *lot* of hassle to this (food regulations which make it tough) but it would be great to go to a bookstore like 1/2 price, where one can actually afford a few books in addition to coffee, rather than to Narnes and Boble, where both categories are pretty damn expensive. The books-n-foodstuffs combo is so tempting that I (and how many others?) use it as a library where you don't have to sneak in food. Some books I've come back to several days in a row to finish, justified in my cushy chair by a refill of cocoa or coffee.

2) Inventory control: I know that the stock changes constantly, that used books are sometimes tough to track down, etc, but the biggest problem I have with 1/2 price is the tantalizing feeling that the book you're looking for really is there, but no one can prove it. Heck, require people to tap in the info from their wanna-sell books to build up your inventory database! :) ('Sir, you'd like to sell that stack of novels? Certainly, if you could just enter the information at this terminal ...") Or offer a bonus to anyone willing to accompany books-for-sale-or-trade with a typed, scannable list of author, title, category, ISBN, etc. I'm sure they're working on this, but that's another reason why my business sometimes strayed to stores which I actually liked less -- money (and time) talk, all that.

timothy