> Does it bother anyone else that piracy would force

> an arbitrary low price point for books?

> ...

> Piracy is preventing the market from establishing a real

> clearing price for books;

In the above question about being bothered by sharing, it seems you are forgetting your previous arguments about value, particularly in the sense of limiting the idea of value to fit your argument. To give an example, the time you spend reading this email might be a completely wasted effort, or even a mostly wasted effort, but with some degree of luck and skill, I might manage to make the time you spend worthwhile. Essentially, the words I'm writing might have value to you.

In a world where writing something is extremely easy, the overwhelming majority of written text has little or no value. The invention of text editors, desktop publishing, printers, and all associated technology has vastly increased the volume of written text, but at the same time it has decreased the value of written text. It's a signal to noise problem, since when any idiot can write, many do (myself included).

Please don't fall into the trap of believing "reviews" (or karma for that matter) will be an adequate filter. There will always be a risk/reward ratio for time invested in reading, and for something to be ranked poorly, someone had to waste their time reading it.

There are really only two primary motivations for writing, fame and fortune. The minor motivations such as sharing and contributing thoughts or efforts are often entangled with the primary motivations. This goes back to the pessimistic view of, "There's no such thing as a selfless act," but rationally, it is applicable.

For the sake of argument, imagine the end of copyright, and hence the end of books as we know them. More accurately, we're looking at the end of the financial motivations to write, edit, and publish books in any form. With fortune now missing from the rather short list of primary motivations, all we have left is fame. Since one can profit from fame, financial motivations have not been completely removed.

When you boil it down, no matter how "useful" written content may be, it is still a form of advertising.

When you want to hire someone for a programming position, you look at their advertisements, such as open source contributions.

When you want to be entertained, ...

When you want to be informed, ...

Assuming you've read a book (advertisement) by J.K. Rowling, and enjoyed it, would you be willing to pay to see her read/tell a new story to an audience?

Assuming you've read a book (advertisement) by Lawrence (Larry) Harris on "Trading & Exchanges," and found it useful/enjoyable, would you be willing to pay to attend one of his classes or lectures? (note: he's a prof at USC, and hence, actually teaching/lecturing as well as maintaining his employment by advertising his mastery of a subject).

Similar could be said for everything covered by unjust and corrupt imaginary property laws, but the more important question is very simple; Have you fallen for the typical "Price Anchoring" [1] and are responding in a "Predictably Irrational" [2] manner by purchasing advertisements?

The time and effort invested by a 'user' to evaluate a work has value, regardless if the user determines the work to be worthwhile. Additionally, a user admiring a work has value for the creator of the work, regardless if the work itself is purchased.

Go look at your karma score and think about the non-obvious ways you have financially or otherwise profited from "freely" contributing your words to HN.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1244967 [2] http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_o...