Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
If so... why is it that the ebook industry seems to be the only one in the world that hasn't managed to deal with these "mismatching worldviews" enough to create viable commerce and regulation? Why can I buy products from China, a country with about as different a "worldview" as the U.S., with no issues whatsoever? Are ebooks really that unique, like no other product in the world?
I don't think so. I think most of these "mismatching worldviews" are flimsy excuses for both sides' refusal to bend. Producers want to maintain existing (print-based) profits; consumers want ebooks for nothing; no one is willing to accept the middle ground.
Even better, I've tried to stand in the middle ground and coax others in the same direction. And I've generally been attacked and criticized for my trouble.
How is this industry ever going to work if both sides won't bend a bit for the other? As it is now, I'm just waiting to see one side or the other break... and that'll be it. No more ebook industry. I know no one wants that. But no one wanted metal detectors at airports, either.
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Digital products
are different. Look at Hollywood and the Music industry. Have they not had major problems (particularly the music industry)?
All digital products have their creation costs front-loaded; the (re)production cost of the next unit of the same e-books approached zero. In this sort of world, which is not the way making a Chinese e-book reader costs to make, the pressure is for a low price. Not necessarily free, but a low price. Some e-book producers (such as Baen and Harlequin) grasp this, but the majority of the big ones refuse to accept it. <shrug>
And the e-product is often shoddy. Worse, once a shoddy product is released, unless it's a current big name, it doesn't get fixed.
A high price for a shoddy product spells "D E T R O I T" to most consumers, with the same resuilts...
Moral high ground? I
wish the big 6 publisher had taken the high ground. But they're 4 square around extending copyrights through bribing Congressidiots. They and the authors made a contract when they published the works in the first place, honor the <blank blank> contract! They steal from the public just as much as they claim the public steals from them...no moral high ground there...
Shoddy product, high prices, obnoxious DRM, unilateral copyright extensions...
This is finding a middle ground?
Steve, I don't blame you or attack you on this. My bile, and most others is towards the big 6 publishers. And
they don't care about their customers...