Comments on: What Price Entertainment?

By: eBooks - why they got it all wrong « Mbreau’s Weblog

eBooks - why they got it all wrong « Mbreau’s Weblog — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:37:00 +0000

[...] Does your reader work?Â Or are you going to run into problems like Kassia Krozser talks about on Book Square, where companies are so intent on making their books invulnerable to pirates that they make them [...]

By: Breaum

Breaum — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:20:07 +0000

Like the others who responded, I completely agree. Ebooks and Ebook readers are being created without any regards to the consumer. Both need a reality check. At least in the music industry there were standard formats – ebooks are ridiculous.

I also buy them mostly on impulse; or when I finish a book at 1:30 in the morning and can’t wait to read the next in the series. Trust me, when that is the case I don’t want to take the time to pirate…

If you are going to give the ebook another shot, I recommend the Adobe format. You have to make sure you have the right version, but after that it’s fairly painless. I haven’t tried any others – Adobe is free and it came on my system. I think that it needs to be developed a little more and standardized.

There are those looking to standardize :
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA166502.html?q=ebook

Unfortunately, no one is paying attention.

By: Miki S

Miki S — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:54:28 +0000

Oh, I agree with this on so many levels! I love eBooks. Love the instant gratification of downloading it NOW! Love the ability to carry 100 books (or more) in my purse because they’re in my PDA or eBook reader. Love that I don’t have to dust them or worry about print over-runs bulking up our already teaming landfills.

But I’m tired of being treated like a criminal-in-waiting. I’m tired of waiting to see if the books I want will be released in the only DRM’d format I’m willing to pay for. I’m tired of dreading the release of each newly touted eBook reader, because it almost always means yet another hardware-specific eBook format has been unveiled.

I also think it’s a shame that I CAN’T share these with the same friends I’ve been swapping paperbacks with for years. How many authors have I discovered over the last three years (since I first invested in eBooks) that I can’t get these friends to try because they’re not willing to spend $8 (or $14 or $25) on a new-to-them author…that they would have bought up if they could have tried that first book from me? (Or vice versa).

By: thedigitalist.net » links for 2007-12-15

thedigitalist.net » links for 2007-12-15 — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 03:27:25 +0000

[...] What Price Entertainment? | Booksquare Cogent argument about the barriers to entry engendered by restrictive eBook DRM. The case for social DRM becomes stronger by the day. (tags: ebooks drm) [...]

By: bowerbird

bowerbird — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:47:37 +0000

> how do you go from a culture that
> encourages, on various levels, sharing
> to one that makes it a crime to
> trade reading material?

and what happens to our cultural heritage
if we let these greedy heathens succeed?

-bowerbird

By: cristy

cristy — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:32:28 +0000

How out of touch with consumer reality must these publishing types be to walk in the exact footsteps of the music industry? A path that will lead them off the edge of a cliff, I might add. DRM simply does not work. Treating your potential customers like criminals is the quickest way to kill your profits. Considering how many books are released each year that fail to break even, e-books are a great way to encourage readers to try to new authors, especially if the price is far less than a print version. The worst part of the hypocrisy is that both the music and the publishing industry say they’re making these bonehead decisions to protect the creators of the work, when in actuality, they’re really only concerned about their own stock price. I’d like to be optimistic and think it will work itself out, but if the music industry is any indication, we’re in for a long fight.

By: Kari

Kari — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:40:59 +0000

I agree 100%. Great article. I especially agree with:
There is also a belief that every pirated version of book is a lost sale. Also not true.
The books I buy in ebook format are also impulse buys. I would NOT buy them in physical form, thus publishers are getting an extra purchase – it is not a replacement for a physical copy. I think pirated versions work like that too (I am in South America where piracy is a big issue – mainly, in my opinion, because physical forms are nonexistent or cost 3-6 times the original price, and many populations cannot afford even the original prices. Nevertheless, many people who use pirated versions (or even most of them) would not buy the physical form under these circumstances anyhow, so there would be no sale regardless.)

By: Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:41:12 +0000

I agree with every word. What do you think about bundling print versions of books with electronic reader versions or codes for downloading? It seems to me that people may want both versions — the electronic and the physical, so it would make sense to partner them.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:33:45 +0000

Great article! Thanks for posting.