Am 13.11.2013 01:36, schrieb Rob Hudson: > [...] > > For example - let's say Joe gets a hold of a PDF of Gjerde's book, and > decides to do the right thing. He can either (1) purchase the book through > an official market or venue, or (2) send Gjerde a payment directly for the > full amount. > > [...] > > Thoughts? We usually don't know how much money a publisher actually makes from a book release. Maybe they hired people to review the text and do the layout. maybe they paid the author a bunch of money upfront so he/she can afford to write the book. maybe they did a lot of promotion for the book.
in this case it would be fair for the publisher to clam a big chunk of the revenue. But from what I've heard that is not even close to reality. publishers are mostly greedy dinosaurs that pay the author very little in exchange for printing the book and using their Distribution network. Just like with music, distribution gets cheaper every day. Thus, the deal becoming less and less fair. The only reason to release a book with an old school publisher is prestige and comfort. A self released-book is looked upon as less good and not so credible as a book from a publisher. This is changing right now, but it's still a reason. Comfort in the case that the publisher takes care of most of the things and you just need to write. Coming back to your thought-experiment: I think it's ethical but unlawful. a solution to this situation could be to ask the author just for the diagrams, and pay him or her for that. (usually authors keep the rights on their designs) in the long run I hope that the online-shops of the origami-societies prosper and will be platforms that just take a little fee for the hosting an money transaction. This will rule the publishers out. And it will avoid your dillema. you can just buy the book at a online-shop or pay the author directly. both will be legal because in my vision the shops don't own the rights on the books, but the author does. happy folding, Tavin
