[msoulier]

Having recently entered the world of digital books, I find myself comparing this world to the physical world that I am used to.

Usually, I have a large library full of books that my wife and I clean out every few months to save space. The books that we no longer want to go our local library. We also borrow heavily from the library and buy used books from the same.

Now, I recently bought my first ebook from Kobo. It's in Adobe DRM epub. Yuk. So now I need Adobe's permission to unlock my own property. Physical books let you open them whenever you like. You can even loan books to friends, and donate to the library.

Now, if Kobo goes belly up (heaven forbid) I will still have my property as long as my pc and kobo reader don't die. When they do, I hopefully have backups but likely I'll need a new kobo to read them with. What I can do with my own property is now severly limited.

This must not bother many people as ebooks are growing in popularity. Perhaps no one cares, but I care enough for it to give me pause. I'm enjoying the Kobo immensely, and I could just consider the cost of the book the cost of reading it, books as a service as it were, with no real ownership, but I find it difficult to ignore what I am giving up out of the physical world.

I'm interested in what others here think. It's obvious that the book business has changed drastically, and it will continue to change. DRM in books may be a temporary thing, as publishers struggle to incorrectly bring their physical paradigms into the digital world. I hope so, but it might not be temporary.

Thoughts?

I'll say this. I'm reading more. That's a good thing.