What would make Kobo surpass Kindle?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

No I do. I had watched all the Hobbit films Blu ray on my 55" 4k tv a few weeks back and decided I hadn't seen the lotr in awhile and pulled out my old DVD copies. They looked like absolute crap. So I checked on the matter and DVDs do indeed look inferior on a 4k tv. I don't have a PlayStation so cannot check to see if they play better through that.

Hence why I said hit up your nearest pawn shop for a Playstation. Friday would be a good day to go there. I know the big one is having a good sale Friday.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

Yeah I get that. But why are people worried if a novel they bought on an ereader....will still be available to them 20 years later???
[...]
I like to read novels. Pretty much once I am done with it I don't re-read. If I get a hankering to reread it one day and if I don't have a copy I will re-buy it. But I could only think of maybe at most a dozen books right now that I would maybe do that.

That's about the most functionally illiterate thing I've ever seen.

I'm still re-reading my dad's books that he bought when he was a teenager.
Half of them are now out of print, but still great books.

You CANT rebuy books forever. (Although maybe that's changing with ebooks.)

[darryl]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I agree with you in general, but since ePub is an open source format, I'm not so worried about it becoming obsolete. Any reader worth its salt will continue to support the format.

Your implication, intended or unintended, is that the Kindle is not a reader worth its salt since it does not support epub now so cannot "continue" to support it in some hypothetical future.

Open source formats are very desirable. However, any advantage in this case is purely theoretical and perhaps also ideological. At least so far as obsolescence and continued support is concerned:

1. DRM takes away any advantage of epub being open source.
2. The reverse engineering of Amazon formats and the availability of non-Amazon software to read them mitigate the disadvantages of them not being open source.
3. DRM removal options are at least at the moment available for all of the relevant formats.

Also, as at least one other poster said, the odds of Amazon still being around in 20 or 30 years time is much better than B&N or Rakuten.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by darryl

Your implication, intended or unintended, is that the Kindle is not a reader worth its salt since it does not support epub now so cannot "continue" to support it in some hypothetical future.

Open source formats are very desirable. However, any advantage in this case is purely theoretical and perhaps also ideological. At least so far as obsolescence and continued support is concerned:

1. DRM takes away any advantage of epub being open source.
2. The reverse engineering of Amazon formats and the availability of non-Amazon software to read them mitigate the disadvantages of them not being open source.
3. DRM removal options are at least at the moment available for all of the relevant formats.

Also, as at least one other poster said, the odds of Amazon still being around in 20 or 30 years time is much better than B&N or Rakuten.

My point was in this hypothetical future where Amazon, B&N and Rakutan have all bitten the dust, devices/apps that can read ePub content will still be around as it does not require impossible to obtain licensing held by a now defunct corporation.

Also, please remember, we are only talking about the feasibility of e-books we own now still being accessible in an imaginary twenty years where those corporations have gone bye-bye. All of my books are DRM free ePub, so they will still be readable.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by compurandom

That's about the most functionally illiterate thing I've ever seen.

I'm still re-reading my dad's books that he bought when he was a teenager.
Half of them are now out of print, but still great books.

You CANT rebuy books forever. (Although maybe that's changing with ebooks.)

I understand that. But I still think it's incredibly silly to be worried about ones ebooks 20-30 years down the road. Most of us probably won't be here in 20 or 30 years. If one is really worried about it.......buy the ones you wouldn't want to lose in print. It's that simple.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

My point was in this hypothetical future where Amazon, B&N and Rakutan have all bitten the dust, devices/apps that can read ePub content will still be around as it does not require impossible to obtain licensing held by a now defunct corporation.

Also, please remember, we are only talking about the feasibility of e-books we own now still being accessible in an imaginary twenty years where those corporations have gone bye-bye. All of my books are DRM free ePub, so they will still be readable.

But of course there are applications, including open source applications, which read and convert Amazon formats now and do not have a licence from Amazon. Even assuming new applications are necessary in the future and require licences, if there is no one around entitled to grant a licence there will be no one around entitled to sue. It is difficult to imagine future circumstances where epub is accessible but Amazon formats are not.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by darryl

...if there is no one around entitled to grant a licence there will be no one around entitled to sue...

If only that were true. But as orphan works (and the town of Marshall, Texas) show, there is always someone around to sue

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

If only that were true. But as orphan works (and the town of Marshall, Texas) show, there is always someone around to sue

They were using Marshall because it was a faster way to get their case heard. Interesting article, whoever gives the town the most gifts wins the case.
Besides Marshall judges had the time.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

I understand that. But I still think it's incredibly silly to be worried about ones ebooks 20-30 years down the road. Most of us probably won't be here in 20 or 30 years. If one is really worried about it.......buy the ones you wouldn't want to lose in print. It's that simple.

You really seem to be projecting your personal preferences. I would think most of us will be here in 20 to 30 years, and I personally prefer digital to paper for archive purposes. And I do hope to reread some of my ebooks in the future (without having to repurchase). I'm not particularly "worried", but I do look forward to it (living and being able to read).

YMMV.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

I understand that. But I still think it's incredibly silly to be worried about ones ebooks 20-30 years down the road. Most of us probably won't be here in 20 or 30 years. If one is really worried about it.......buy the ones you wouldn't want to lose in print. It's that simple.

Are you a youngster, an oldster or an in-betweener.
I hope I am still here in 20 years, but I have never particularly worried about how long a possession will last.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Are you a youngster, an oldster or an in-betweener.
I hope I am still here in 20 years, but I have never particularly worried about how long a possession will last.

In my 40's.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by John F

You really seem to be projecting your personal preferences. I would think most of us will be here in 20 to 30 years, and I personally prefer digital to paper for archive purposes. And I do hope to reread some of my ebooks in the future (without having to repurchase). I'm not particularly "worried", but I do look forward to it (living and being able to read).

YMMV.

Just being a realist about the whole thing. I just think some people get overly worried for no reason.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

In my 40's.

I thought you were under the half century mark.

[k9reeder]

The older one gets the shorter 20 years becomes -- as in: Hey, I got socks older than that! Well, okay, maybe not socks, but my Jeep Wrangler is a '97.

Anyway, I'll only invest in an ebook that I know I can make survive its current ecosystem.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

If only that were true. But as orphan works (and the town of Marshall, Texas) show, there is always someone around to sue

Fair point to an extent. But if a company the size of Amazon was to cease to exist, there will be no ambiguity about what happens to its patents. And, of course, as per my earlier post, there is current open source software which converts and reads those formats without a licence from Amazon. Are they violating Amazon's intellectual property rights and Amazon is doing nothing? Or is it that an application which reads and converts the formats does not require any license?

And, of course, so far as a patent is concerned, patent terms are usually no more than 20 years from the filing date, often less.