You are not the owner of Amazon Ebooks

[DiapDealer]

How many here have never resold a physical book, or record/8-track/cassette/cd, or a videotape/laserdisk/DVD (that they purchased new) in their life? I'm not defending/championing anything here, just asking a question.

*raises hand*

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

How many here have never resold a physical book, or record/8-track/cassette/cd, or a videotape/laserdisk/DVD (that they purchased new) in their life? I'm not defending/championing anything here, just asking a question.

*raises hand*

*raises hand*

[HarryT]

I certainly never consider "resale value" when buying a book. I buy books for entertainment, not as an investment, and hence the fact that ebooks can't be resold is totally irrelevant to me.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

*raises hand*

Ditto.
My home library is testimony to that.
I don't even give'em away. Any books I gift are new.

Fact is, for the vast majority of people the restrictions on digital media rarely register as annoyances. Those have been around for almost two decades; if there was going to be a mass rebellion it would have happened by now.
Best evidence is digital music: consumers never made enough stink about DRM or lockin for it to matter. It was only when Apple annoyed the studios that theh acted.

Most companies in digital media tend to go with what the market will bear and the market will bear a lot.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Or does it mean that Amazon can simply deny me access to all my books on my Kindle without giving a clear reason for it? Oh, hang on...

I keep copies of 1984 and Animal Farm on my Kindle just for such occasions

[SleepyBob]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

How many here have never resold a physical book, or record/8-track/cassette/cd, or a videotape/laserdisk/DVD (that they purchased new) in their life? I'm not defending/championing anything here, just asking a question.

*raises hand*

I don't know if I've resold one or not, but I've certainly bought used, and I have given them away.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by SleepyBob

I don't know if I've resold one or not, but I've certainly bought used, and I have given them away.

Same here.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

How many here have never resold a physical book, or record/8-track/cassette/cd, or a videotape/laserdisk/DVD (that they purchased new) in their life? I'm not defending/championing anything here, just asking a question.

US libraries sometimes sell off some of their used books.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

US libraries sometimes sell off some of their used books.

Well then, anyone here who happens to be a library is free to raise their hand.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Well then, anyone here who happens to be a library is free to raise their hand.

I've resold books. If a library can do it, I can do it.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm still the captain of my soul though, right? Just wanna check.

Nope. Read the T&C and you will see that it is licensed to you from God and He retains the rights to your soul. After you die it is returned to God.
Apache

[fjtorres]

Last month I ran into this bit of ebook pricing analysis by an author:

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/04/20...comment-186694

A year or two ago, I tried to work out what would be a competitive price for ebooks compared with paper books, all other factors being equal. Normally you can buy a second-hand paper book (if you can find it) for about half the cover price, and you can sell your old books to second-hand stores for a store credit worth about half of that. So 25 percent of the cover price represents resale value. Then I knocked off another chunk for the capital factor: To read ebooks, you need to invest in a special piece of equipment, whereas a paper book has its own reader built in. And without special software and permissions, you can’t lend the data off your reader to someone else’s reader: which takes another bit off the value.

My conclusion: If an ebook sells for more than two-thirds the price of the cheapest print edition, it’s probably overpriced.

(That being from Tom Simon of : http://bondwine.com/)

In other words, the fact that ebooks can't be resold is already baked into the price, if the price is reasonable. If it isn't, walk away.

As it turns out, there is no shortage of ebooks priced closer to 50% off their pbook competition. Which is why the bulk of the market puts up with current licensing terms.

Whether they bother to crunch the numbers or not, modern consumers have a good feel for value on their terms, which is why neither the publishers' pipe dream of higher prices nor the advocates dream of digital first sale rights gets much traction. The occasional price fix conspiracy aside, current ebook price ranges are broadly speaking fair.

[jscarbo]

I don't care about being able to lend, give away or re-sell my ebooks but I do care about being able to read them on the device of my choice, backing up my library so I don't run the risk of losing access if a format becomes obsolete, printing out recipes from my cookbooks, etc.

DRM imposes unreasonable and unnecessary restrictions on my ability to make fair use of my purchased ebooks, supposedly for the purpose of preventing piracy and illegal file sharing, which it actually does little or nothing to prevent.

So, what's the point? Do publishers know or care what happens to an ebook once they've sold it to a consumer provided it isn't illegally copied and distributed. I don't think so nor do I see any reason why they should.

I can certainly say in my own case that I'd buy far fewer ebooks if I couldn't buy DRM-free editions or get rid of the DRM on those books that have it.

[Froide]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

*raises hand*

+1 (I've given items away but have never resold them.)

[speakingtohe]

I've been reading 3-10 books a year for more than 50 years so I have bought, borrowed and traded quite a few.

When I could afford it I bought new, for both the convenience and the shiny newness

I assumed right or wrong that those producing the books were making money from them and never gave much thought to it until all of the eBook DRM controversy.

I think that most who can afford it buy eBooks for the convenience and those who cannot borrow from the library unless they are truly unfortunate enough not to have a way to do that.

Most of the people I know are unaware or unbothered by DRM and licensing restrictions. And the heavy readers among them know it would not be convenient to have every book they have read on their living room shelves.

Those who are starting to read now are lucky IMO that despite DRM and licensing there is a reasonable chance that they can keep the books they buy, reread them if they wish, lend them to close friends and family members (there are legal ways to do this for most eBooks I think) and not have them take up space or be packed up to move etc. Such a luxury.

Helen