The answer is twofold IMHO; Argument 1 is that books have actually become much cheaper to publish, thanks to desktop technology, and while they're not cheaper than a file on a server, they are sufficiently cheap that they outweigh the costs of converting an old and consolidated industry to a new medium (good article on same here).

Argument 2 is risk, or fear. A famous psychological study showed that people fear loss more than they desire gain, and economists see that principal operating in any number of economic mechanisms. Publishers fear file sharing just like the music companies do because they are for the large part unable to comprehend and adapt to the changes that are taking place in content delivery and consumption (exception: O'Reilly's Safari).

Recent events, like the free distribution of Cory Doctorow's novel that lead to the print version opening high on Amazon's best-seller list may change that thinking in some quarters. And 'file sharing' of expensive books has been rampant since the Xerox copier arrived. Prediction: well-priced books distributed in novel ways will become more popular and prfotable in 2003 - 2005 especially in niche markets... [www.gulker.com - words and pictures from Silicon Valley]
Comments 10:56:30 PM    

With the exception of the word 'sale' this describes why the sudden dramatic rise in Weblogging and related publishing. Bandwidth, servers and publishing tools are all now sufficiently ubiquitous and inexpensive that publishing is rapidly being democratized and pushed down into the very base that used to serve only as a market.

This is an emergent phenomenon, not a movement, and its rise has to do more with economics than the current Net zeitgeist. That said, the effects of this will likely be profound going forward.

For one thing, the whole Web is rapidly becoming the world's library, and the information it contains is far more nuanced than the finite and relatively static collections in traditional libraries. Prediction: the rate of change in Western, wired societies is going to speed up; education is going to get better and less formal; problem solving will improve... [www.gulker.com - words and pictures from Silicon Valley]
Comments 10:56:05 PM    

"The reduction in the barriers to being a “publisher” have been dramatic; as a result the number of individuals and organisations now acting as publishers – whether they recognise it or no – has multiplied in a way that would have been unimaginable 5 years ago. This does not mean that they are very good publishers, or that what they are publishing is of cultural (or even commercial) value – but those are judgements that can be made only on a case-by-case basis. An enormous growth in the amount of informal publication of all kinds is something we can predict with confidence for the next ten years."From a report prepared for the British Library by Mark Bide & Associates in 2001... [www.gulker.com - words and pictures from Silicon Valley]
Comments 10:55:46 PM    

Chris Gulker's view from Silicon Valley - in words and pictures