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Too good to miss?
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thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat
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Re: Too good to miss?
Feb 24, 2012, 22:07
Rhiannon wrote:
That. wasn't rambling at all, that was extremely coherently put. And extremely reasonable, I agree completely. I wish my brain had been able to sort that all out.

one more thing that occurs to me ... is the selling on aspect of second hand objects like books and records. That their scarcity makes them more desirable and people will pay more for them. I heard of a superb book the other day, it is about how people in the arctic make / made clothes. But there was only one on abe or amazon or wherever and it was about a squillion quid. If I bought that none of the money would be going to the original author. One assumes it's out of print and the only way to get it (other than A Library) is by buying it secondhand. So you could almost justify your illegal downloading then, by saying that you didn't want to pay more than the book was physically worth. Book dealers turn it into a commodity and see how much you'll pay for it. (and why not I guess, that is no doubt capitalism). Books that are out of print and unlikely to be reprinted - none of that resale money goes to the author.

.....

it's all v interesting isn't it.


Thanks Rhiannon, yes it is. Records is interesting (and I suppose must apply to antiquarian books too) because there is also a streak of completist obsession involved too.

For instance, when it comes to one band (and only one, really) I have bought multiple copies of some records because of sleeve variants, remixes, etc (yes, it's very anorakish, sorry). I have the songs on lots of formats so it isn't that I need to buy it for the music. And if you said to me that there was another version I didn't have, I would want that too.

I still buy 7" singles of songs I'm downloading, because I like to have the record in a physical format.

The record collecting completist mentality is the same as stamp collecting or train-spotting really. From reading the "Map Addict" book recently, it seems there is a similar streak of super-obsessed map collectors who want every edition of every sheet, including misprints, etc. Programmes like "Life Laundry" that was on a few years ago make me feel distinctly queasy. I like "stuff".

But none of the money I would spend is going to the original artist. But then I guess if I was a Zillionaire and bought a Rembrandt painting, he wouldn't be getting anything for it either.

With second hand stuff, I suppose you have to work on the basis that the original artist got their royalties or money for selling the thing to the first buyer (even if they didn't get much for it at the time). I guess a builder wouldn't expect to take a cut of each successive sale of a house he built (bit of a lame analogy).

So if I buy a book, I own the physical object of that individual book (the paper, glue and print), even though I don't own the copyright in its contents. If I sell the book to someone else (for a profit or a loss), I'm only selling the same physical object and that's all they're buying. Or are they? Are they buying the contents of the writing in the book? I don't think so, because the ideas and writing remain the intellectual property of the author.

Whereas in the case of someone who has got stuff "for free" online and has then sold "it" on multiple multiple multiple times, I don't think the same process applies. Because they're not selling an individual "possession" that they own. I guess you could argue that they're entitled to sell the physical object (in this case the DVD that the books are burned onto). Actually I'm on the verge of tying my point up into an undo-able knot, so perhaps I'll stop there!
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Re: Too good to miss? (Rhiannon)
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