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Originally Posted by Bob Russell
I think the STAReBOOK price leverage was due to the fact that they offer free ebooks. I don't know how that's legal, but assuming they have some sort of legal way to do it, and they can keep up the choices of English books, it might have a market. Plus even more of a market in China.
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Um... let's just say that "intellectual property" is a relatively unknown concept in China. As an example, I see a complete line of "Harry Potter" books on the isoshu site... and we all know Rowling/Bloomsbury/Scholastic has not authorized any ebooks.
I think it will be difficult or impossible for U.S. publishers to shut them down, though sales of the STAReBOOK reader could potentially be blocked in the U.S. As you say, the market might hold in China, where enforcement of copyright laws is a bit different than what we might expect in western countries. But justifying the price of the reader with the "free" books available for it is a very shaky argument indeed. One could say many of the same "free" books are equally available for any reader capable of accepting (or converting) txt and other files.