[lbo-talk] Lefty library of pdfs

[andie_nachgeborenen]

Unfortunately the dead authors dodge won't work for works not in the public domain. If you take the hard work of editors, translators, and, yes, publishers, to create useful versions of the dead author's work, you are free riding on them, and authors will find it more difficult to get this literature into print in useful formats and different languages.

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 11, 2012, at 12:03 AM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:


> I am torn. On the one hand, I want lefty lit to be disseminated as widely as possible, and I know that a lot of people who want/need to read this stuff are poor. 
> 
> On the other hand, I want living people to be able to make a living writing books/essays, which, I know, take an ongodly amount of work. Didn't Marx spend twenty years on Capital? 
> 
> Perhaps one solution is to give away/download only the work of dead authors.
> 
> J. 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> At 10:55 PM -0400 10/9/12, Doug Henwood wrote: 
>> 
>>> http://ebookcollective.tumblr.com/archive 
>> 
>> I was just denouncing this shit on Facebook. How are publishers 
>> supposed to pay writers and editors if stuff is given away for free? 
>> I hate this idiocy. 
> 
> Hmm. Perhaps the problem is the writers who expect to get paid for 
> their stuff, when material conditions tend to favour it being given 
> away for free? 
> 
> No doubt Gutenburg was similarly denounced: "How are publishers 
> supposed to pay the people who hand-script copies of books onto 
> vellum, if books are being run off in their thousands on this 
> new-fangled printing press???!!!" ;-) 
> 
> Bill Bartlett 
> Bracknell Tas 
> ___________________________________ 
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk 
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk