Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
Google doesn't quite have the whole model yet. They still have to tweak the HTML 5.0 code so as to allow offline reading of an ebook without a continuous connection. They were already almost there with Google Gears, so they are clearly working on it.They ( or someone) will probably have the problem licked soon.
Once they do, I expect they will roll out a cloud subscription model pretty soon. (They may be planning to do it concurrently with their music subscription service, which most people expect later this year).
I think Amazon and Apple are likely to do something in this space too. I'm pretty sure that at least some publishers would be 100 percent behind them.
The issue is not whether the folks on MR will like this model . ( Apparently the MR gods have decreed that there is only one model that the publishers can offer -offer a downloadable, DRM free copy of an ebook without any effective precautions to prevent theft,or "unauthorized copying", as MRers euphemistically call it) 
What I see is publishers offering several different models. They might push the cloud subscription model hardest, since it affords authors and publishers the most protection, which is apparently anathema to the anti DRM true believers. The average customer will decide which model they like- much to the apprehension of the true believers, since they may prefer the "wrong" model.
If the cloud subscription model offers a smoother, better experience than the "download and possess" model, that's what will prevail. Netflix did this in movies and Rhapsody, etc has done it in music. It is entirely possible that SOMEONE can do this in ebooks. |
Stonetools, it's all about control (or the illusion of control). Many people at MR want to have something for the money they spend. Something that they can control. They accept the responsibility for backing up, it's their money at stake. The producers want exactly the same thing, control over all the copies of all the content, everywhere in existence.
The producers say it's because there is piracy (and there is) but the real reason is they want to control access to product, in order to create scarcity, which gives more economic value to their product. I'll use the DVD market for an example. It's fallen off a cliff. Piracy! Piracy! Is the cry. We have to stop piracy. Despite everything, I doubt it's piracy causing the drop of sales. What's causing the drop in sales are people who were building libraries, which couldn't exist before Home Video, becoming built out. If you have bought, say 2000 DVDs, (since the inception of DVD's in 1998), your entire list of movies you want to own may be filled. So you drop from being a steady $200 a month customer to a $200 a year customer (or a $20 a year customer). There goes the sales...And it's not due to piracy. The person who spent all that money over the years only did so because they would have something to use later in life. They wouldn't have spent it as rentals. (why do you think RedBox is so popular - a buck a shot instead of $20, but only for a while, and then NOTHING! - that movie is out of availability.)
And that is what the MR religion fanatics know in their bones. Sooner or later the availability will disappear, because it is competition for new product. With books, even with bad paper, the availability is over 50 years. E-books should be eternal. But they all compete for the publisher's dollar, and they don't like that. They want to make it go away.
I have no problem with rental as an option, but I suspect it will become the only model, because of the control it offers to products. No other reason. You can pirate the rental model just as easily as the download model, the tools are different, but just as hackable.
No, it's all about control...And more MR religious fanatics won't serve the producer control model. And that's the blunt fact. Ignore them if you wish, but they are the library builders/heavy purchasers for the e-book product. Offend them at your own economic peril....