9/21/2004

FreeContent

Books containing material available online for free, like the 9/11 Commission Report, are still managing to rack up good, and in some cases very impressive, sales. By Joanna Glasner.


[Via Wired News]




I have comented as follows:

1) I believe that most books would suffer little loss in revenue if they were available on the WEB under a modified Creative Content license, e.g.


a) Viewing from the WEB free (With anchors and links so that the WEB version can be commented on (wiki'ed) and linked out to other material.


b) Personal printing -- "Shareware license", e.g. with an "Honor" payment of the royalties to the author/publisher of the amount that they normally will get, (e.g. a few $'s)


c) Mass printing (or for profit printing) Requires a royalty payment to the author/publisher.



My thought is that most "content" as opposed to "entertainment" books will make MORE money by being WEB available. some people may read them on line or print them without paying for them, but others will see them, want to purchase hard copies, and participate in the WEB discussions, and thus may purchase the Hard Copy to have an easer to read version.

2) There is a growing list of books that are published under "Roughly" this license, Lessig's Free Culture, Gilmore's We the Medium, etc.





a) I'd love to see a site that contains the Card Catolog of these WEB available books and

b) I'd like to know the experience of the authors/publishers as to whether the WEB avalability has added to their profits or not (with as much objective info as possible)



3) My proposal is that the US publications should be published under this For Profit license and that the royalties should be used to diectly help pay for the operation of our Government, e.g. reduce our Debt/Taxes.

9/20/2004

KerryOnIraq

John Kerry for President - Speech at New York University (47 min): "and in the war on terrorism, the President has made the wrong choice. I have a plan to make America stronger. "

Note: This also includes Video in case you want to view the speech

9/16/2004

myth

(Democratic/Liberal, Republican/Conservative) Political Myth = A statement that is believed by a preponderance (75% or more) of one group that is provably wrong.

Note: If the statement is not provable wrong then it is not a true "Political Myth" but just a difference of opinion between groups.

. e.g. (I think)

Republican myth -- All of the newspaper recounts of the 2000 election lead to a Bush victory.

Democratic myth -- Bush "often" lies (not "only" misleads) -- for example I personally believe that many democrats believe that Bush lied about W.M.D.'s but as far as I can tell all of his statements were of the form of the 16 words, misleading perhaps? but not lies.

Thoughts? or other Political Myths?

9/14/2004

economics

Just ran across a set of sites that discussed economics and am using theis entry to maintain them for future view:

Initial site ...
. http://mahalanobis.twoday.net/

How well do you know things that you don't really know?
If you think that's a silly question, then this quiz is for you.
. http://roughly.beasts.org/

The aim of this activity is to tell you something about your moral intuitions. It was first developed for the games and activities section of The Philosophers' Magazine web site
. http://www.philosophersmag.com/bw/games/taboo.htm

The Woolly-Thinker's Guide to Rhetoric -- Here you'll find top tips for besting your enemies. As employed by the world's best woolly-thinkers. Learn, for example: how to play the 'biological reductionist' card to maximum effect;
. http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/rhetoric.php

Neocon quiz Are you a neoconservative? Take this quiz to find out.
. http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/neocon/quiz/neoconQuiz.html