[notimp]

Two addendums to the darryl quote above.

Besides calling idealists scaremongerers (we are on the internet, so you shoot down idealism with the usual labels ("those unpaid freaks")) -

- promoting that everything has to be fine in the mid term future must be unbridled optimism, because from a realists point of view, the only thing that still stands between Amazon and total lockdown is "legacy device support" and whatever selfimposed made up ideological constructs get cycled between management, marketing and a public. I dont know - the self believe, that Amazon didnt just destroy the cultural landscape? The format is done, and distributed - the process is in place and it is self-energising (autodelivery to all current Kindles) - so lets talk scenarios, when .kfx has reached critical mass.

This is the mid term scenario. Is it not?


The outs for some positivists in here are, that Amazon might still allow access to legacy formated books through some obscure channels - but from my perspective, those dont count, because that in no way is compatible with the mainstream (25 easy steps to still get an eBook you'd "own") or even a culture that you would attribute to books in general.

Its a glorified hacker myth for people who want to ignore that Amazon entirely controls the viability of this approach as well. Managed counterculture at best.

Also - this doesnt solve the format exclusivity and production monopoly part of the equation. New books. Current books. Better books - with those features Amazon sells customers into their walled garden with, no one outside of Amazon will ever be allowed to create. From now on. In the new reality.

This is one of those lines I have to repeat multiple times, until they get universally recognized - because the discussion in here never took place. Blogs weren't selling those facts.

And if the current format is cracked, Amazon releases a patch a few days after.

We dont know the format. Its easy, we dont even need to know it. We have the old ones. So .kfx might be open one day, and closed again, the day after - because the format (congruence, stability, compatibility) doesnt mean anything anymore to anyone but Amazon. There is no stake in it - from any social peer group. When consumers and publishers hardly get to know fileformats anymore, they vanish.

As a hypothetical. What if the fileformat (container) is ever changing - compatibility ("for the new version to work you need at least, ...") gets dropped every third firmware release - but hey, there are new features!

Who really cares at that stage? Blogs will report format changes as security updates and no one in here will even find the need to talk about what this means for "books", because - its Amazons format, we dont need to know it, they can do with it what they want. Hey, the hyphenantion exclusive was celebrated instead. Thank you - Amazon.


So what is the difference between the two points of view in here?

One says - as long as the whole thing somewhat and somehow still works - we shouldnt bother too much.

The other says - if there is no silver lining on the future development of the ecosystem -- cry foul, make sure you rattle perceptions, and promote leaving the sinking ship. For the sake of OUR books (that goes for readers, publishers and writers), not Amazons.

Its the viable perspective that is missing.

We all know that many people wont even move as much as a finger as long as a system somehow is still workable.

*Buh!* That was me scaring you into action - by some other debaters account.