INFOWORLD GRIPE LINE BY ED FOSTER Bookmark this page

  
Display: Sort:
E-Books and DRM | 53 comments (53 topical) | Post A Comment
A Long Wait[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#6)
by Anonymous User on Thu Feb 19, 2004 at 04:13:06 PM PDT

It's going to be awhile before this improves.  The key issues are (1) e-books aren't books and (2) most publishers simply don't understand the technology.  A book is both data and a display medium that can last for centuries.   Books are inexpensive and easy to read, but bulky, hard to store and hard to search.  E-books are data.  They are displayed on expensive devices that have a useful life of two to four years, with disk reformats/rebuilds perhaps yearly.  E-books aren't (yet) as easy to read as regular books, but they can, if allowed, be flexibly used: changed text size, text-to-speech, read on the home computer, PDA, or tablet pc as you wish, subject to sophisticated searching, etc.  But, even not counting DRM, they are usually stored in formats that themselves will likely be obsolete in a few years.   Clearly, people that buy "throw away" novels have no reason to bother with e-books today.  People with libraries might.

Expensive E-books with DRM and in multiple proprietary formats are virtually useless for any serious reader.  Aside from destroying any obvious advantage for e-books, imagine attempting to move a library of 50 books in different formats, different format versions with different compatibility issues with different DRM systems and rules varying by publisher every year.  And that's a small library.  It is lunacy.

Sadly, even many science fiction writers don't understand the technology.  It turns out that many of them don't "get" computers as much as you might think.  So don't expect people less familiar with the technology to do better.  

To be fair, there are some legitimate issues, and I have seen valid arguments that never would have occurred to anyone (like me) outside of their business.  On the other hand, it is getting so easy to make pirate copies, given the reluctance of publishers to even produce e-books at all, people who want e-books are starting to turn to that option as the only available choice.

[ Reply to This ]



Luddite SF Authors[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#8)
by Anonymous User on Fri Feb 20, 2004 at 10:42:38 AM PDT

Just a quick note -- my fellow Anonymite is quite right about how little understanding of computers there is among SF authors. I'm a member of SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. (Yes, there's only one F in the acronym, it's a long story.) SFWA members get a monthly mailing which is essentially a big letter column, discussing issues relevant to the group and to the SF/F writing community as a whole. And you should see the fear and hatred some authors have expressed in those letters for the entire concept of electronic media. I could understand the fantasy writers -- you'd expect them to be uncomfortable with anything beyond vellum and oak-gall ink. But the SF authors? The way some of them talk, they sound like they'd be willing to destroy every computer in existence in order to preserve the pittance they make off their paper sales. Can't they see the pattern? Every new technology like this starts with piracy and ends with profit, from the printing press (producing "unauthorized" Bibles) to the VCR (how evil, they're timeshifting TV shows!) to the computer. How can someone whose job is extrapolating the future from the past and present be so blind to the potential in front of them?

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


The answer to your question...[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#11)
by Anonymous User on Fri Feb 20, 2004 at 06:18:58 PM PDT

Greed. Pure and simple

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


Sorry, but that's just not true[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#13)
by Anonymous User on Mon Feb 23, 2004 at 12:21:25 AM PDT

No, that is flat wrong.  Most writers have other jobs, they don't make most of their money writing.  And there is a good argument that putting some older titles out free as "teasers" in e-format can often make them more money (see Baen).  But there are already lots of ways people read their books without them getting a dime, and they are worried that this is still another. Not all are against e-books, and I think the others would change their minds if they understood the actual situation.

(By the way, I wrote the top level comment in this thread.  I just HAVE to take the time to get an account here ...)

[ Parent | Reply to This ]



some authors have been flayed[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#29)
by Anonymous User on Tue Mar 23, 2004 at 07:38:32 AM PDT

by vicious publishers. Anything that smacks of theft is automatically, instantly, with no conscious thought seen as a repeat of that kind of thing. There are reasons why the screen writers guild has the rules it has. T

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


E-Books and DRM | 53 comments (53 topical) | Post A Comment
Display: Sort:

Menu
· create account
· faq
· search

Login
Make a new account
Username:
Password:

 HOME  NEWS  COLUMNS  BLOGS  PODCASTS  TECHNOLOGIES  TEST CENTER  EVENTS  CAREERS  IT EXEC-CONNECT   About Awards Contact Us 

Copyright © 2006, Reprints, Permissions, Licensing, IDG Network, Privacy Policy.
All Rights reserved. InfoWorld is a leading publisher of technology information and product reviews on topics including viruses,
phishing, worms, firewalls, security, servers, storage, networking, wireless, databases, and web services.

 ComputerWorld :: LinuxWorld :: Network World :: CIO :: PC World :: Darwin :: CMO :: CSO
IT Careers :: JavaWorld :: Macworld :: Mac Central :: Playlist :: GamePro :: GameStar :: Gamerhelp
ITWorld Canada :: Computerwoche :: Techworld UK :: tecChannel :: IDG.se :: IDG.no :: IDG.pl

create account | faq | search