Sanford Forte wrote:
This has become an untenable situation, because private publishers control content. Even GNU will not keep private publishers form competing with freely available GNU licensed content, and driving up the prices again.
Competition drives *down* prices. Economics 101.
If *anything*, what you are proposing is that states buy GNU-licensed content that will be "taken over" by commercial publishers (who will realize great economies from your free content), and take even *larger* profits as they compete for state business.
I hope they do realize larger profits, because then our success is ensured all the more.
Sure, the commercial publishers won't be able to "charge-up" for the content - do you think they'll care? Do you think that the very low rent publishers who do ultra-cheap print versions of these books will stand a snowballs chance in hell to get their books adopted? Think again. I've been there.
If the state of California accepts a pilot text produced by the Wikimedia Foundation into the curriculum (and why wouldn't they?), then *anyone* could produce that book, and the license would guarantee it. At that point we'd have price competition to produce those books -- now a commodity -- and the best possible outcome.
If you're going to say that for political reasons (bribes?) the standards committee will never approve a 'free' textbook, then *that's* where you need to focus your lobbying efforts, to ensure that the process of getting acceptance is fair and open.
Please, Jimbo, don't come back with ad hominums about how I don't understand economics. From a *microeconomic* standpoint (we can get into the fine points of disequilibriums caused by imperfect competition, if you like) that inefficiencies are created in this system.