There is a basic conflict in the regulations and technology concerning the business of publishing of books and compensating authors. There are many books that are out of print and many books that are in print but do not have CD copies available to be read with digital technology. It is within the capability of anybody with a computer and a scanner to put a book on a CD and burning a copy within a few minutes at the cost of fifty cents or so. Obviously this is illegal and unfair to both authors and publishers. But the capability is there and probably is being taken advantage of by people who want to distribute the wealth of ideas non-commercially and it must be admitted, aside from the damage done to commercial culture, it does increase the public wealth. I do not know how this general capability can be accomplished to the benefit of society without destroying the motivation of people who make their living with ideas but it seems to me that as the possibility is realized within society, the practice will spread. The only possibility that occurs to me is that the publishing business will accept the reality and sell their books at a price and trouble less than the average computer user must go to to accomplish this.

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