Who Needs Authors Anyway?

With all the huffing and puffing about e-books, DRM and digital rights, one could easily get the impression that these are the only challenges heading at the book industry. It’s possible, however, that all of these issues are just the teensiest tip of the iceberg. Sure, authors have problems now. But in the future? Maybe authors won’t be needed at all. Digital rights? Easy peasy. But digital literature? That’s something else altogether. From The Huffington Post:

It could soon be possible to create your own book without writing a word. Using a later version of "Rokfor" software first demonstrated in the Encyclopaedizer project in 2003, Swiss networker and literary critic Beat Mazenauer is putting together plans for a website where you can assemble your own publication. Simply type in the subjects that interest you and leave the computer [to] do the rest, trawling through a vast database of resources from books and the internet to collate a cut-and-paste text that you can download to your computer and ereader, or print out. It's your book and you're the co-author. Right?

It might be scary or it might be exciting or it might be some of both. In any case, the piece in its entirety is here.