Re: copyright expriation as a spur to creativity

An editorial by Nora Rawlinson in Publishers Weekly, 245(41), p. 11, October 5, 1998, discusses the success of trade publishers in marketing the Starr Report. Ms. Rawlinson noted that the book sales did well, notwithstanding competition from the web and from newspapers:

     It ... seems, at least for now, that traditional
     publishers have the edge.  We haven't seen guys
     with desktop publishing systems running off
     copies of the report and hawking them on 
     streetcorners.  There's quite a bit more to
     publishing than just printing and binding,
     even where the manuscript arrives fully edited
     and in digital form;  a firmly established
     distribution system is still critical.

Ms. Rawlinson goes on to mention that this state of affairs might change in the future. She cites the Tattered Cover Bookstore of Denver, Colorado, which is planning to install in on-demand printer which will produce paperback books. I think that she's exaggerating the threat to the established publishers. One machine which can manufacture books on demand creates competition only in the town where the machine is. The machine owner will still need "a firmly established distribution system" if he wants to compete farther afield.

Ms. Rawlinson concludes by noting that "we've...gained evidence that books and the Web may enjoy a mutually beneficial future together." Haven't those who know the web well been predicting such a mutually beneficial relationship for some years now ?

Tim Phillips
<hrothgar[_at_]telepath.com> Received on Fri Feb 19 1999 - 18:07:39 GMT