intentionally limited runs of books with no other dissemination method really hacks me off.
the entire point of books is to spread ideas far and wide imo
@KitRedgrave Capitalists didn't so much fail to get the memo as they did stuff it in the shredder on sight. ๐
if you charge $150 or more for a book that only 99 of exist, that tells me that you intend for your book to be a status symbol of how wealthy and well-read you are and not an actual means of sharing your thoughts and wisdom.
and i can't get behind that
@KitRedgrave I get the idea of a book as an "art object", but I don't like the idea of making the book's contents limited. Provide an eBook!
Same for limited edition physical releases of music. You want to make a run of only 100 cassettes or something, fine. But let me at least buy the music in digital format.
@sanspoint it costs them probably very little and they could even charge for it and i wouldn't mind it
it isn't like we're in the year 1150 and the only way new books get created is by monks literally copying all the text into a new one by hand...
the marginal cost of getting a new book out on the internet is pretty darn near zero, and that's a great thing.
you can still have a limited run of books as art objects but it really annoys me if you have that be the only way one can read your book at all
@KitRedgrave but muh lost sales
@chara @KitRedgrave what lost sales if itโs a limited run thatโs sold out with no plans for a 2nd run?
@chara @KitRedgrave what we need is something like Project Gutenberg thatโs more like Pirate Bay for out of print books that donโt have a commercial ebook release.
@chara @KitRedgrave specifically for ones that arenโt officially โpublic domainโ because capitalism broke our copyright system. The idea of copyright is supposed to be a trade off between exclusivity and sharing of culture, instead it has become rent seeking.
@KitRedgrave @queerhackerwitch that's not how people with money see "intellectual property" unfortunately
@KitRedgrave WHAT
YOU MEAN FATHER DAMIEN HAS BEEN SCAMMING ME THIS WHOLE TIME
@Elizafox artisanal, hand-written $4,000 books :p
the most tedious scam
@KitRedgrave I knew something was fishy about his ability to copy books by hand in 2 hours
@KitRedgrave if it's worth reading, someone will scan it and put on some forum...
Sadly, most textbook that a self thought programmer like me would like to read are above 250$. I could afford one of them at year but I cannot decide which one to buy, because for such price I want an enormous amount of valuable knowledge back.
Like... I become like Neo or Gandalf after reading them.
None of them looks so promising so I do not buy any of them...
But this is very sad.
@KitRedgrave On the flip side, how about this from an actual paper book?
@paco @KitRedgrave You can't firbid to pass on or sell a used book in the US. One of the few things the US does correctly... For now.
@cstanhope @KitRedgrave I know! That's what I find so offensive about it.
@paco @KitRedgrave Was the "Always ask an adult for help" an attempt at a joke that failed horribly, or was the condescension genuine?
@bstacey @KitRedgrave The book is โThe Magic of Pineapplesโ, a math book/story targeted at kids. So, yeah, itโs sincere.
@paco @KitRedgrave On the one hand, if it's intended for kids, "ask an adult" sounds better. On the other hand, I shared an awful lot of books when I was a kid, and it seems callous, ignorant or mean-spirited to demand that, for example, classrooms cannot have a common copy on the shelf.
@KitRedgrave I believe strongly that any /content/ that isn't actively and easily available for a reasonable price should simply be put in the public domain.
As I've said before. at /this day and age/, 'out of print' should only be something you spit at your enemies.
@KitRedgrave artificial scarcity sells