MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Amazon Kindle Store

davidrothman · 08-14-2008, 01:03 PM

Remember, the post was Bill McCoy's. As the guy running the TeleRead blog, let me sum up my own thoughts on the Kindle and the Kindle Store.

Several hundred thousand titles appear each year at the least. So, long term, the 150,000 or so Kindle titles are just a drop in the bucket whether you're thinking "best seller" or “Long Tail.” The Tower of eBabel has complicated life for publishers, and it's time for the Kindle to live up to earlier expectations and support the ePub standard through native rendering. That way, publishers would be more likely to do Kindle-readable electronic editions, not just help rival machines alone. One standard for all machines! See:

http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/08...-and-heres-why

As for our sustained campaign against eBabel and DRM--well, that's part of the TeleRead blog's mission as a serious voice on e-book issues. Those are the two big ones, and new angles emerge constantly. We offer news and analysis that you won't find elsewhere on the latest technology and important e-book-related products, but we try to do so without losing our soul. If ten years from now you want to be able to read the books you buy for your Kindle or other device, then it's time to care.

Maybe the MobileRead community needs to join with us in a serious way and mount a major campaign to get Amazon to adopt the ePub standard and have the Kindle render ePub natively. A focus on alternatives to traditional DRM would help as well. Amazon sells DRMless MP3s and should treat e-books the same. Not all publishers would go along, but many would from the start. And sooner or later the big boys would get religion. DRM is a threat to e-books as a serious, durable medium. Together, MobileRead and TeleRead independently persuaded Sony to give discounts to PRS-500 owners who couldn't upgrade. Coordinated efforts on the DRM/eBabel issue would help as well since we're the major voices out there.

Finally—a little detail. TeleRead is a major reason why ePub exists in the first place. We were lobbying Sony years ago for e-book standards. The site’s support of OpenReader forced the IDPF to get serious about standards at the consumer level and come out with ePub, which Sony then adopted. Now I’d like to see if we can eventually banish DRM from the retail scene and meanwhile get the IDPF to do a logo for nonencrypted ePub. Consumers needs to speak up rather than just do the fan-boy/fan-girl act and let Amazon walk all over them.

Happy e-bookin’,
David | 703-370-6540
drNOSPAMteleread.org
http://www.teleread.org/blog

08-14-2008, 01:03 PM	#16
davidrothman Connoisseur Posts: 60 Karma: 32 Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Alexandria, VA Device: Paperwhite, $50 Fire, iPad Air 2, Nexus 6, Kobo Aura H2O	ePub, the Kindle and TeleRead: Time for MobileReaders to care about standards and DRM Remember, the post was Bill McCoy's. As the guy running the TeleRead blog, let me sum up my own thoughts on the Kindle and the Kindle Store. Several hundred thousand titles appear each year at the least. So, long term, the 150,000 or so Kindle titles are just a drop in the bucket whether you're thinking "best seller" or “Long Tail.” The Tower of eBabel has complicated life for publishers, and it's time for the Kindle to live up to earlier expectations and support the ePub standard through native rendering. That way, publishers would be more likely to do Kindle-readable electronic editions, not just help rival machines alone. One standard for all machines! See: http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/08...-and-heres-why As for our sustained campaign against eBabel and DRM--well, that's part of the TeleRead blog's mission as a serious voice on e-book issues. Those are the two big ones, and new angles emerge constantly. We offer news and analysis that you won't find elsewhere on the latest technology and important e-book-related products, but we try to do so without losing our soul. If ten years from now you want to be able to read the books you buy for your Kindle or other device, then it's time to care. Maybe the MobileRead community needs to join with us in a serious way and mount a major campaign to get Amazon to adopt the ePub standard and have the Kindle render ePub natively. A focus on alternatives to traditional DRM would help as well. Amazon sells DRMless MP3s and should treat e-books the same. Not all publishers would go along, but many would from the start. And sooner or later the big boys would get religion. DRM is a threat to e-books as a serious, durable medium. Together, MobileRead and TeleRead independently persuaded Sony to give discounts to PRS-500 owners who couldn't upgrade. Coordinated efforts on the DRM/eBabel issue would help as well since we're the major voices out there. Finally—a little detail. TeleRead is a major reason why ePub exists in the first place. We were lobbying Sony years ago for e-book standards. The site’s support of OpenReader forced the IDPF to get serious about standards at the consumer level and come out with ePub, which Sony then adopted. Now I’d like to see if we can eventually banish DRM from the retail scene and meanwhile get the IDPF to do a logo for nonencrypted ePub. Consumers needs to speak up rather than just do the fan-boy/fan-girl act and let Amazon walk all over them. Happy e-bookin’, David \| 703-370-6540 drNOSPAMteleread.org http://www.teleread.org/blog