Quote:
Originally Posted by sirbruce
Thirdly, in some cases there are books which simply aren't available in ebook form but are in other forms. Forms that I have already paid for. Thus, I am just "format-shifting" to ebook form, and I don't feel like I'm doing anything immoral. I think the rights to distribution have to have some limits.
|
I think this is where it becomes a "gray" area for me and comes down to two things, format and platform.
When it comes to audio/video I don't neccessarily have a problem with format shifting as long as you own it in another format. Say you have a cassette from the 80's. You physcially own it; you've listened to it so much that it's starting to wear out. You'd really like to have it on CD so you don't destroy it, and you'd like to have some of those songs on your MP3 player. You could connect the cassette player to your PC and use some software to record the tape to your hard drive and listen to the songs on your MP3 player, or if you're lazy like me, you hop on a P2P and try to find the song and download it. I rip CDs that I own to MP3 with no legal problems at all, but I also don't share them. Maybe I should for people like me, looking for an MP3 of a song they already have on cassette. Audio and video formats are readily and easily converted to another platform/format.
The main problem is with the platforms themselves. When you bought a cassette tape back in the 80's, it would play on ANY cassette player. When you buy an audio CD it works in any CD player...home stereo, computer, car...it doesn't matter. The platforms for those types of media are industry standard. As technology advanced, some companies saw that they can lock consumers into their brand by making the products non-compatible with any other devices so digital media gets released on specific platforms. Pbooks don't readily lend themselves to platform or format shifting, and I think that's the difference for me. Got an Xbox and a Playstation? You have to buy games for the platform you want to play the game on.
So now we have ebooks. There isn't a platform or format standard. So you have to buy ebooks that are formated for your specific platform, or you can break local laws by stripping the DRM to convert it into a format for your platform. Or, you can download pirated books.
I would like to see ebooks treated like audio or video formats. Actually, I'd like publishers to distribute ebooks on CDs that include multiple formats supoorted by a majority of platforms. Seriously, how much space does an ebook take up? You could easily put an ebook in every current format on a single CD. Publishers could even offer multiple editions of a book on the same disc/s. Can you imagine getting ebooks when you buy an audio book, or getting the audio format when you buy the ebook? Disney is already including a digital copy and regular DVD copy when you buy one of their Blu-Ray movies. Disney is starting to get it. We have multiple platforms and don't want to buy indvidual formats for each platform, so they offer us format/platform choices with a single purchase. It's called added value.
Want the latest book by your favorite author? No problem, buy the CD it doesn't matter if you have a Kindle, Sony, or iPhone every major format is included on a single disc. Say you decide you really don't like your Sony reader, so you get rid of it and buy a Kindle (if you're in the US). Did you have to buy those books all over again? Nope, the Kindle format is on the ebook CD you bought. The legality of stripping DRM from an ebook to convert it into another format to work on your platform would be a non-issue.