Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I see a number of potentially serious issues with this:
1. A used ebook market would destroy the "new" market, because there's no degradation of digital products, unlike physical ones. Many people would prefer to buy new paperbooks to used; there would be no reason to prefer a new ebook to a used one: the two would be indistinguishable.
2. How could it be ensured that the seller had deleted the book? What would be to stop someone buying an ebook, selling it, but keeping a copy for themselves?
3. DRM. DRM is not transferable. There's no mechanism for transferring either an ePub or a Kindle book from one owner to another.
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Let me take your points in reverse order.
3. No. The only thing keeping you from reselling a DRMed Kindle ebook is the lack of a transfer mechanism. There is no technical reason why Amazon couldn't build it if they wanted. Also, ebooks that use digital watermark DRM can be readily resold.
FYI: The site only lets you resell DRM-free Epubs or Epubs with digital watermarks. I've been writing about it since it launched:
2. Yes, that is a problem. I think this could be the point which sinks Tom Kabinet.
1. This is true but I don't see how it is necessarily bad that digital content doesn't decay. I see that as a benefit, and the effect it has on existing business models is not unexpected.