Would books be printed without publishing monopolies?

I want to address one idea from There Are Three Parties To Copyright by Rick Falkvinge. He writes: “The argument that nobody would print books without copyright should have no bearing on today’s legislation, as nothing needs to be printed for culture and knowledge to be disseminated today.”

I honestly do not understand how copyright does any good for publishing business at all, not just nowadays. Actually, I do understand that it does not, for if copyrights are not here all books will be accessible for all publishers. This is fundamental, simple, pure idea to base the book market on. If we ask why publishers wouldn’t like such a situation, the answer is obvious: a businessman does not like competition, and formula “all books for all publishers” creates an extremely competitive environment. In the book Culture vs. Copyright this idea was touched upon in my first graders’ dialogues and their teacher deliberations as well (in the book First Graders on the Magic Planet and Three Models chapters).

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