Comments on: ‘Does the book industry want to get Napsterized?’ Slate Magazine’s Jack Shafer warns against price gouges

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:02:37 +0000

I don’t think anyone is really worrying about book scanning if there are already digital copies since the DRM is usually stripped in less than a minute with about as much effort as checking your email. The real use of scanning is probably best described by the Harry Potter books. Everyone knows JKR will never authorize e-versions, so no one really had any apprehension in scanning, proofing, and releasing e-versions within 24 hours of publication. As for OCR technology, it’s come along way since the 80′s. Take a look at the Fujitsu Scansnap which captures 20 pages dual sided colour in PDF and then uses high quality OCR to produce e-documents. If it is good enough for converting business and legal documents, I imagine it would work for books too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tTn8v6zmwM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oH3mQZLpL8

By: Paula B.

Paula B. — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:30:49 +0000

I wouldn’t be surprised if the book industry got “Napsterized” *regardless* of book prices. There’s a growing resistance to paying for any kind of media. I don’t see that changing absent major new developments.

By: Greg M.

Greg M. — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:46:22 +0000

I think the biggest protection against OCRing is the lack of quality. If, for example, I could get a free OCR copy of book X with the typical and numerous OCR errors, or I could pay $9.99 for the same book without the OCR errors, then I would pony up the cash.

I suppose there are some people would willingly trade the many mistakes for a free copy, but to me the annoyance factor for the free is the cost and it is more than I want to pay.

By: Felix Torres

Felix Torres — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:06:50 +0000

David Rothman said:
“When are the book biz biggies going to understand that all the DRM in the world isn’t going to protect against OCRing?”
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Aren’t consumer-grade scanners an 80′s technology?
Most of those folks are still stuck in the disco era.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the big publishers think they’re in the print business rather than the book business. Either that or there are Hollywood level shenanigans going on in the accounting practices for hardcovers…

It can’t be bad economic education, after all; everybody understands that 20% of $9.99 times a million is a heck of a lot better deal than 30% of $20 times 250,000. Maybe they don’t understand the concept of elastic demand?

As the saying goes: stupidity is its own cure.