Quote:
Originally Posted by Over
I think the most correct analogy would be: it's like pBooks. You buy a mass market paperback and you will alway have to read in that format. You can't change the size and format of the pbook.
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I can, however, photocopy sections of it to study or memorize. I can scan it and OCR the scans, and perform readings from it for my friends & family. I can give away--or sell--the pbook when I'm done with it. All legally.
Removing those abilities from ebooks makes them a very different kind of purchase (and it is "purchase," not "lease of some usage rights," despite what some publishers claim), and means DRM is limiting my rights to use my property.
Which means ebooks lack some serious value that pbooks have. Used pbooks are the foundation of a huge industry that doesn't exist for ebooks. (Several industries, if libraries & bookstores are considered different in type.) The entire publishing industry was built on the premise of more than one reader for the average book, and trying to market "books" outside of that premise is, in the long run, doomed to fail.
DRM'd ebooks don't allow the social aspects that created bibliophiles in the first place; they turn books into a lonely, selfish hobby where the buyer becomes an end-user only instead of a link in a chain. They change the relationship of a fan from "sharer" to "shill"--I think you'd like this, so go buy it yourself.
Consider how many books you've read in your life.
Consider how many you paid for, full-price off the shelf.
Consider the first five hundred books you read.
Consider how many of those you paid for, full-price off the shelf.
The publishing industries are doing their damnedest to kill ebooks by preventing them from being treated like books. They want them treated like text-movies: something where the average person pays half to three hours' wages for a few hours' entertainment. Ephemeral & disposable, non-transferable. Only available to those with enough money and specific other resources. (A Windows computer, for example.)
The current mainstream publisher ebook model treats them like underwear--you get the ones that fit YOU, and nobody else will ever use that one even if they buy the same kind, and if they don't have your size in the color you want, tough. They are not treated like repositories of modern culture, which need to be shared and swapped and can be cherished by many people before being worn out.
Ebooks are *not* "just like pbooks; you only get one." Pbooks are transferable. Removing that option changes it drastically.