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Date: Sun, 29 May 1994 13:47:23 -0400 To: Seth Rothberg <SROTH@ucsvax.ucs.umass.edu>, com-priv@psi.com From: rothman@clark.net (David H. Rothman) Cc: rothman@clark.net Like Seth I've had fun listening to the various sides in this arguments over libraries and the cost of books. Pat Farrell is right about Crown Books; I go there myself for discounts I couldn't get elsewhere. At the same time, Crown is not Betty's Book Nook: It can and does bargain relentlessly with publishers, which, in turn, squeeze most writers whose last names aren't Mailer or Krantz. Meanwhile, certain publishing firms also put the screws on small bookstores, some of which have just sued St. Martin's Press, Random House, Rutledge Hill Press, and two or three others. My point here is that there are plenty of fins circling around in the waters; some belong to publishers, while others belong to the species known as book chains. The question of library sales has also come up. As a writer I have not suffered; I appreciate the exposure I get, and if libraries are enjoying discounts as mass buyers, I think: "So much the better." What's more, I remember that I'm not just a producer of information; I'm also a consumer, in researching my work. So when libraries do enjoy volume discounts, I'm delighted. As for broader issue of the cost of telcom and also the cost of information, I myself would hate to see the government rely too heavily on user-to-user subsidies for telcom. Yes, I can see a continued role for subsidies for POT and the like, but I grimace when people think that u2u subsidies are an all-purpose replacement for the use of plain old tax money. Relying on general revenue, federal or state, is a more honest way, just as one of the 'Net providers may have observed here. Overuse of u-2-u could cannibalize the telcom market, not expand it. Where the 'Net is concerned, I would love to see *tax*-financed subsidies given out in a way that allowed people a choice of providers, anyone from the Bells to mom-and-pop firms (are you listening, Bill Washburn?). On the related issue of information cost, we need to remember that e-books and other digital media are not like the usual library books. Many people at can enjoy them at once rather than wait for a loan of tree pulp. So the present library model, which benefits authors through exposure, should be updated in a way consistent with the Carnegie tradition of free libraries (of course Libertarians and Ayn Rand folks are welcome to make donations and join their local Friends of the Library if they feel guilty over using public resources). Here again I see the use of tax money as the most honest and effective solution. It would work if we got our priorities right and told Washington that we don't need tax-subsidied two-way TV at a time when millions of Americans cannot read. Books and writers, at least, come pretty cheap. Just one computer company, Intel, grosses perhaps five or six billion a year; that's more than all the writers in America get paid each year in royalties, and it's a fraction of the $6 trillion GDP. There are other expenses involved making e-books and other written material--along with ed software--available for at low-cost or for free to the masses. However, you can see the possibilities here--especially if the government also encourages Silicon Valley to drive down the cost of book-friendly computers. Such machines, in turn, could also be used for extra-smart electronic forms to reduce paperwork and facilitate commerce. (Americans are spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year in time and money on local, state, and federal paperwork.) And a procurement program for schools and libraries could drive down the cost of the machines, so that in the end most by far were privately owned. Already the goverment has already been pretty quick to open its wallets to the Pentagon. Defense is willing to spend up to a billion or so on flat-screen technology. It sure would be nice if some of it ended up on low-cost portables that could be used not only for e-books but for networking, including the kind that benefits CIX folks, commercial BBS operators, CompuServe, America Online, and the rest. (Gopher to cosn.org and go to Networking Information/Reference/TeleRead for some grubby details.) Summing up, whether it's telcom or the providing of information itself, we've got our priorities all screwed up right now--we're missing out on synergies that could redistribute resources from paperwork to telcom and e-books. David Rothman rothman@clark.net 702-370-6540 P.S. An aside, as long we're discussing books: I caught up with a copy of: The Internet Software Guide--For the PC, the book Jayne Levin advertised here. Far from being "The Green Card Lottery," ISG is rather relevant to CIX folks since it's a nice little overview of Mosaic and a few other killers that encourage people to upgrade to SLIP/PPP. Pay her for the right to include all or part of ISG in customer documentation. I don't know if that's what she had in mind in writing it, probably not, but it's a natural. Contact netweek@access.digex.net.
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