Will current books and articles ever be free?

Question

And any other kind of information that is not freely available today. Why can't people just share? Science and our knowledge-base would accumulate much faster.

Answer 1

Not as long as people toil to produce them. If you do work--and you sacrifice your time and energy doing the work--rather than something that might be more fun--you want to get compensated for it. So do authors. To them it is work--just like punching in a tine clock--or working for the average person, be it a mechanic, a teacher, a counter person at a restaurant. You wouldn't think of expecting a big mac or a restaurant salad for free--because of all the work behind it, yet people think music and books should be free. And some times on the Internet they are free!
People sometimes dedicate their work to charitible causes or put it out on the Net for free(Public Domain) or create freeware or opensource programming such as Linux--which I think is great because I am not rich and cannot go down to the bookstore and pay $20-$50 for a new book (maybe $2.99-$3.99 at Goodwill). ha! I hope the 'free to all' movement grows and spreads and becomes a way of life for millions of us. But people need to pay their rent and buy groceries, so as long as there are occupations such as writers, tech writers, journalists etc. the majority of books and articles will demand a price.What can you, personally donate to the Web for free? Can you write an article or book for free? I bet you can and I bet a lot of people will benefit from it. I think that is why 'Yahoo Answers' is so popular. I think basically most people like to help each other and to do it for free. (well maybe the bonus points help a little .
Here's to a world where everybody shares. I think that is why internet has grown so fast and been so popular--knowledge for everyone for free! Thanks for your question--it is a good one. I wish you all the best in building a world that is better!
-Spec

Answer 2

Entropy is nothing but a product of a state, brain washed younger generation and probably has no first hand reference point of how things used to be .I have seen what the new laws and regulations have done to our country.You want a fair playing field ? Bring back tariffs .Reduce the ridiculous enviro nazi laws.America has been turning Communist for 150 years starting with the civil war and white supremacist Lincoln .The progressive era at the turn of the century was a horrible play on the American people.The next wave was the civil rights bill that was the largest violation of private property in our nation's history. The next wave ,the alleged war on drugs.The next wave was NAFTA and the elimination of the Glass Steagall act in 1999.Eliminating the middle class has been a Communist protocol since Fat Karl wrote his crap document in the 1840’s.I have been paying attention while Entropy has been paying his taxes to the state like a good little drone and slave to the system.What is happening is evil pure evil.I actually got to achieve the American dream.That dream is now the State dream.Have fun with your government education and dead end job.Collect your pension and die off while your leaders backed by banks and corporations live high on the hog.Communism is nothing but a Monarchy in disguise and NAFTA was part of the plan.Bill Clinton is a dirt ball and will rot in hell if there is one along with the rest of the authoritarian loving hippy progressives.Oh and for the record @ Moose the business cycle is a lie.Figure it out.Read a book or two and turn off your television.

Answer 3

Yes. If owned by a corporation, in 95 years. If owned by an author, 95 years after his death. Of course, expect to see this extended. There's a well-known company that is very interested in retaining the copyright on its cartoon that has a mouse in it, and rumor has it that they lobbied congressman Sonny Bono for the last extension to copyright.

It's a ridiculous length of time, I agree (I mean, should the great grandchildren get a free ride off great grandpap's children's book featuring a stuffed bear of limited intellect?). I think that copyright law should be brought more into line with patent law, which is 17 years.

Answer 4

Many current articles are free. See: www.findarticles.com
But if all written material was free, how would writers and publishers make the money they need to live?

Answer 5

I doubt it. If they were free, how would authors be able to support themselves? They would have to get other jobs and would not have time to produce these materials, then they wouldn't exist at all.

Answer 6

Just like money, one of life's mysteries. If there was no money there would be no such thing as poor.

Answer 7

And how would the people writing those make a living?

Answer 8

yes

Answer 9

Never because they want that money.

Answer 10

Try the library