Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

The view across both is the same: people should be paid for their labour. So authors should be paid for the books they write. The line isnt that hard to draw.

The issue here isnt the IA's provision of brand new books that are still being published; this few would say should be legal. We're talking dead authors, books no longer in print, or books published so long ago that the second-hand market (which offers no pay to the author) is the place to find them.

As soon as works transition to "second-hand markets" we're no longer talking about the labour of the author being remunerated. At this point, it's pretty clear that it's a net benefit to society to make creative works publically available.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: