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Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
...sooner or later, technology will make it so easy for people to scan their own books and share digital copies, that the industry will have to provide their own e-books to prevent that increase in piracy and profit loss. We're getting really close with the new book-scanning HW reviewed on this site, and with better flatbed scanners at home. It's only a matter of time.
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Great point! I think that this is going to be a key incentive for publishers to be reasonable about their e-book pricing and DRM and so forth. It's unfortunate that it takes this, but I agree that people will be able to create their own scans pretty easily soon. In fact, I envision a $100 overhead scanning setup that uses a 10MP cameraphone in a cameraphone overhead stand, plus free software to manage the images, do OCR and format conversions, maybe even with a remote control shutter. If the cameraphone camera capability is good and fast (coming soon I'm sure), then everyone only needs the stand and software. It would only take a few minutes if pics were snapped rapid fire. It would only take the time to turn pages. Maybe 3 secs per 2 pages (i.e per picture). A 1000 page book would take 500x3secs = 25mins of labor plus OCR time!
Most importantly, if that becomes a widespread possibility, the publishers will be forced to cater to the customer. That could very well be a big impetus for a real DRM-free e-book market. And then if it's DRM, people will still be willing to buy e-books to avoid the hassle and to be legit with the payments.
Well, there's a whole lot of "if's" up there, but we can always hope!