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Links: Used Book Market the New Napster?
Posted by Steven Wu on Monday, July 12 @ 00:58:57 EDT File Sharing
This is one of the silliest notions I've heard in a long time:
Is Amazon.com becoming the Napster of the book business?

The analogy may not be far off, say some observers of the used-book industry. . . .

"Used books are to consumer books as Napster was to the music industry," said [Lorraine Shanley, a principal at Market Partners International, a publishing consultant]. "The question becomes, 'How does the book industry address its used-book problem?' There aren't any easy answers, especially as no one is breaking any laws here."

The idea that anybody would be strenuously opposed to a used-book market boggles my mind. Aren't there any book lovers at publishing companies? Haven't any publishing executives bought a used book (because it was so cheap), loved it, then bought a new edition for themselves or somebody else? Don't they realize how many life-long readers are created due to the temptation of used books (which I lump together with libraries as cheap, reasonable alternatives to horrendously over-priced first-edition hardcovers)?

Besides which, what are they going to do: force me to keep a book that I just don't like?

 
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You answered your own question... (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, July 12 @ 01:30:47 EDT
"Aren't there any book lovers at publishing companies? Haven't any publishing executives bought a used book (because it was so cheap)..."

Maybe they are paid well enougn that they can avoid lowering themselves by buying a book which has been soiled by the hands of the less fortunate. I'd sure be in trouble if used textbooks were banned (it's bad enough with university-controlled bookstores and a neverending treadmill of new editions).


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Price Support (Score: 1)
by JamesGrimmelmann on Monday, July 12 @ 01:43:27 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.laboratorium.net
One of the things about pricing is that the existence of secondary markets is a price support for primary markets. When people decide whether or not to purchase something, they'll pay more if they'll ultimately be able to resell it. Kill off the resale market and you can't charge as much the first time around. Even without the effects Steven mentions, cracking down on resale can cost you money.


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Re: Used Book Market the New Napster? (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Monday, July 12 @ 05:26:13 EDT
As with the music market, if a book, or CD, is of high enough quality people will want to own a brand new official copy. Used-book sharing, or music sharing via the internet, is merely a great way to get to know material which you'd not normally come across if sharing were banned. Finally, literature and music which genuinely deserve recognition are the ones that will sell well.


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