[sdiy] Marketplace Question

Thu Nov 5 04:20:02 CET 2020

In the man's own words:

*Let me make the following offer to any responsible person: I will enter
into a contract with you, and offer you the exclusive rights to produce and
sell CD's containing the available Electronotes materials. You can sell as
many as you want at whatever price you want. I will provide you with a full
set of copies for your originals.You will agree to the following: You will
pay me $X on the signing of the contact and $X on the anniversary of the
signing for a minimum of five years. You agree that I can continue to sell
paper copies, and that Electronotes and I hold all copyrights. You agree
that all your advertising and promotion will make it clear that with regard
to the CD's, the customer is dealing exclusively with you, not with
Electronotes, and Electronotes has no obligation to them. In short, for a
yearly fee, you get the "lucrative" CD business! You cover your expenses
(scanning, CD production, postage, bad checks, etc.) and make your yearly
license payment to me, and you keep all the rest as profit (or perhaps you
are doing this for free - it's up to you).So - - - What is X? Clearly, to
me X is the amount of profit I would expect to loose for not making a paper
sale. Fair enough? I have a reasonable way of estimating this. For you, X
is an amount you expect to be able to pay me and still have a successful
business. This is a matter of estimating your sales, your expenses, and
setting your prices. I do not have much of an idea about this - hopefully
you do. Do you suppose that X should be zero? Well, keep in mind that I do
not watch TV, but I presume there are still people on late at night telling
you you can make a fortune with no money invested. If you believe them, go
with them - please not with me. (For example, I have to pay up front for
the paper copies which sit on my shelves.) X is your "at risk" investment,
your incentive, which will also assure that you will take measures to
prevent pirating of the CD, because you still have to pay me for five years
even if something goes wrong. It is just a matter of trusting the ciber
world.*

Given the circumstances, I believe this amount should be zero dollars.

On Wed, Nov 4, 2020 at 7:45 PM BrightBoy <jdec at mindspring.com> wrote:

> Everyone has a price.
>
> What would it take to buy the whole operation and Bernie relinquishes the
> burden around his neck for good?
>
> I fear he will probably die without leaving a legacy behind that will
> continue for generations to come.
>
> Jeff
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David G Dixon
> Sent: Nov 4, 2020 7:41 PM
> To: "'Bernard Arthur Hutchins, Jr'" , synth-diy at synth-diy.org
> Subject: Re: [sdiy] Marketplace Question
>
> At the risk of some serious opprobrium, I'm just going to go ahead
> and address the 800-pound gorilla in the room:
>
> If no one has ever made any money from Electronotes, and (evidently) no
> one ever will, and the owner is unwilling to sell fresh copies, then why is
> it all protected and kept secret like the script of next year's blockbuster
> movie?   Why not just put it all in the public domain and allow (or,
> indeed, encourage) anyone with a copy to scan it to PDF and put it all on
> the damned internet already?
>
> Bernie doesn't want to part with it, but he doesn't want to sell it, but
> he doesn't want to give it away, and he certainly doesn't want anyone who
> hasn't paid for it to ever see it.  He might as well just throw it all on a
> bonfire and be done with it.  I know that I, for one, am pretty tired of
> hearing about what an enormous burden it all is.
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Synth-diy [mailto:synth-diy-bounces at synth-diy.org] *On Behalf Of *Bernard
> Arthur Hutchins, Jr
> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 04, 2020 2:56 PM
> *To:* synth-diy at synth-diy.org
> *Subject:* [sdiy] Marketplace Question
>
> [*CAUTION:* Non-UBC Email]
>
> *Don wrote: On Nov 3, 2020, at 12:34 PM, Bernard Arthur Hutchins, Jr
> <bah13 at cornell.edu <http://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy>>
> wrote: *
>
> >
>
> >* READ - then comment -PLEASE.  Reading comprehension PLEASE.  *
>
> >
>
> >* I was ONLY interested to see if the Marketplace allowed people whom I
> might (as a courtesy) direct there to connect a willing buyer to a set of
> USED Electronotes (Ben says OK), not to reopen an uninformed, assuming,
> impractical, largely debunked discussion of how to supposedy provide new
> copies etc. ( I regret not letting the sleeping dog alone. )  No
> suggestions please, unless you have ACTUALLY READ ALL the links and
> understood them (and, I suppose – have money to invest).  *
>
> *Bernie’s comments in{ } *
>
> Bernie,
>
> I *have* read and understood all that.  And I agree that republishing
> 6500 pages of complex technical material is a gargantuan task that nobody
> in their right mind would want to attempt.
>
> But that's not what I suggested.
>
> Again... I am proposing to recruit an editorial team (from here or Muff
> Wiggler) and publish a regular-sized book of selected Electronotes articles
> on a particular topic,*{Who (specifically)recruits the team? Who pays
> them?  Volunters! (Don’t be silly.) Who pays the printer?}* do it up
> nice, and see how the book does in the market.  If successful, turn
> another topic into the next book.
>
> The important part is that you, Bernie, would not be doing the work, other
> than advise and approval.  *{Sorry – not available.}*
>
> I know *exactly* how to do publication-quality plots and schematics.  It's
> not difficult.  And we could put together a set of tools to assist in
> much of the work.
>
> ---
>
> Second proposal:
>
> Would you, Bernie, consider allowing others to republish Electronotes
> material on their own *{the offer has been out for 20 years}*, in the
> form described above, with a percentage of the revenue going to you?
> *{Upfront?}*
>
> ---
>
> My overall point is that this stuff is culturally, technically, and
> historically important, the modular synthesizer renaissance has created a
> demand, there are very few books out on this topic, the current state of EN
> distribution is mostly inaccessible *{Not true IF people look for USED
> copies -  try this first}*, and there's money to be made *{NOT in 40
> years so far!}*.
>
> ---
>
> And one more...
>
> What if there was a publishing company that specialized in upscale books
> on electronic music?
>
>   -- Don
>
> --
>
> Donald Tillman, Palo Alto, California
>
> http://www.till.com
>
> *{THANKS DON – Bernie} *
>
>
>
>
>
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