Slightly off topic - Ebooks

[dsr-mzpnVDyJpH4k7aNtvndDlA at public.gmane.org (Dan Ritter)]

On Sun, Feb 07, 2010 at 12:20:59PM -0500, David Kramer wrote:
> Dan Ritter wrote:
> > 
> > The "bad thing" is licensing DRM'd books; it's already here.  Publishers
> > are going to either move to DRM-free ebooks or find themselves doing
> > too much work for too little return. As customers grow more savvy about
> > ebooks, they will express a preference for non-DRM'd ebooks. One of
> > the factors driving that will be a desire to avoid lock-in. When you
> > change ebook readers, your library will need to move with you, even
> > across manufacturers.
> 
> I'm not as confident as you are in that, and here's why:  We on this
> list are so frackin' far from the common consumer on the street.  Just
> like my frustration with the death of the PDA market because so few
> people are data/PIM geeks anymore, so a $50 cellphone suffices.  The
> average consumer out there hasn't even thought about end-of-life of
> Amazon, accessing their content on anything but a Kindle or Windows, or
> privacy.

Jane Average is going to be more upset than you are.

Why? Because she buys a Kindle, has two years of happiness
during which she purchases 2 books a month from Amazon at $10
apiece, gets a couple of Gutenberg etexts (_Pride and Prejudice_
is still popular) and then...

And then she sees her friend has just bought a Sony SuperBook,
which has a color video-capable screen and a dozen games on it
as well. So she orders a SuperBook from Amazon, it's delivered,
and...

Only the Gutenberg books will transfer over. "What do you mean I
have to buy 50 books all over again?" demands Jane. "I bought
them, they're mine." And customer support at Sony says they're
very sorry, but only Sony Library and Barnes & Borders DRM is
supported.

You paid attention and considered DRM when you bought an
ereader. Jane didn't. You are slightly miffed, but you also know
how to run a Python script to crack your books. Jane doesn't.

Jane hates ebooks now. If it's spun right, Jane only hates DRM.
If it's spun a different way, Jane hates Sony or Amazon or both.

 
> Think about the post Daniel Clark sent.  RMS uses this one laptop with a
> tiny screen and that's it, because it's the ONLY ONE ON THE MARKET that
> has completely free software down to the BIOS level.  Not even this
> crowd is willing to vote with their dollar to that extent.  Nor do I
> think they should.  Most of us are only willing to sacrifice so much
> convenience and capabilities in the name of telling big
> (business|government) what we feel is right.

RMS is extremely valuable, because he marks out the extreme
position. That doesn't mean it's the right position for
everyone, but at least we have a sense of direction. Without
him, it would be difficult to know where that edge is.

I'm not sure where the other border is, but I suspect Steve
Ballmer might be dancing on it.

-dsr-

-- 
http://tao.merseine.nu/~dsr/eula.html is hereby incorporated by reference.
You can't defend freedom by getting rid of it.