What is Digg?41 Comments
- Xanadude, on 10/12/2007, -3/+34It's sad until you spend a couple of years and $50K in expenses writing one. Then it's not quite so sad that you get paid for your work.
- 13thfloor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Not sure, it's not like you are at risk for paper cuts with these...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16That's an interesting point of view. If all books in general should be free for everyone to enjoy, how would the writers of those books earn a living? What incentive would an author or a publisher have to write or publish any new books? Many books take a year or more of full-time work to write. Why should authors make that huge investment just to give it away for nothing?
- 13thfloor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11They would be free at your local library as well. Assuming they actually have any of the books you want on their shelves...
- frisbeeman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11That'd be nice. I'm getting pretty tired of dropping $400 three times a year for textbooks
- Xanadude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@weirddave: You misunderstand. I'm saying an author who invests time and resources in a book should have the *opportunity* to be compensated for it, which would not be the case if all books were free.
- xanbu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"I think that while textbooks are expensive for a reason". Really? You know general Physics and Calculus hasn't changed much since Newton but they still manage to publish a new edition every year with the problems in a different order. Oh wait that's a great reason nm.
- maximumsteve1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5erm, there's a difference between writers making money and writers raping me up the ass every semester with their new edition where the only difference is what number the questions are.
- nayr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I dunno... I think that authors should be payed.... they deserve it. I would donate to cory doctorow, if I knew his address.
- eambabo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5xanbu: i'm more referring to things like biology, psychology, and other ones where not only is it incredibly expensive to print, but the field is constantly changing and requires new information. I agree - a new edition of a calculus book every year is awful.
- pirilampo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Let's not forget Lessig's recent revision of Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Code 2.0:
http://codev2.cc/
The best of the books on the list is Benkler's Wealth of Networks, though. That's a killer book, a must read for diggers. - airayn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5It just depends.
I mean as an author myself I find it to be a powerful tool of focused exploration.
So for instance in the case of : A Personal Tao : http://www.personaltao.com/
I wrote it purposely to be free, since the whole point is to explore ideas and help others while doing it.
Other books I plan on writing won't be free, since it does take huge amounts of time and effort to write the beasts. However, the average author makes very little money. Its a very hard dollar to earn, and so many people want to write thinking their idea is worth exporting. And many ideas are not worth sharing...
So its a mix bag. In the end, as any job, you should write because you love to, and cash is just an extra bonus if you manage to be on the pulse of society at the moment of your writing.
I just think its sad that in a commercial society people think it has to be for money, or it should be free. it just depends on the author and their goals. - chris_k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Direct Link (appears to be down at the moment)
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Books - upsilonh24, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6Cutting-Edge Books.... Just what the hell does that mean?
- sbrickner, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Well, "free" is a little ridiculous. You think they're boring *now*, wait 'til the authors stop getting paid.
OTOH, text books should all be available in e-book form. Everybody carries a damn laptop, why should they have to carry around 30+ kilos of books, too? (Of course, the answer is that textbook publishers are greedy bastards.) - unlimitedorb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Above, I was simply stating the fact that books in general should be free. I did not mean this in the strictest sense that you interpreted my statement above to mean. I meant to say that I liked the way most of the authors in the web resource provided above provided their books for FREE and optionally to BUY a print copy, you can have the best of BOTH worlds, I can understand why you would get miffed at what I said because I did not state it with enough clarity. If you disagree with me now that I have stated my assertion clearly, well fine. But i'm just saying not everything needs to have a price tag in order to make a profit. I don't know about you, but more options make me err more happy =)
- snozle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ airayn:
Well said. It is an all too common phenomenon in a capitalist society (I'm not saying it's a bad system, just highlighting a negative consequence) for one to be more concerned with making money, often at the expense of quality, than producing well-crafted works. - 13thfloor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Yesterday, we alerted you to the free audio and text versions of Lawrence's Lessig's book..." - No, these are books, likely a mix of audio and textual. But the site appears to link to library of podcasts for various educational endeavors.
- weirddave, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4"If nobody bought books, there would be no books. Period."
Not even bibles? - TheOtherGuy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The best since Arthur C Clarke? Are you kidding?
I have to admit, I like Cory Doctorow as a person and the work he does, but try as i might I just can't get into his books.
They are just a little too........ silly.
I also suspect his work will become heavily dated in a few years.
But..each to their own. You're reading science fiction so I can't fault you on that :) - funkytaco, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@nayr
Just go to http://www.boingboing.net. He contributes all the time. - tripple-breve, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Writers like Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross have proven that free downloads boost dead-tree format sales. End of story.
- BigBrother87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Pretty cool. Check out GAM3R 7H30RY. Interesting page design on it.
- impixi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You can find another free novel (experimental fantasy) here:
http://www.ixenfor.com
It's not Creative Commons or Public Domain, but legally downloadable and distributable.
It took me two years to write and it was with hesitation I released it for free, more because of potential family criticism than any potential lost revenue. “You spent so much time and effort on this, and now you’re releasing it for free? I don’t understand.”
In any case, the novel has been professionally edited, etc… I hope I’m not out of line posting the link in this thread. - Twango, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1These books are amazing. Danger: GAM3R 7H30RY will make u think.
- adamwho, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Creative Commons is a group where people VOLUNTARILY give their work away for free.
There is NO THEFT involved in offering these books. 2 Seconds of a Google search would have shown this! - unlimitedorb, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I loved Doctrow's story entitled "0wnz0red," that was pretty neat.
- eambabo, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4@maximumsteve: There is a HUGE difference between a fiction writer like Cory Doctorow (who honestly kind of bugs me a little bit, but that is neither here nor there), and companies that write a textbook. Sadly, printing a book alone, much less coming up with the information to put inside of it, is incredibly expensive to do. When you can sell 3 million copies of something, it's a lot cheaper to print per unit than if you can only sell a few hundred thousand to college students. That's why Harry Potter books are much cheaper than the Econometrics book that you need for your 400 level class.
That being said, I think that while textbooks are expensive for a reason, they could be a hell of a lot cheaper if they'd just go digital. But, you know, that would like, save money and be efficient. ***** that. - Comatose51, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I highly recommend the Wealth of Networks. It explains why the Open Source movement makes sense economically and practically beyond the idealism and why patents are actually not necessary for the vast majority of research and other kinds of works. He cites the New York Times as an example of a company whose work doesn't really need copyrighting since the vast majority of their income comes from ads. If someone was to copy them, by the time they got it out on print, the news is no longer news. So for most of its history copyrighting is not necessary for the NYT. Things have changed a bit with RSS and the Internet of course but the NYT really only needs exclusivity for a day or two even today and copyrights would probably be pretty useless for that. Anyways, read the book.
- ph33d, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3You can find most of Cory Doctrow's books online for free. I've got to say that I would have never heard of him if it hadn't been for his free books and his writing for Salon.com. His stories are consistently great. He's my favorite sci-fi author since Arthur C. Clarke. For me, that's incredibly high praise. I never thought anyone could rival Clarke. Doctrow's imagination and enthusiasm for his subjects really shine through and I recommend his stuff to any fan of GOOD science fiction.
- northwitch, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4you've definitely never sweated out the creation of a 150,000 word manuscript, then upon completion, had to go back to the very beginning and start over as nobody sticks with a first draft, or second, or third, for that matter.
So you keep sweating it out til it's perfect and ready for publication - which will happen only after you've given the main character a sex change, added a miniature poodle as a prime suspect, killed off the doberman's minpin lover, your grandmother has reached the last level of halo and managed to run the gauntlet in the vehicle (faster than you), and/or you expire from old age. Which ever comes first.
Yes, it's a run-on sentence, damn it. (see 150,000 word manuscript reference above) - frisbeeman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1yea ebay's good if you can find the books. With what I found, It works out to the pretty much that same price as the campus bookstore, so I'm screwed either way.
- Axim, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1way or argue semantics weirddave and pretty dumb ones at that
if someone spends a bunch of time on a ***** book (as many writers do) then noone will buy it and their effort will go unrewarded. if someone spends 10 days writing a great book again they will be rewarded when it becomes popular. the system you are talking about is called capitalism and we already use it.
the point isn't that they 'deserve' to be compensated but by participating in an industry that (ideally) rewards good writing with $$ that they will make money for their work. really arguing that the quality of work has anything to do with the money made off it is pretty stupid anyhow, its all relative to pop culture and what's trendy. all those chicken soup books etc were very popular yet there are many much better novels that do worse. so even then your point about ***** writers not deserving money is pretty useless as thats irrelevant, you create something and have an opportunity to profit off your work, whether it is garbage or the great novel of the century. - tehmoth, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I'd have to agree, Cory Doctorow writes both boring and nonsensical fiction.
- weirddave, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@Axim:
Late response, I know, but I can't let your comment just go. Please invest some time in developing your reading comprehension skills. My point wasn't about semantics. It was a response to the actual and entire content of his post. You and I are not on the same level, so I am just going to leave it at that. - xanbu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Alright then ebooks would be great nm again :).
- weirddave, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1@Xanadude: My problem is the sense in your comments that there should be a link between effort and reward. The author should be rewarded because somebody wants to read the book, and it shouldn't matter if he wrote it in a day or if he took years.
- mushroomtap, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0Umm.... there are large large costs involved in hours writing, research, travel, publishing, shipping, distributing, etc for producing a book.
If nobody bought books, there would be no books. Period.
@frisbeeman: suck it up, a few more years and you'll be done with having to do that forever. Ever hear of ebay? - klepto, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1These are podcasts? I hate podcasts.
- weirddave, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2@Xanadude: It sounds like you are saying that somebody who spends 2 years and $50K writing a book deserves to be compensated. In actuality, people should be allowed to lose money from bad investments: In this case, imagine that the book is written with today's laws, but is horrible. The author would have made a bad investment and lost his money. In a society where books are not copyrightable, spending that much time writing a good book may also be a bad investment where the author loses money. I am not trying to say that unlimitedorb is correct (in fact, I think he is wrong); I am saying that your argument is worthless in this context.
- unlimitedorb, on 10/12/2007, -35/+5I think it's pretty sad that "legally and free" must be associated with books. All books in general should be free for everyone to enjoy or in the case you are forced to read a nonsensical and just plain boring book for your 5th period English Class that has nothing to do...well dis-joy.
Anyway, good find.
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