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[David Aikema]

In case there's others out there following this conversation... for
some reason my replies keep going only to the original poster lately.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Aikema <daikema at gmail.com>
Date: May 20, 2005 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: [CS-FSLUG] Sydney Morning Herald: Cuba to Dump Windows for Linux
To: Don Parris <gnumathetes at gmail.com>


On 5/20/05, Don Parris <gnumathetes at gmail.com> wrote:
> Inside the front of PitP 1.0, you may notice a subtle request for
> donations.  I really learned what cheapskates people are then.

Perhaps your request was a little too subtle? ... or perhaps by the
time people had read far enough into the book to discover that it was
worth it, they had forgotten about this request for donations.

> I have heard from the folks overseas that it might
> be prohibitive for them to order the paperback edition.

Well, a lot of times if I try to ship a book from the US just up to
Canada.... if it's a paperback book at lot of the time I'll pay just
as much for the shipping as for the book itself (if not more... I've
had the shipping be twice the price of the book before).

Going the other way, if you deal with different parts of the world
you'll also see different editions priced differently for different
markets.  If you look at textbook prices for computing textbooks, a
lot of times there'll be an international edition(fully legitimate),
typically printed on slightly thinner paper, and always in softcover.
The North American edition for a networking text was $150US... the
Indian edition, after doing currency conversions, was less than a 10th
the cost.

> Theres a book about open source for business managers on Lulu that
> sells for $35 printed and $25 download.  I think if you check out the
> price of PitP, you'll find it reasonable by comparison.  Different
> audience, but still.

You know know how well that other book actually sells?  As you note
you are dealing with a different audience for a business-targetted
book.  I'd expect the business to be more likely to spring for a copy
of a book than some non-profit organization.

> > > need to address the problems involved.  I do not think the current mode of
> > > thinking will get us there without sacrificing too much freedom.
> >
> > I happen to share your misgivings about much of the direction that
> > intellectual property law is taking.
> >
> Well, that gives us something on which to build.  The question we need
> to address is, "how do we tackle that issue effectively?"  If we, the
> Church, can come to terms with this - and perhaps even offer a viable
> solution (perhaps beating the industry to the punch) - then that would
> put the Church at the forefront of this issue.  I even hint at this in
> PitP 2.0.

The question you raise is a very good one, but one for which I -
unfortunately - don't have a good answer, despite the time that I've
spent thinking about it.

David