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Originally Posted by pwalker8
I think that you are mixing two very different legal issues with regards to the broadcast industry. The first issue is the thief of signal issue, i.e. getting decoders to receive satellite or cable signal you didn't pay for. This is no different than taping into a power line, or water main. That issue is a very different issue that recording something on your VCR and giving the tape to people, which is purely a copyright issue.
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Yes, two very different things... but in the case of e-books, both have analogies: The former can be compared to P2P and "darknet" activities; the latter compared to individually copying and disseminating e-books.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
My personal guess is that ebooks will more likely go in the direction of audio content (iTunes for music and audible.com for audio books), than it will in the direction of broadcast (radio and tv). Broadcast depends on advertising for it's review stream. Unless you think that advertising supported web sites will eventually offer ebooks for free, I'm not sure how ebooks fit in that mold.
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Yes: There's no reason e-books can't be sold in something more akin to the music market as represented by iTunes and Audible. But revenue-subsidized markets are also a possibility, and one that I want people to consider. There's no reason why Random House, for example, couldn't sell ads for revenue that would be embedded in e-books. Or an independent, like me, could receive direct income from a patron or sponsor and give my books away. For the same reason that TV works to get eyeballs onto the sponsor's ads, e-books could do the same. Just an idea.
I mainly brought the TV show concept up because of the differing opinions of what an e-book represents, as far as its being property, product, tangible object. Like music, books tend to be thought of in terms of their physical media... hardbacks, CDs, etc. But as MP3s and e-books are electronic data, they have a greater similarity to television programs and radio-cast music, and when considered as product or property, objects to obtain, theft, etc, they should be thought of in similar terms.
iTunes' efforts to tie MP3s to a particular PC or iPod is an attempt to tie the MP3 to a physical object, and therefore make it a part of the physical object by extention... or, at least, to remove its ephemeral "electronic" status. If the public is happy with the arrangement, that's fine and dandy. But if they insist on being able to shift music, or e-books, from device to device, and producers do not want files to be freely disseminated beyond the purchaser, the physical object model breaks down.
At that point, a broadcast model may well be superior for e-books, and as ad-revenue has proven to be highly effective with the broadcast model, it could be as effective with e-books.
By the way: I'd like to offer everyone who has been participating in this thread my sincere congratulations, for making this one of the most even-handed discussions of e-book copyright and piracy issues I've seen in quite some time!