Books used to be simple paper blocks that you could buy only at bookstores. Sometimes the store had what you wanted. Sometimes you had to wait. Maybe for one day. Maybe for ninety.

But the Internet changed all that. The old distribution patterns were the first to go as online bookstores began delivering in a few days nearly anything in print. And now, even the idea of “in print” is up for grabs. No one — save a handful of tiny, artsy-craftsy publishers — sets books in type by hand anymore. Computers have taken over book production. Given, then, that every book published nowadays exists at some point as an electronic file, why must books pass out of print? Indeed, why must they be printed at all?