Quote:
Originally Posted by transmitthis
"Added Value"?
Can you resell an ebook... like you can a physical, no so their value is greatly diminished.
Strictly speaking, they are selling you licences to read.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
Greatly diminished to whom? If you don't resell books (and most people don't), there's not much diminishment.
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The market value of your e-book, once you've purchased it, is zero. Even if your used paper books aren't worth a lot, at least they can be resold or simply re-used by others. This is a grievous aspect of e-books which some people here prefer to ignore or deny or become defensive over.
The inability to re-sell (or give away) your e-books will have an effect on new book prices, too. The re-sale market exerts downward pressure on book prices. As fewer paper books are purchased and as the secondary market continues to shrink, the prices of new books (incl. e-books) will increase further than they would have with a more robust secondary market.
A different claim of "added value" is that e-books "don't degrade" like physical books, implying that e-books have greater longevity. A hardcover book can last a hundred years or more, sitting on a shelf in a home. I fully expect that the e-books I buy today will be unusable 50 years from now because of changing devices and e-book formats. 100 years? Fuhgettaboutit. (Oh dear, I forgot about DRM. Who can read my e-books when I die?)
I've yet to see a persuasive argument that e-books "add value" beyond that of paper books. I like e-books. I chiefly read e-books. But I'm not blind to their downsides.