I was about to do some serious thinking about the amicus brief we are going to file in Grokster, just as soon as I finished reading the Wall Street Journal, of course, when I was saved by abebooks, the used book website.

It delivered my copy of Poul Anderson's The Time Patrol, the almost-complete story of hero Manse Everard's "duty to save human history from the chaos of paradox, no matter what sort of human suffering this forces him to 'preserve.' " The copy was discarded by the Albuquerque public library (the fools!).

Then, to complete my ruin, I received from Gallowglass Books in British Columbia (also via abe) the first four volumes of Maurice Druon's The Accursed Kings, the greatest series of historical novels ever written, and yes, I have read all of Patrick O'Brian, twice.

There is a serious point here: the incredible effect of the Internet in making markets efficient and world-wide. A mere couple of years ago, Albuquerque would have thrown out Time Patrol, or sold it for a quarter to some unappreciative browser, and the Druons would have sat forever on a shelf in British Columbia, since the author is not a household name, or been re-distributed slowly and at high cost through the networks of book dealers' newsletters.

But the key is that it is a market, in which people make money. I do not have to rely on someone who wants to do good by bringing readers into contact with surplus books located in other places, or on some foundation grant. I rely on the greed of the people who founded abebooks and saw a market opportunity (bless them all), and on the opportunities they created for people in Albuquerque and B.C. to better their own economic lot.

So maybe I'll do Grokster tomorrow. It's a holiday; no deliveries.

BTW - battered paperbacks of the individual books in The Accursed Kings series sell for $20 and up, so there is a market opportunity for some publisher to get the rights and bring out a new edition.

posted by James DeLong @ 10:38 AM | Markets: Business, Investment & Innovation

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