We realize we shouldn’t make fun of journalists because freedom of the press is what makes this nation great and all that, but, honestly, hasn’t there been a rash of inane headlines lately? Yesterday, we saw one stating that Laura Bush was to praise her husband at the Republican National Convention. Unless there was a serious, nasty disagreement over the breakfast table, this was a given, no? And what accused criminal is going to hold a press conference to announce their guilt? It would be nice, but not likely to happen.
So, of course, our first thought when we read a headline on the publishing industry tackling digital rights is “duh.” Then we took a moment to reflect (some might call it breakfast, but we’re not sure the label is appropriate). We start with the article’s teaser:
There’s no Napster for books yet, but creators of text and images still have to deal with a lot of the same digital rights management issues perplexing the movie and music industries.
We first wrote about ebooks in 1998. This isn’t a new concept, honest. It has long been our contention that the horse left the barn long before the music industry realized they owned a farm. The motion picture industry was slightly better, thanks to bandwidth limitations. The publishing industry, though admittedly slow, should be able to learn oodles from the travails of its entertainment siblings. As always, we offer our free advice: deal with it now. Not next year. Don’t wait to see how things shake out. Now. Your bottom line will thank you.
