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CommanderROR · 09-05-2006, 07:14 AM

So here we go about the DRM issue again...
The way I see it, the books offered on p2p networks and on irc aren't actually ripped ebooks, at least not the majority. Most of them are scanned and often even proofread. So if the big guys out there would open their eyes, they could see that paper is no guard against piracy.
the trouble is that the big companies will probably never understand that. They want to make their books DRM books.
OK, fine...I'll take the books, DRM and all.
But I'll expect them to be cheaper, a LOT cheaper than regular paper-books.

This is due to 2 factors:
Nr. 1 is of course that I paid a lot of money for a reading device...
Nr.2 is even more important: the books actually are cheaper to "produce" and to distribute. And having books in "non-physical form" (not on special DRM SD cards or something) won't prevent bookstores from making a profit.

On the contrary!
Today, a bookstore can only provide a very small selection of books due to the simple fact that books take up a lot of space (another reason why I bought the iliad...). With ebooks, all they need is a computer terminal, or a couple of terminals where people can browse through the book-collection and read excerpts. Then the cutomer decides which book he'd like, hands over the money and gets his book directly to the memory-card (card reader/writer devices are soooo cheap these days...) of his ebook device.

The only trouble: With different screen-sizes, different device capabilities and of course different reader software with different DRM support, you'd have to have every book available in lots of configurations. That is where things really fall apart. You either get the itunes/ipod thing which is limited to a very specific range of devices, or you get the mp3/all devices thing that is very nice and compatible, but just isn't anywhere close to being secure from piracy, and making "sharing" too easy is not a good idea either.
So, what we need is a "standard" for devices, something they all have in common, maybe a unique identifier number and a generic, multi-platform reader software. If we can get that, then all we have to worry about is screen-size. This i something of an unsolveable riddle, since the text can be easily reflowed to fit any screen, but some books just won't "work" if that happens. Things like illustrations, footnotes, "word-pictures" could be lost in this process and that could in some cases destroy the advantages of ebooks...I'm a bit out of ideas when it comes to this issue...but maybe something could be done there as well...

Now...to get back to the topic of price-drops...I think it'll be a while before any of the devices now available or in development get cheap. Only if the whole chain starts coming together and the market share of ebooks starts to grow (which it will only do if certain problems like those mentioned above are removed) will anyting happen at all. Until then, we, the early adopters and beta-testers will have to do whatever we can to drive the companies lie iRex, Jinke, Sony and others in the right direction.

09-05-2006, 07:14 AM	#34
CommanderROR eink fanatic Posts: 2,022 Karma: 4924 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Germany Device: STAReBOOK, iRex Iliad, Sony 505, Kindle 2	So here we go about the DRM issue again... The way I see it, the books offered on p2p networks and on irc aren't actually ripped ebooks, at least not the majority. Most of them are scanned and often even proofread. So if the big guys out there would open their eyes, they could see that paper is no guard against piracy. the trouble is that the big companies will probably never understand that. They want to make their books DRM books. OK, fine...I'll take the books, DRM and all. But I'll expect them to be cheaper, a LOT cheaper than regular paper-books. This is due to 2 factors: Nr. 1 is of course that I paid a lot of money for a reading device... Nr.2 is even more important: the books actually are cheaper to "produce" and to distribute. And having books in "non-physical form" (not on special DRM SD cards or something) won't prevent bookstores from making a profit. On the contrary! Today, a bookstore can only provide a very small selection of books due to the simple fact that books take up a lot of space (another reason why I bought the iliad...). With ebooks, all they need is a computer terminal, or a couple of terminals where people can browse through the book-collection and read excerpts. Then the cutomer decides which book he'd like, hands over the money and gets his book directly to the memory-card (card reader/writer devices are soooo cheap these days...) of his ebook device. The only trouble: With different screen-sizes, different device capabilities and of course different reader software with different DRM support, you'd have to have every book available in lots of configurations. That is where things really fall apart. You either get the itunes/ipod thing which is limited to a very specific range of devices, or you get the mp3/all devices thing that is very nice and compatible, but just isn't anywhere close to being secure from piracy, and making "sharing" too easy is not a good idea either. So, what we need is a "standard" for devices, something they all have in common, maybe a unique identifier number and a generic, multi-platform reader software. If we can get that, then all we have to worry about is screen-size. This i something of an unsolveable riddle, since the text can be easily reflowed to fit any screen, but some books just won't "work" if that happens. Things like illustrations, footnotes, "word-pictures" could be lost in this process and that could in some cases destroy the advantages of ebooks...I'm a bit out of ideas when it comes to this issue...but maybe something could be done there as well... Now...to get back to the topic of price-drops...I think it'll be a while before any of the devices now available or in development get cheap. Only if the whole chain starts coming together and the market share of ebooks starts to grow (which it will only do if certain problems like those mentioned above are removed) will anyting happen at all. Until then, we, the early adopters and beta-testers will have to do whatever we can to drive the companies lie iRex, Jinke, Sony and others in the right direction.