http://www.amazon.com/tag/textbook/forum/ref=cm_cd_pg_pg2?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=FxSTS4YUE7GADZ&cdPage=2&cdSort=oldest&cdThread=Tx1YK0QNSJ43U9L
It’s not just a matter of that -- students wanting to buy textbooks used because they cannot realistically afford the latest edition; or publishing companies gouging college bookstores, which in turn gouge students and their parents. This debate about used book stores has been going on for a few years now.
But previously it has been more focused on the fact that UBS owners still have to pay publishing companies some sort of royalty, even though the pubcom has already BEEN paid royalty the first time that a specific book was sold, wherever it was sold.
It also lies at the heart of freedom of information, which in my opinion is the only thing that freedom of speech is good for. Textbooks are genuine information, they should be readily available to people who want to know the truth. Same as news and current events. How many Americans really truly know what the government does, what the govmit's motivations are? I do not, and you do not.
This is very bad, because that means there is a blocking of freedom of information. How many Americans really know what the healthcare industry's machinations and inner workings are? That means all healthcare workers including physicians, the health insurance industry which is sickeningly for-profit, any and all biomedical research, biochemical research, treatment research.
Why does the law, federal and most state, allow credit card companies and banks that offer loans, to force a customer's wallet to bleed to death? Why have workers'/employees' wages risen only 20% since 1980, yet the price of goods and services has risen 400%? If the prices have risen, then money has to be paid for those prices of products and services. And that money has to go somewhere -- but where? It is not going to the employees' paychecks. We know that -- employees’ salaries have only risen 20%. The rest of the money paid by customers is going to the CEOs/bigwigs/fatcats only.
I digress. The topic was textbooks and bound-print media. There is a much, much bigger silent revolution occurring here, for the better or for the worse. It is the reason that newspapers all over the country are going out of business. It is like the Chinese say, a slowly waking giant dragon, something like that.
Well, in this case it is not really a "waking giant." The giant has only been created as a laboratory experiment recently, and it is now slowly being unleashed and foisted on the public. Some dumb liberal tongue-pierced-and-other-extremities-pierced liberals often screech "all content wants to be free." How the f' would you know? Are you content (KAHN-tent)? Have you ever written or otherwise created anything worth discussing intelligently?
We are moving away from a paper and pen ink society, to a digitized society. That one editorial writer noticed this in regards to monetary transactions. We are moving slowly but surely, away from a paper bills and coins economy towards electronic everything -- debit cards, online banking, online bill paying.
We’ve been doing this with music for a few years now. Ten years ago I predicted that musicians will judge popularity of a song based on how many downloads it gets on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. Guess what -- that came true. The “Opus” comic lampooned this trend, showing a young kid gawking confusedly at paper and thinking it was like crispy Kleenex. Amazon.com found a way to make money off of this with its "look ma, no paper" Kindle toys.
I do not know if "cultural revolution" is the best term to call it, for what does digital vs. ink-on-tree have to do with culture?
Game changer. Should we be alarmed? I think that maybe none of us fully grasp the ramifications of this. It is changing, it is really changing. If this leads to much more open, truly available information, then it is good. Witness the NCBI site. You want to know the nucleotide sequence for any of numerous allergy genes, and the corresponding protein sequence that that nucleotide directs? That’s your guy.
We are on the precipice of a universal paradigm shift to a majority digitized society.
It’s not just a matter of that -- students wanting to buy textbooks used because they cannot realistically afford the latest edition; or publishing companies gouging college bookstores, which in turn gouge students and their parents. This debate about used book stores has been going on for a few years now.
But previously it has been more focused on the fact that UBS owners still have to pay publishing companies some sort of royalty, even though the pubcom has already BEEN paid royalty the first time that a specific book was sold, wherever it was sold.
It also lies at the heart of freedom of information, which in my opinion is the only thing that freedom of speech is good for. Textbooks are genuine information, they should be readily available to people who want to know the truth. Same as news and current events. How many Americans really truly know what the government does, what the govmit's motivations are? I do not, and you do not.
This is very bad, because that means there is a blocking of freedom of information. How many Americans really know what the healthcare industry's machinations and inner workings are? That means all healthcare workers including physicians, the health insurance industry which is sickeningly for-profit, any and all biomedical research, biochemical research, treatment research.
Why does the law, federal and most state, allow credit card companies and banks that offer loans, to force a customer's wallet to bleed to death? Why have workers'/employees' wages risen only 20% since 1980, yet the price of goods and services has risen 400%? If the prices have risen, then money has to be paid for those prices of products and services. And that money has to go somewhere -- but where? It is not going to the employees' paychecks. We know that -- employees’ salaries have only risen 20%. The rest of the money paid by customers is going to the CEOs/bigwigs/fatcats only.
I digress. The topic was textbooks and bound-print media. There is a much, much bigger silent revolution occurring here, for the better or for the worse. It is the reason that newspapers all over the country are going out of business. It is like the Chinese say, a slowly waking giant dragon, something like that.
Well, in this case it is not really a "waking giant." The giant has only been created as a laboratory experiment recently, and it is now slowly being unleashed and foisted on the public. Some dumb liberal tongue-pierced-and-other-extremities-pierced liberals often screech "all content wants to be free." How the f' would you know? Are you content (KAHN-tent)? Have you ever written or otherwise created anything worth discussing intelligently?
We are moving away from a paper and pen ink society, to a digitized society. That one editorial writer noticed this in regards to monetary transactions. We are moving slowly but surely, away from a paper bills and coins economy towards electronic everything -- debit cards, online banking, online bill paying.
We’ve been doing this with music for a few years now. Ten years ago I predicted that musicians will judge popularity of a song based on how many downloads it gets on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. Guess what -- that came true. The “Opus” comic lampooned this trend, showing a young kid gawking confusedly at paper and thinking it was like crispy Kleenex. Amazon.com found a way to make money off of this with its "look ma, no paper" Kindle toys.
I do not know if "cultural revolution" is the best term to call it, for what does digital vs. ink-on-tree have to do with culture?
Game changer. Should we be alarmed? I think that maybe none of us fully grasp the ramifications of this. It is changing, it is really changing. If this leads to much more open, truly available information, then it is good. Witness the NCBI site. You want to know the nucleotide sequence for any of numerous allergy genes, and the corresponding protein sequence that that nucleotide directs? That’s your guy.
We are on the precipice of a universal paradigm shift to a majority digitized society.