Quote:
Originally Posted by MerLock
I think ebooks have a long way to go in terms of reaching mass appeal. Not only because of the restrictive DRM but because there isn't a common format.
|
I agree with you. A side effect of a single "standard" format would be that all devices would be inter-compatible, and the vast majority of DRM concerns would vanish. If I could save my Kindle, Sony, Mobi, etc. files on DVDs or whatever and be assured that they would still be readable by a reading device that won't even be
designed until ten years from now, then I'd care a good deal less if they were DRMed out the wazoo.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stxopher
Maybe one of the reasons Baen books do so well in the e-format is because the people reading them aren't so much bound by honorable actions and such but instead are bound by the sociological ties of feeling part of a group.
|
That's a good point, stxopher. To some extent, it's just another facet of the same point, in fact.
Consider for a moment: what meaning to duty, honor, etc. have outside of a sociological group? Honor to a large extent is defined, or at least
refined by the views of a group. To whom is Duty owed but to the group to which one feels the sense of it? The thing is that Duty, Honor, and Doing The Right Thing aren't really remarkable concepts until the group begins to stop observing them. The difference is that the person who answers Duty's call, feels the promptings of Honor and seeks to Do The Right Thing, recognizes that he is part of a larger society than just those people he happens to actually
know.
That being said, and recognizing your point that Baen has made remarkable strides to make its customers feel as though Baen is "their" publisher (in the sense that they feel like they're part of what it does), I don't know if the anonymity/lack thereof is really a factor here. It would be very interesting to know how many of the folks who buy Baen's e-books actually participate in the Baen's Bar.
