The State of Print Today
Today, print has matured to a state where the majority of modern society has come to have certain expectations regarding the printed book:
- The knowledge contained by printed books is believed to be accurate.
- The cited author of a printed book does indeed exist and is actually the person who wrote it.
- Every copy of a printed book is identical (at least in the important aspects) to every other copy, no matter how far apart the locations are in which they are sold.
Copyright laws help to protect these standards. However, a few regions do exist in the world where literary piracy has become a standard commercial practice. In such regions, the preceding expectations are not the norm. (Johns 61)
Currently, there are still approximately 2.3 billion books still sold each year worldwide. However, this number is steadily decreasing due to the ever-growing popularity of the Internet and other forms of digital media.
Read more about this topic: Print Culture
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