Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Not in the slightest, IMHO. Remember, book downloaders are criminals. .
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Maybe, maybe not. Here in the US, if you have bought the content in hardback form, you're allowed to have it in electronic form as well. So, if a person downloads that hardbook in an e-book format, well, that wouldn't appear to be iillegal. Because, he possesses the hardback book, and is allowed to possess the e-format book.
IMHO, publishers had better get on the ball in regards to e-books. A very small portion of the population buys books (the "average" person in the US reads 2 books per year according to statistics I have seen); if the publishers try to stick it to the people that BUY books, they are cutting their own potential profits. If they try to lock e-books to a particular format, like DRMd PDF's, all they are doing is encouraging piracy.
There will be indeed be innovation in regards to e-books, but it probably will come from the Far East. The publishers here are too greedy to make bold and innovative steps into areas like electronic textbooks, but they are not in China, where there is a big initiative to provide e-texts to students.