So you have a ebook device. When will you upgrade?

[rlauzon]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Not so. You are buying the medium (the file) and a licence to run it on your specific device. Computer software works the same way.

It's not too far removed from buying a paper book. You are buying the sheets of paper, but not the "ownership" of the contents. You can't go out and re-publish that content and sell it for yourself. Generally speaking, you have no rights at all over that content.

Wrong. When I purchase a pBook, I have a certain set of rights relating to the physical book. I can do anything I want to with that pBook - up to making a copy of it.

With DRM, if I get an eBook, I have no rights.

That's why DRM means "Digital Restriction Management."

[rlauzon]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about DRM .

Generally with a paperback book, I'll buy it, read it, and then toss it away. Very few books are "keepers" for me. If I buy a DRM'ed book, I'm not going to lose too much sleep over whether or not I'll be able to read it in 10 years time - I almost certainly won't want to.

I buy it, read it, then sell it to the used book store. I used to get many books at the used book store.

DRM prohibits this with eBooks. Which wouldn't be too bad - if eBooks with DRM were priced correctly (like $1) instead of at hardcover prices.

[JSWolf]

The pricing of ebooks has to do with the price of the current paper edition. So if the ebook is alsoin hardcover it will cost more. If it's in paperback, it will cost less. That's how they price ebooks. But, I would have bought a few ebooks that are in hardback if they priced them like they were in paperback while still in hardback.

[rlauzon]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The pricing of ebooks has to do with the price of the current paper edition.

Of which over 80% (according to the documentation I've seen from publishers) represents the costs of having to deal with physical object.

Those costs do not exist with eBooks and should not be part of the eBook cost.

[NatCh]

I'm sure that some of that 80% will still be needed to deal with the e-version (servers, bandwidth, electricity), but surely not all that much of it -- your point is still well taken, rluazon.

[JSWolf]

If a book is available in hardcover, I probably will not purchase it for myself. I'll either wait until the library has it or I'll wait until it is in paperback.

Now the ebook edition is going to be priced too expensive. The paperback most likely will be $7.99. If that's the case, while the hardcover is out, pricing the ebook at $6.99 with whatever discounts the various vendors give would be fine by me. It means I might actually purchase it. Whereas if I do get it from the library, the publisher makes nothing as I have not purchased the book. So keeping the prices high (IMHO) loses more sales of ebooks then they get.

[NatCh]

I think that the pubs/authors actually do get some compensation from library borrowings, but I'm not certain of the details.

[athlonkmf]

Originally Posted by rlauzon

Of which over 80% (according to the documentation I've seen from publishers) represents the costs of having to deal with physical object.

Those costs do not exist with eBooks and should not be part of the eBook cost.

according to what I've read in several newspapers concerning costs of schoolbooks, 50%-75% is actually pure profit for the author, distributor, etc.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by athlonkmf

according to what I've read in several newspapers concerning costs of schoolbooks, 50%-75% is actually pure profit for the author, distributor, etc.

Publisher & and distributer I'd believe, but I'm a bit skeptical that the author gets all that much on a per book basis .... Then again, textbooks are a different animal, since the potential authors are a fairly select group of people, so maybe that's closer to right than I think it is.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by NatCh

I think that the pubs/authors actually do get some compensation from library borrowings, but I'm not certain of the details.

Not in the US. Some countries (Canada, UK) have a scheme for this. But unless you are a huge best-seller, it works out to be peanuts (or less).

[NatCh]

Ah, I see. Thanks Xenophon!

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by NatCh

Publisher & and distributer I'd believe, but I'm a bit skeptical that the author gets all that much on a per book basis .... Then again, textbooks are a different animal, since the potential authors are a fairly select group of people, so maybe that's closer to right than I think it is.

Textbook authors get next to nothing, at least for college textbooks. Grade school textbooks are usually written by committee anyway. The publisher makes pretty good money, I think. (And the textbooks are pretty lousy, if the ones my kids have are a reasonable sample.)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rlauzon

The correct term is "license". When you pay money for an eBook, you are not purchasing the eBook. You are purchasing a license (a very limited license) to use the eBook.

And exactly the same is true when you "buy" a paper book too .

[yvanleterrible]

If the company that licenses you a book goes belly-up and no one buys the license for service, what happens to these books as the devices storing them fail?

[igorsk]

It already happened once. See Embiid.