tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post2431431289533113560..comments2023-10-16T13:20:56.509+00:00Comments on SF writer Gary Gibson: A Modest Proposal (regarding ebooks)Gary Gibson, science fiction writerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16479905286212513002noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post-77187089000427586912015-08-21T05:58:14.459+00:002015-08-21T05:58:14.459+00:00Good post! I am also going to write a blog post ab...Good post! I am also going to write a blog post about this... thanks <br /><br /><a href="http://khelsahitya.org/" rel="nofollow"> health and physical education book</a>Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01935469004791259522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post-50454393588041934462010-12-27T16:38:04.534+00:002010-12-27T16:38:04.534+00:00That's one of the beauties of physical books -...That's one of the beauties of physical books - you can often sell them for 70% or so of the purchase price if you read them quickly - and ownership is easy to establish.<br /><br />I await with interest the emergence of a site selling second hand MP3 and ebook files. <br /><br />The other thing with lending is that you do it to people you know, personally. There are hidden 'playground rules' (you would always lend to people who couldn't afford stuff. The posh kid who could afford things, but never never lent anything back, but purely leached, would be socially ostracised. The anonymity of the internet removes that natural mechanism - other than the fact that eventually they'll cease to have any impact, culturally.JulesLthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04387310279928194787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post-15633275898937617522010-12-26T08:29:59.426+00:002010-12-26T08:29:59.426+00:00I tend to take a very pragmatic approach to DRM in...I tend to take a very pragmatic approach to DRM in that if there are clients that work across multiple platforms, I don't worry much about it. Content from Audible uses rights management. Also, everything you buy from Audible stays in your library. I purchased stuff on and off from Audible back as far as 1999 and got a regular subscription in about 2006. Everything I've purchased is available to be re-downloaded and I must have redownloaded my entire library from scratch for at least six different devices. It works. It is awesome when I lose my device. No faffing about hoping that I've taken a backup. Load client. Redownload library. Done.<br /><br />Kindle seems to work on the same principle (then again, the both are run by Amazon). Load client on new machine. Redownload library.<br /><br />However, I've purchased stuff from other online stores that are still in existence that isn't DRM protected. Delete the file from your device and you're on your own. File becomes corrupted and your are on your own - you have to purchase it again if you want to download it again. DRM free seems to mean "the onus is on the purchaser to ensure that they've backed it up properly, DRM loaded seems to mean (with the services I mentioned earlier) that you can reaccess your content at any time in future)<br /><br />Given a choice between having stuff that I can download as often as I want to new devices even if it has DRM or being able to download within a certain short span if it doesn't have DRM (and I realize that the choice isn't binary, but boy a lot of the non-DRM'd stuff seems to only allow limited duration download) I'd go with the Kindle/Audible model. If I lose my laptop I can replace all the Kindle/Audible stuff very simply - but essentially impossible to replace all the DRM free content I've obtained from other stores unless I'm diligent about backup. <br /><br />It is as though the choice to remove DRM is more a "stuff customer service" (well you lost the file sir, you could have backed it up) than it is about anyone's "freedoms".<br /><br />Of course from a certain perspective all of this may be moot as I'm guessing future services will store all your stuff in the cloud on the store's servers rather than your own device and if you want to switch devices you'll have to install a separate client for your new device and reconnect to the cloud.Orin Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03672387161151741494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post-13328244001199776312010-12-24T19:18:31.147+00:002010-12-24T19:18:31.147+00:00I must whole-heartedly agree with Ms. Dorman. I ju...I must whole-heartedly agree with Ms. Dorman. I just downloaded Dominic Green's <i> Smallworld </i>; after reading five pages, I immediately purchased the e-book version from The publisher, Fingerpress Ltd., London. This happens much more often that I would have predicted.<br />As for music, I'm such a sound-snob that I only buy CDs. I (think) I can hear the difference.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09142071913953927192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post-42967950838605050862010-12-24T18:52:21.471+00:002010-12-24T18:52:21.471+00:00DRM denies the owner of the satification of buying...DRM denies the owner of the satification of buying as Nerine commented, since they will likely lose it through device corruption, lost accounts or passcodes, or a number of failures that may occur over time with electronic equipment. I would agree that I would enjoy "owning" an ebook if I truely owned it and was not just a user.Shortlinkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00009823333720125001noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post-11217338167562181192010-12-24T08:49:15.534+00:002010-12-24T08:49:15.534+00:00As an author published both in print and electroni...As an author published both in print and electronically, I'm oddly flattered people will make my book available for free download. It suggests that they like my writing enough to share it with their friends.<br /><br />Like my friends who openly admit they borrowed my book to read from another mutual friend and that they really enjoyed it.<br /><br />But you know what? Nowadays I take pride in buying my ebooks so I can say thank you to my favourite authors for all the hard work. I've extended this to my favourite living musicians, the guys who're out in the trenches, so to speak.nerinedormanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12885964421325041778noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post-72636850984491678002010-12-23T15:37:56.102+00:002010-12-23T15:37:56.102+00:00that was a brilliant article.
I'm not in the...that was a brilliant article. <br /><br />I'm not in the e-book market for multiple unreasonable reasons, but I do ocassionally feel bad taking stacks of books out of the library, or buying them for 50 cents at charity shops and yard sales. Is this how I show my favorite authors how much I love them? by paying pennies on the dollar for their works?<br /><br />if it counts for anything, well loved library books do get purchased at full price from my local indie bookseller.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post-1961042190835395082010-12-23T14:04:31.698+00:002010-12-23T14:04:31.698+00:00With the second hand textbooks you used, the publi...With the second hand textbooks you used, the publishers still got the money from the first sale ;-) - same with the sharing of texts between friends - there was a built in limit to the number of people it was feasible to share the book with (you can share a single book with 5 classmates, but not 500). The author always got at least one sale out of it, even if it was sold second hand 3 more times.<br /><br />The greater problem for textbook publishers today is that one person can share an essentially infinite number of copies. This is the biggest difference between then and now - the scale of the sharing.<br /><br />In essence, the textbook model was able to work in the past given the limited sort of sharing that was going on - it is probably terminal now that obtaining a copy has become vastly easier (especially as students are notoriously reluctant to part with money that could better be spent on beer ;-)<br /><br />I suspect that non-fiction works vastly differently to fiction - the Doctorow/Baen model (give for free and enough people convert to paid hardcopy) certainly doesn't apply to non-fiction texts ;-). <br /><br />Anyway my main thought about your post was the "second hand shop" ecosystem, whilst not directly compensating authors, wasn't as much of a problem because the ratio of first sales to total sales and borrowings wasn't too far out of whack. Today it's increasingly getting out of whack. When it get so far out of whack that there is no way that the publisher can earn back the cost of putting together the book in the first place, things will get interesting ;-)Orin Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03672387161151741494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post-18634357687655257492010-12-23T13:29:41.199+00:002010-12-23T13:29:41.199+00:00That's a good take on it all, Gary. The more I...That's a good take on it all, Gary. The more I think about e-books the more reluctant I am to venture an opinion. Of course we want to make money on our books and don't want then pirated, but...Neal Asherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13933911904170752700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post-74010543070139958432010-12-23T13:12:46.948+00:002010-12-23T13:12:46.948+00:00My point is that the piracy issue is confused by t...My point is that the piracy issue is confused by the fact that there are many means to acquire a text, movie or cd that funnel no funds back to the creator, yet are widely accepted and even encouraged. Don't think I'm saying what your students did was right - really, it wasn't - but to be honest, when I was at college, I used to buy most of my textbooks whenever possible from a local second-hand shop that specialised in college texts since the cost of those books was otherwise usurious. None of the money from those sales went to the authors. <br /><br />Also, I'd share textbooks to reduce the cost, back in the late Eighties, or borrow books and photocopy relevant chapters from them. The only time I bought them new was when I had absolutely no choice. While I genuinely feel your pain, I suspect that things haven't changed quite as much as you might think.Gary Gibson, science fiction writerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16479905286212513002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4022051.post-63959389424917382992010-12-23T12:53:49.851+00:002010-12-23T12:53:49.851+00:00Hi Gary,
Just a counter-thought. I write IT textb...Hi Gary,<br /><br />Just a counter-thought. I write IT textbooks and, off and on, do IT training for a living. Last month my most recent book was published. I was teaching a class and two of my students remarked that they'd already downloaded my new book from various sites. I hadn't even received my author copies yet. <br /><br />When asked why they did it they said "well we didn't want to pay for the books" (though they did admit to marginal guilt when telling the author this)Orin Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03672387161151741494noreply@blogger.com