Should people in developing countries pay less for e-books than do readers in the States? I’ve made that argument before. Without some price discrimination, many in, say, Bangladesh may never catch up with the books in a meaningful way at all except through piracy. Needless to say, I’ve also suggested the solution of well-stocked national digital libraries, which, by increasing the audience for books, could help lower the prices for everyone. Perhaps in the end, then we could have universal global prices for e-books.
Now, in the latest Wired, Larry Lessig writes about drug pricing, and some of the same issues come into play. He suggest that if drug prices are to be uniform, then perhaps the financing of drugs needs to happen in new ways. Ditto for e-books. E-books aren’t as urgently needed as drugs for saving lives in the short run. But the long run is somewhat of a different issue, given their potential for health-related education (along with education in general).
Related: It will be interesting to see what happens between Microsoft and the United Nations Development Program, which will work together on computer literacy and traditional kinds. Let’s hope this isn’t just Windows Promotion at Work. My own hunch is that Microsoft has a mix of altruistic and philanthropic motives. Too bad Linus T can’t follow up. But then again, in certain places in the developing world, Linux seems to be doing fine even without big-time marketers or UN alliances.
"Hi Chris,
your last comment is very correct. The point being discussed is that is suspicious that fact they all implemented that vertical pricing restraint at ..."
"Scanned On Demand is a reliable New York City based document management company with the ability to scan, organize, and enable search in books, textbooks, ..."
"Hi, Chris,
Thanks for the discussion.
I disagree, naturally, on this: "What happens to the book after it’s bought and paid for by the distributor shouldn’t be ..."
Should people in developing countries pay less for e-books than do readers in the States? I’ve made that argument before. Without some price discrimination, many in, say, Bangladesh may never catch up with the books in a meaningful way at all except through piracy. Needless to say, I’ve also suggested the solution of well-stocked national digital libraries, which, by increasing the audience for books, could help lower the prices for everyone. Perhaps in the end, then we could have universal global prices for e-books.
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