Comments on: Cory Doctorow on e-books, DRM and universal formats http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/cory-doctorow-on-e-books-drm-and-universal-formats/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:35:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Robin http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/cory-doctorow-on-e-books-drm-and-universal-formats/comment-page-1/#comment-1037732 Robin Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:52:47 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/14/cory-doctorow-on-e-books-drm-and-universal-formats/#comment-1037732 Book reading is not a mass activity? Aside form that bizarre statement, I think eBook readers will be driven not just by novel reading, but by work reading, newspaper reading, web on the go reading etc. These things probably more than any other will prompt people to spend $350. Once people have the device the lower cost and higher convenience of front list novels in Kindle format will quickly lead to a shift of eBooks outselling pBooks. Students growing up with eTextbooks will by default lean towards eNovels. IMHO the shift over the next 10 years to a majority of novels being read in eForm is pretty much a foregone conclusion. Also because it won't just be on Kindles, but will be on large format newsreaders, smartphones, Gameboys, netbooks, notebooks, multipurpose GPS devices, multipurpose media devices etc. I have half a dozen devices lying around my home I can comfortably read eBooks on, none of which were purchased for that purpose. Again, IMHO device cost/availability is not holding eBooks back. eBook availability is holding eBooks back. If you buy a pBook it works everywhere you use it and for whomever you give it to. If there were as many open format eBooks available as there are pBooks the relative sales numbers would be quite different I'm sure. Book reading is not a mass activity?

Aside form that bizarre statement, I think eBook readers will be driven not just by novel reading, but by work reading, newspaper reading, web on the go reading etc. These things probably more than any other will prompt people to spend $350. Once people have the device the lower cost and higher convenience of front list novels in Kindle format will quickly lead to a shift of eBooks outselling pBooks. Students growing up with eTextbooks will by default lean towards eNovels.

IMHO the shift over the next 10 years to a majority of novels being read in eForm is pretty much a foregone conclusion. Also because it won’t just be on Kindles, but will be on large format newsreaders, smartphones, Gameboys, netbooks, notebooks, multipurpose GPS devices, multipurpose media devices etc. I have half a dozen devices lying around my home I can comfortably read eBooks on, none of which were purchased for that purpose.

Again, IMHO device cost/availability is not holding eBooks back. eBook availability is holding eBooks back. If you buy a pBook it works everywhere you use it and for whomever you give it to. If there were as many open format eBooks available as there are pBooks the relative sales numbers would be quite different I’m sure.

]]> By: Rob Preece, Publisher http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/cory-doctorow-on-e-books-drm-and-universal-formats/comment-page-1/#comment-1037658 Rob Preece, Publisher Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:43:31 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/14/cory-doctorow-on-e-books-drm-and-universal-formats/#comment-1037658 I think Steve's point is dead-on. Cory has got a great PR machine, but he's using new technology to flog a bit more life out of the old. Looking to China as the future is sort of looking to 19th Century Tripoli as the future--sure there will be pirates in the future, but ultimately pirates are a tax. As long as the tax stays low enough, people continue to operate. If everyone becomes a pirate, normal business dies. I'm not a big fan of DRM, but waving our hands and saying DRM doesn't stop anything isn't a solution. It does limit sharing (even if it doesn't stop it). It does serve as a reminder that books are valuable, even if it does so at a cost I'd prefer to avoid. I was interested to see Cory reject ePub (or any unified format). To me, his example is flawed. Sure, the web contains a number of formats, but without HTML to tie it together, there wouldn't be a web. Rob Preece Publisher, BooksForABuck I think Steve’s point is dead-on. Cory has got a great PR machine, but he’s using new technology to flog a bit more life out of the old.

Looking to China as the future is sort of looking to 19th Century Tripoli as the future–sure there will be pirates in the future, but ultimately pirates are a tax. As long as the tax stays low enough, people continue to operate. If everyone becomes a pirate, normal business dies.

I’m not a big fan of DRM, but waving our hands and saying DRM doesn’t stop anything isn’t a solution. It does limit sharing (even if it doesn’t stop it). It does serve as a reminder that books are valuable, even if it does so at a cost I’d prefer to avoid.

I was interested to see Cory reject ePub (or any unified format). To me, his example is flawed. Sure, the web contains a number of formats, but without HTML to tie it together, there wouldn’t be a web.

Rob Preece
Publisher, BooksForABuck

]]> By: Steve Jordan http://www.teleread.com/copy-right/cory-doctorow-on-e-books-drm-and-universal-formats/comment-page-1/#comment-1037639 Steve Jordan Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:04:38 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/04/14/cory-doctorow-on-e-books-drm-and-universal-formats/#comment-1037639 Frankly, it surprises me when I hear Cory say he doesn't expect the e-book market to grow very quickly: He knows technology's ability to spread, especially among younger generations, and should recognize the clear parallel to music's shift to digital. As far as I can tell, his support of open formats is mostly about making it easier for people to get the e-book freebies that will sell printed books. Sometimes, for all Cory's forward-thinking, he seems to be arguing more for the status quo than anything else. On the other hand, he is a print-published author, who is making his money off of printed book sales and using e-books as free giveaways... so on that level, it's not surprising that he sees print as staying dominant, and e-books serving as cheap ad fodder for print product. Frankly, it surprises me when I hear Cory say he doesn’t expect the e-book market to grow very quickly: He knows technology’s ability to spread, especially among younger generations, and should recognize the clear parallel to music’s shift to digital.

As far as I can tell, his support of open formats is mostly about making it easier for people to get the e-book freebies that will sell printed books.

Sometimes, for all Cory’s forward-thinking, he seems to be arguing more for the status quo than anything else. On the other hand, he is a print-published author, who is making his money off of printed book sales and using e-books as free giveaways… so on that level, it’s not surprising that he sees print as staying dominant, and e-books serving as cheap ad fodder for print product.

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