Re: The ENTIRE Redbook is now available in zip archive

["Sheldon Simms" <sheldon@interprice.com>]

Im Artikel <3aa5cd17.93933638@news1.on.sympatico.ca> schrieb "Jeff
Blakeney" <CUTjefbla@bconnex.net>:

> On 4 Mar 2001 16:10:39 GMT, Ben Zotto <zotto@fas.nospam.harvard.edu>
> wrote:
> 
>>This thread has caused me to wonder: just how common/rare are the Red
>>Books and what do people value them at?  One was just sold on eBay for
>>$40 (via Buy-It-Now) but that seems a little low for something useful
>>enough that warranted complete online reproduction? 
> 
> Well, in my opinion, having a copy of the book being made available
> online will severely reduce the value of the real thing.  The law of
> supply and demand comes into play.  More people have access to the book
> online so less people will want or need the real thing and the less
> people who want or need the real thing, the less the real thing is
> worth.

I find this hypothesis questionable. There isn't much (if any)
information in the book that isn't available elsewhere. I have
been interested in reading the book for years, but not interested
enough to spend $5 on, much less $40, or $140. I think that the
book has a collectible value to some people as a historical
artifact regardless of whether or not the information is available
on the net.

Likewise I would be very gratified if someone took the trouble to
scan "Beneath Apple DOS". I have wanted to read that book for years
too, but not enough to hunt down and pay for a copy of it. I did
buy "Programming the 65816" by Lichty & Eyes, but I found that in
a second hand bookstore for $5 and how could I pass that up?


> I imagine that in addition to the value of the real book dropping, you
> will probably find even less of them being made available for sale, not
> that there are many being made available now, as it isn't really worth
> the bother for the price.  I can easily see originals of the book being
> sent to dumpsters simply because the owners no longer want them and it
> isn't worth their while to try to find them new homes.
> 
> And people say that illegally distributing these still copyrighted
> materials doesn't harm anyone and actually helps to preserve them for
> historic reasons.  :-)
> 
> --
>  Jeff Blakeney - Dean of the Apple II Unversity on A2Central.com