online.wsj.com— Barnes & Noble launched an eBookstore offering more than 700,000 titles readable on multiple platforms, including the iPhone, BlackBerry and Plastic Logic eReader. Kindle, beware?
Jul 20, 2009View in Crawl 4
The problem with DRM on ebooks is that there are several different schemes and formats that are all essentially unique to a certain device. It's not like DVD DRM where and DVD will work in any DVD player.I own a Sony reader. If I buy anything from the Sony store (which I don't due to DRM) I would not be able to use that book if I later decided to buy a Kindle or some as-yet not invented device.Also, many books are exclusive to one store, such as the Amazon store. If your device is not a Kindle, an Amazon exclusive is useless to you. Many publishers only provide ebooks in certain formats.Also, DRM restricts the possibilities of the technology. If I have an ebook I'd like to be able to read it on my reader, my computers, my phone. If I left my reader at home and wanted to read a chapter during a break at work, I would like to be able to open the book from my work PC, etc. All these are easily achieved without DRM but mostly impossible with DRM.
Though it was a silly thing, Amazon simply cancelled books that they had illegally sold without the consent of the copyright holder.Should readers be allowed to keep a copyright-infringing ebook when the seller has the technology to cancel their purchase and pay their money back? It's a tricky question.Perhaps Amazon should have given the readers a legal copy in its place or something, but Amazon only did what they legally should have. They would have been in legal trouble if they didn't.
Ebook readers are (for the time being) going to stay as deidcated devices. I could read on my phone if I wanted, but my ebook reader is better suited to that purpose. It emulates a book very well.@javaroastand most people stuck to CDs in the late 90s, and most people stuck to VHS, and most people stuck to vinyl in the 80s...etc.
I use a PSP for ebooks.I investigated getting one of these Kindles for my wife. Also a CyBook and a few others, but she didn't like any of them. She showed interest in an Eeepc, so we got one of those, but the 701SD was too clumsy for her. Shes still uses it for plenty of things, just not for reading.She tried out my PSP3000 and loved it. I bought her one for her birthday, home brewed it and put BookR on it. Now all she does it buy eBooks, read creative commons fantasy and sci-fi and play Rockband Unplugged (smart ass is clearing it on hard!).People say brightness is terrible for the eyes (strain etc) after a while. Well, the good thing is with the adjustable back light of a PSP, you can dim it down to where it's like reading from the page of a book. Crisp font, flexible formats and a screen almost the off white/gray of a paperback.Handy part is the ability to remap buttons for page flipping, flip the screen content so it's page sized, change fonts and font sizes. Sure, it's not a true page for page screen size, but it's roughly 50%. So instead of a 600 page book, it's a 1200 "page" book. No big deal.She's also happy for the fact she can watch video, listen to music (as she reads if shes up for it) and play a good selection of games (got a stack of UMD's and PlayStation Store content - while you can CFW enable 3k's now, I'd rather not rip off the dev's).A lot of folks don't like PSP's, but I can't recommend them enough; gaming, emulators, eBooks, music and video - all in something that fits in my jean pockets.
Music on vinyl sounds better.There are still a s**t load of movies on VHS that are not available on DVD, so yes I still watch VHS.I still have a 4:3 TV.Windows 95 is still better than Windows ME and Vista.I love having physical books. I'd say that less than 5% of the books I have are available in eBook format. Physical books (when used) are a fraction of the price of an ebook. I can get the physical copy of a book from a thrift store for 50 cents whereas a digital copy would easily be 20 times that.It's a lot easier to browse through a physical book than it is an ebook. That being said, I do have a Sony E-Book Reader, I'm in the process of reading a book on it, but I still prefer reading from an actual book.
This sounds like they think they'll make more money off the hardware than the book sales. If they didn't have their head so far up their asses they would realize they could gain a bigger market share by providing books compatible to all the ebook readers.This would provide more competition between the ebook stores, and be better all round for consumers. However, these douches are blind and stubborn. I really hope they lose millions on this for being so f**king stupid and ignorant to what consumers want.
djgreedoJul 22, 2009
The problem with DRM on ebooks is that there are several different schemes and formats that are all essentially unique to a certain device. It's not like DVD DRM where and DVD will work in any DVD player.I own a Sony reader. If I buy anything from the Sony store (which I don't due to DRM) I would not be able to use that book if I later decided to buy a Kindle or some as-yet not invented device.Also, many books are exclusive to one store, such as the Amazon store. If your device is not a Kindle, an Amazon exclusive is useless to you. Many publishers only provide ebooks in certain formats.Also, DRM restricts the possibilities of the technology. If I have an ebook I'd like to be able to read it on my reader, my computers, my phone. If I left my reader at home and wanted to read a chapter during a break at work, I would like to be able to open the book from my work PC, etc. All these are easily achieved without DRM but mostly impossible with DRM.
djgreedoJul 22, 2009
Though it was a silly thing, Amazon simply cancelled books that they had illegally sold without the consent of the copyright holder.Should readers be allowed to keep a copyright-infringing ebook when the seller has the technology to cancel their purchase and pay their money back? It's a tricky question.Perhaps Amazon should have given the readers a legal copy in its place or something, but Amazon only did what they legally should have. They would have been in legal trouble if they didn't.
djgreedoJul 22, 2009
Ebook readers are (for the time being) going to stay as deidcated devices. I could read on my phone if I wanted, but my ebook reader is better suited to that purpose. It emulates a book very well.@javaroastand most people stuck to CDs in the late 90s, and most people stuck to VHS, and most people stuck to vinyl in the 80s...etc.
dienaidJul 22, 2009
I use a PSP for ebooks.I investigated getting one of these Kindles for my wife. Also a CyBook and a few others, but she didn't like any of them. She showed interest in an Eeepc, so we got one of those, but the 701SD was too clumsy for her. Shes still uses it for plenty of things, just not for reading.She tried out my PSP3000 and loved it. I bought her one for her birthday, home brewed it and put BookR on it. Now all she does it buy eBooks, read creative commons fantasy and sci-fi and play Rockband Unplugged (smart ass is clearing it on hard!).People say brightness is terrible for the eyes (strain etc) after a while. Well, the good thing is with the adjustable back light of a PSP, you can dim it down to where it's like reading from the page of a book. Crisp font, flexible formats and a screen almost the off white/gray of a paperback.Handy part is the ability to remap buttons for page flipping, flip the screen content so it's page sized, change fonts and font sizes. Sure, it's not a true page for page screen size, but it's roughly 50%. So instead of a 600 page book, it's a 1200 "page" book. No big deal.She's also happy for the fact she can watch video, listen to music (as she reads if shes up for it) and play a good selection of games (got a stack of UMD's and PlayStation Store content - while you can CFW enable 3k's now, I'd rather not rip off the dev's).A lot of folks don't like PSP's, but I can't recommend them enough; gaming, emulators, eBooks, music and video - all in something that fits in my jean pockets.
Closed AccountJul 22, 2009
I'm a SQL DBA.Yes I still play vinyl, I have tube amplifiers too.
dangermouse9Jul 22, 2009
I bet they do as well, I want my white pages to be white damn it, not gray.
dangermouse9Jul 22, 2009
Music on vinyl sounds better.There are still a s**t load of movies on VHS that are not available on DVD, so yes I still watch VHS.I still have a 4:3 TV.Windows 95 is still better than Windows ME and Vista.I love having physical books. I'd say that less than 5% of the books I have are available in eBook format. Physical books (when used) are a fraction of the price of an ebook. I can get the physical copy of a book from a thrift store for 50 cents whereas a digital copy would easily be 20 times that.It's a lot easier to browse through a physical book than it is an ebook. That being said, I do have a Sony E-Book Reader, I'm in the process of reading a book on it, but I still prefer reading from an actual book.
dangermouse9Jul 22, 2009
This sounds like they think they'll make more money off the hardware than the book sales. If they didn't have their head so far up their asses they would realize they could gain a bigger market share by providing books compatible to all the ebook readers.This would provide more competition between the ebook stores, and be better all round for consumers. However, these douches are blind and stubborn. I really hope they lose millions on this for being so f**king stupid and ignorant to what consumers want.