Quote:
Originally Posted by crossi
Why not once you get rid of DRM? After all I can buy mp3 downloads from Amazon or even Apple and play them on any mp3 player? Why NOT books?
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Because the traditional publishers aren't yet as desperate as the music studios.
Because the emergence of the walled gardens has minimized the napsterization of ebooks.
Because book buyers have different demographics and usage habits than music listeners.
Because a hoard of tens of thousands of songs is a few weeks' listening and a comparable hoard of books is more than anybody not named Lazarus Long can aspire to read.
Basically, the BPHs don't have to.
Indie publishers, however, tend to go DRM free because they value reader goodwill.
There are lessons to learn from the media markets but the parallels don't go all the way. There are differences and the differences matter.