Quote:
Originally Posted by Sregener
First, we lose the idea that we own a book. When you "buy" an eBook, you are technically purchasing a lease,....
Second, we lose the privacy we had with a book. The stores that sell us the books are tracking our usage,...
Third, we lose the permanence of a book. Yes, books burn, become dog-eared, yellow, etc. ...
Fourth, we lose the sharing of books. Anyone who loves books knows how special it is to be handed a book with a recommendation. Now, we send them a link and they have to buy their own copy, ....
We're losing the experience of the bookstore. ...
Finally, I think we lose the specialness of a printed book. eBooks are just another content delivery system, ....
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Thanks for your detailed response. My comments:
1. I absolutely OWN the ebooks I purchase. I strip drm and reformat and copy them as I want for personal use. I hope/expect we will eventually lose the stupid drm but that remains for the future. Not a loss.
2. Stores and companies are tracking everything you do and by and browse and surf. Just because it's an ebook makes no difference. No change
3. We gain permanence in that backing up copying and format shifting is much easier than with paper. This is not a loss.
4. Sharing is built in to many ebook systems and libraries make borrowing books even easier than before, things like Amazon Kindle Lending Library are amazing -- much more so than your local paper book public library.
Paper is really only a limited purpose content delivery mechanism as well. Before paper and mass printing we had messengers and wandering minstrels.
Again thanks