Oddbean new post about login | logout Maybe unpopular opinion, but when you buy a book you don’t own the content, only the paper it is printed on. 🐶🐾🫡
i may not own the rights to republish or sell the content, but i own my copy. i don't license my books, i own my copy and i can lend it out or give it to another to read. the internet archive exists to preserve human knowledge and culture from coprorate greed. a publisher can and do revoke access to media. if it only exists in a digitally licensed state, it is at risk of censorship.
💯 but you merely own the right to enjoy the content 🐶🐾🫡
yes, and with physical media even if the publisher decides to pull or discontinues the book. i can still enjoy my copy and share it with others
True. But I assume it works for some things but not the others. With software you need to maintain and patch and invest. Less so with books. One reason Kindle books are cheaper is because you purchase a lesser right. I am not happy about it, but I also do not want to deprive business of their freedom to do so. We as consumers have a choice and we can literally vote with our wallets 🐶🐾🫡🫂
Books, games, music, are just mere information. Once it is created, everybody can have access to it and the "right" to own it is just a moral (but useful) case. It is all about truth and its importance in valueing information. As you say "we pay with our wallets" but in reality when we pay we are not giving value for something already in existance but for something that could be created. Take the example with music, you pay the artist to listen to music that have already been created, but in reality you are giving to him money to value his future works. With books is the same, you pay money to value past works, hoping you can support him to create other works. Games' case could be the same but in reality, games nowadays are always works in progress full of patches and DLCs. I think that the ultimate games are the ones that as per bitcoin-core example, will evolve via open-source merging of owned-by-everybody code.
When you own the paper it’s printed on, you can still read it if it’s banned.
Choose your media wisely 🐶🐾🫡🫂