Google to sell e-books that you cannot download

Alexander Turcic · 03-13-2006, 02:19 PM

According to Wall Street Journal, Google plans to let consumers buy the full text of books online from U.S. and U.K. publishers who participate in its Book Search program. The crux of the story: Although you purchase the right to view the books online through your browser, you will not be able to copy the viewed page nor to download them on your computer.

Obviously dedicated e-book readers and those who are not constantly connected through some broadband Internet connection will be left out. It also remains to be seen for how long you'll have access to the online material. Will it be subscription-based? Will you have to renew your "license" to view previously purchased content from time to time? How will Google control who has the right to view the content and who doesn't? Will they introduce some new draconian DRM that binds their reader to your personal computer?

rlauzon · 03-13-2006, 06:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander

Although you purchase the right to view the books online through your browser, you will not be able to copy the viewed page nor to download them on your computer.

So what value does the service have? For such a service I would be willing to pay.... $0.

When
1. We have WiFi (or whatever the incarnation is at that time) everywhere.
2. We have fuel cells for our tablet PCs (running a secure OS, of course) that last for weeks before needing to be refueled.
Then this Google "service" will have some value.

Jees. O'Reilly has an eBook service that works and makes them money. Why can't companies just emulate that?

Chaos · 03-13-2006, 09:07 PM

I say we wait and see just how long it is before someone figures a way to grab the ebooks to an offline file format, and then decide if it's worth it.

Barring such... unofficial methods, then yes - this seems worthless.

TadW · 03-14-2006, 04:30 AM

Isn't it obvious? Google's strategy is to do *everything* online. As long as they force their users and customers to stay online, they have full control over what you do and what you see. You are part of the Google borg. Textads everywhere you look and nifty ajax features that make your underlying OS superfluous.

Chaos · 03-14-2006, 04:46 AM

And Google will not only have control over what you do, but know exactly what you do as well...

And that's the reason I don't like Google. I still do use them a bit, but not for anything really important.

03-13-2006, 02:19 PM	#1
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 12,730 Karma: 71589 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Sony Portable Reader	Google to sell e-books that you cannot download According to Wall Street Journal, Google plans to let consumers buy the full text of books online from U.S. and U.K. publishers who participate in its Book Search program. The crux of the story: Although you purchase the right to view the books online through your browser, you will not be able to copy the viewed page nor to download them on your computer. Obviously dedicated e-book readers and those who are not constantly connected through some broadband Internet connection will be left out. It also remains to be seen for how long you'll have access to the online material. Will it be subscription-based? Will you have to renew your "license" to view previously purchased content from time to time? How will Google control who has the right to view the content and who doesn't? Will they introduce some new draconian DRM that binds their reader to your personal computer?

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03-13-2006, 09:07 PM	#3
Chaos Evangelist Posts: 418 Karma: 281 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada Device: Assorted older devices	I say we wait and see just how long it is before someone figures a way to grab the ebooks to an offline file format, and then decide if it's worth it. Barring such... unofficial methods, then yes - this seems worthless.

03-14-2006, 04:30 AM	#4
TadW Uebermensch Posts: 2,476 Karma: 8172 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Italy Device: Kindle	Isn't it obvious? Google's strategy is to do everything online. As long as they force their users and customers to stay online, they have full control over what you do and what you see. You are part of the Google borg. Textads everywhere you look and nifty ajax features that make your underlying OS superfluous.

03-14-2006, 04:46 AM	#5
Chaos Evangelist Posts: 418 Karma: 281 Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Canada Device: Assorted older devices	And Google will not only have control over what you do, but know exactly what you do as well... And that's the reason I don't like Google. I still do use them a bit, but not for anything really important.