More Unintended Consequences
I have just finished reading an interesting blog about Ireland's decision to pay authors royalties on books checked-out of libraries. On the surface this sounds like a good idea, but the Law of Unintended Consequences may rear its ugly head in ways that neither Ireland, nor the blog 's author may have foreseen. This is a classic example of Geek vs. Artist. Firstly, the blog's author goes a step further by putting forward the idea of paying authors a royalty every time a used copy of a book is sold: " There is no reason an author shouldn't be compensated for a sale of a used copy of their work. It is not a technology issue since the same technology that tracks the sales of new books can track the sale of used ones too. " Again, this sounds like a good idea, but why stop with used books? Why not extend this idea to any work of art? Think about it: painters, sculptors, knitters, quilters, and anyone else who produces "art," should be paid a royalt...