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Originally Posted by xdalaw
I don't know. I think the prices are pretty low for commercial books that I can't find for free.
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Well, let's pick a book from Simonsays: Cell by Stephen King. Normally priced at $15, on sale for $9.
Looking up the same book at Amazon.com, it's $17.80 - granted hard cover. Let's estimate half for softcover - $8.90.
So the price of Simonsays for an eBook is the same as the price for a paper book. The price of a non-transferrable, non-portable item is the same price as a transferrable, portable item.
This does not make sence no matter how you cut it.
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Originally Posted by xdalaw
And, with the ability to strip out the DRM for MSLit books and fair use, I'm not worried that I won't have them to read next year.
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But the tool that strips out the DRM is not legal under the DMCA and most people won't have access to it.
After I read a book, I make a decision: keep or not. Keep books I usually don't get around to re-reading for a couple years. Not keepers get food-chained or sold. DRM potentially blocks me from doing both for eBooks.
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Originally Posted by xdalaw
If you like their authors/books, and you can't find them free, why not save some money over paperbacks and actually enjoy the activity of reading if you like?
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I think you missed the point.
Selling eBooks for the same price as a paper book is inexcusable - for the simple reason that the cost of the eBook is far less than the cost of a paper book.
Selling eBooks that have DRM for same price as a paper book even worse - since the book is now only disposable (you can't food-chain it, you can't sell it, you can only throw it away if you don't want it anymore).
Simonsays is simply a clueless company. They are selling $1 items for $9. Well, that's not really clueless, but anyone who would pay $9 for a $1 item gets what they deserve.