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Will Books Be Napsterized?
langelgjm writes "An article from yesterday's New York Times asks the question: will books be Napsterized? So far, piracy of books has not reached the degree of music or movie piracy, in part due to the lack of good equipment on which to read and enjoy pirated books. The article points to the growing adoption of e-book readers as the publishing industry's newest nemesis. With ever-cheaper ways to conveniently use pirated books, authors and publishers may be facing serious changes ahead. This is something I wrote about three months ago in my journal, where I called the Kindle DX an 'iPod for books.'"
"let's hope that copyright doesn't stand in the way."
I think you meant to write: "to hell with authors getting paid for their work, we need free stuff, even if it means we undercut the ability of authors to earn a living - they are our slaves, we are the masters. Welcome to the reverse civil rights movement, bitch!". I find it bizarre how the pirate crowd demands free stuff, but would raise hell if anyone else wanted them to work full-time for free.
Besides, your point about dead authors is moot. Walk into any bookstore. What percentage of books there are older than 10 years? Next to none. Most of the books people read are current.