Quote:
Originally Posted by spindlegirl
That's the only letdown I feel with e-books, and is why I insist on only buying the cheapest books possible, or reading mostly public domain literature.
I can use my cd's and dvds, and paper books, because they are self-contained, and EASY to pass from one person to another without a third party nosing in on my business, telling me who can and can't touch stuff that I personally paid for.
I have DVDs sitting on my shelf that I own, that I must have allowed dozens of people to use and likewise they have let me watch some of theirs. No problem, not illegal, no copies were made, I just let someone use my physical thing.
With e-books a person can't generally do that - it's currently a grey area, because hitting "send" means a copy gets made (if I email a book for instance) and I've broken copyright, even if I do end up deleting all traces of my original.
It's the nature of the beast. But the fact that I insist on my books be DRM free (at the store) and inexpensive is a tradeoff for the restrictions that come with it. I'll still give away my printed books (and still do).
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I agree, the price of e-books is in many cases a complete rip-off. There is no printing involved, it costs practically nothing to download, and often don't require a literary agent either. Cost of proof-reading is usually borne by the publisher - which in many cases for e-books - is the author.
When there is a paper book as well, the e-book is often around the same price as the paper book (sometimes even dearer).
For most paper-back equivalents I would be unhappy to pay more than £2.00 for an e-book (around $3.00), and would hope it would be less.