Comments on: Humble Ebook Bundle: Name your price for eight bestselling, ass-kicking sf novels

By: Alex Mauer

Alex Mauer — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 18:19:00 +0000

…Why did you have to boot into a Linux VM to buy??

By: zax

zax — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 11:48:00 +0000

Bought mine, thank you :)

By: IntotheNightSky

IntotheNightSky — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:54:00 +0000

I really don’t think you can say a service is being provided completely freely here. You are required to make an initial purchase of no less than $.01 before gaining access to some of the services provided, and around $12 before gaining access to all the services provided. That’s still a financial barrier to entry.

By: ZikZak

ZikZak — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 05:14:00 +0000

Exchange is the wrong word. Goods/services are being offered freely, and people are freely offering money to the providers of those good/services.

The key difference is that even if I don’t offer any money, I can still get the goods. It is literally a mutual exchange of gifts, neither contingent on the other. Simultaneously the craziest economic idea anyone can imagine, and the most obvious common sense way of interacting with other human beings.

By: Chrisanthropic

Chrisanthropic — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 02:42:00 +0000

It does! (And there goes the Indie Author promo I’ve been working on)

By: Jamie Tucker

Jamie Tucker — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:58:00 +0000

It seems so obvious now!

By: Synthia Weires

Synthia Weires — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:46:00 +0000

Yay! Glad that things like the Humble Indie Bundle are starting to translate to other eGoods.

By: Ryan_T_H

Ryan_T_H — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:26:00 +0000

How is this non-capitalist? Money is being exchanged for goods/services.

By: Jardine

Jardine — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:02:00 +0000

You could just do it anyway. Ethically it doesn’t seem any different than giving away an extra copy of a physical book. Or you could donate a penny and pick the gift option. Though with payment fees, that probably costs Humble Bundle, making everyone worse off.

By: dao_tao

dao_tao — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:29:00 +0000

I got mine. Nice mixture of sf/fantasy and the price is right. Always good to send some money towards the EFF and Child’s Play. Happy to donate to the SFWA this time, also.

By: sef

sef — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:27:00 +0000

So, sadly, it turns out that despite all of the above, the Humble Bundle folks say you don’t actually own the copies you buy, and can’t do anything other than read them yourself.

(I already own several of the books, so thought I could use this to give the redundant ones to other people. In particular, Old Man’s War and Zoo City. But, when I was asked, I was told that, no, I am not allowed to do that. Because of agreements with the authors.)

By: spacedoggy

spacedoggy — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:24:00 +0000

Bought, I had to boot into a VM of linux before buying though ;) I’m sick to death of publishing companies bribing my government to stamp out digital rights in the name of fighting piracy. I’m now spending the money I would have paid on traditional media on stuff like this. Kim Dotcom finding a way to pay artists 90% of their sales is why they went after him. Time to vote with your wallets I think.

By: ZikZak

ZikZak — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 19:18:00 +0000

I'm in! These bundles are a beautiful demonstration of a gift economy. It's exciting to see this non-capitalist model spreading to more forms of media. We can all be richer when we share freely!

By: Scott Byrne

Scott Byrne — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 18:13:00 +0000

This seems like a really exciting direction for literature to go in. Hopefully it will ignite the interest of readers!