China may be E-Book Central, at least in the future. But as TeleBlog regulars know, I’m not a fan of this guy–or of the present Chinese leaders or the PR campaign that a buzz-minded ad agency cooked up for Friends of the Minneapolis Public Library. So I read with interest a note from Robert Nagle of the Idiotprogrammer blog. He correctly worries about DRM being used in the service of Chinese Big Brothers. In fact, Robert wonders if China will go ahead with e-books in the first place, given the possibility of this e-book thing getting out of hand. Okay, over to you, Robert:
Had a rather unsettling question about ebooks.
You and the ebook list has been talking about how the Chinese government is taking the initiative to launch ebooks for their students, etc.
Ok, sounds glorious on the face of it.
But think: memory cards could be easily copied, and it would be easy for books on taboo subjects to be easily distributed. Allowing ebooks in schools would be essentially making it easier for democracy activists and Tibetan dissidents to spread their written material. It would be
simple.In communist countries, at least the 2 I lived in, the government controlled the licenses for all publications (and publishing houses). I’m guessing the same is true for the Chinese government.
The Chinese govt has some ability to control network access and connections through the Giant Firewall. But if an ebook reader could easily read unauthorized material, I doubt the Chinese government would ever allow it (and perhaps would produce it only if there was no way to
add new books to the device. I’m sure the govt would ensure that the device is fitted only to receive approved works.I’d like to think that such an exciting innovation could take place in China. Realistically, the Chinese government would never agree to an ebook reader unless they could prevent from adding your own content or building your own ebooks.
China ain’t the place to look; India (on the other hand) is.
Although I share Robert’s concerns about censorship, I’ll buy the theory that the Chinese are thinking more in the long term than he believes. The benefits of e-book technology could be suffient to outweigh the possibility of pesky dissidents “misusing” it. We’re talking about cost-savings here, as well as a chance for the Chinese to build up their electronics industry still more, which, of course, has security implications for the dummies in D.C. who don’t share the same foresight. Simpy put, I abhor Chinese totalitarianism. But objectively, I have to give China credit for appreciating the benefits of the technology. No infallibility claimed here. Robert’s theory, that the Chinese may not go big for e-books after all, despite the educational, economic and technological benefits, could well be right. Let’s see how things unfold.
Related: More goodies from the Idiotprogrammer, including Ebooks and Voluntary Payments, “De Minimis” and Infringement, and Dumb & Smart Critiques of Creative Commons.
