Upset may be too strong a word. It really disturbs me because it is for me unthinkable to sell books as if they had no value.
I have nothing against humble bundle, but it makes me unwell that they treat books this way. I don't care for games for no other good reason that it is only ingrained in my brain that books are not merely commercial products.
I don't know about the other authors, but I know the Cory Doctorow makes his books available as e-books for free. So, while you may feel that allowing people to pay what they want is disturbing, I know at least one of the authors feels that price fixing as equally disturbing. So if it comes down to your feelings and the feelings of the author, I'm going to side with the author.
Also, it's not that they have "no value." It's that they have a different value to different people. To me, this is inherit with the idea of "culture." I completely disagree with the idea that you can put a fixed price on a piece of culture. I'd say it's offensive to even talk about culture in relation to money - like you can put a price on it.
I don't see this as paying for the culture of the book, myself - I never have (when buying books). I see this as paying the author for the effort they put into their creation - but not paying for the creation itself (because paying for the creation assumes that it is now mine, and it isn't).
They are not treating books as though they have no value; quite the opposite. The way they sell things allows each individual to acknowledge the value the item has for them, and to pay as much for that value as they can afford.
It allows people from every economic status to have access to the piece of culture represented by these books, and to contribute what they can afford to the authors.
Humble Bundle recognizes that culture restricted to segments of the population capable of paying an arbitrarily set price is not shared culture. The value of something is not set by a pricetag.
(Also, I am even more confused now how you can simultaneously think they are treating books poorly by allowing consumers to pay what they can, and also be disappointed that the books do not have more permissive licensing...)
The publishers. If you look at the back of most books, you'll see a price printed in the bottom corner. In most countries that generally seen as a general guideline and an upper limit, in France it's legally binding.
