tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post2613087031627867966..comments2024-02-10T02:23:08.475-08:00Comments on Paul's Pontifications: Why I am not buying an ebook readerPaul Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07353083601285449293noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-78139178711555531822011-11-06T23:39:20.512-08:002011-11-06T23:39:20.512-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Buchgestaltunghttp://www.bookdesigns.denoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-75357237120010922272011-08-30T02:09:09.406-07:002011-08-30T02:09:09.406-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.TRXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00847624760530196690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-9971632073328763852011-08-26T22:24:30.650-07:002011-08-26T22:24:30.650-07:00Nice I’ve been looking for something like thisMisc...Nice I’ve been looking for something like this<a href="http://www.123ebookdownload.com/category/Miscellaneous-Ebooks-Download/" rel="nofollow">Miscellaneous</a>TRXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00847624760530196690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-59363771349716037902011-08-11T04:18:09.833-07:002011-08-11T04:18:09.833-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.TRXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00847624760530196690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-65461093522177382622011-08-10T22:05:28.483-07:002011-08-10T22:05:28.483-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.TRXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00847624760530196690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-89734902035025054082011-08-02T03:30:38.596-07:002011-08-02T03:30:38.596-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.TRXhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00847624760530196690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-87628080827904173642011-04-22T15:11:58.525-07:002011-04-22T15:11:58.525-07:00You summarized many of the reasons that I've a...You summarized many of the reasons that I've avoided e-book readers, but there are a few others that loom large in my mind. <br /><br />1. You can't read without electricity!<br />2. Moving the "books" on and off the device is inconvenient and dependent on the software/hardware<br />3. Software upgrades or obsolesence could force you to buy your library all over again<br />4. Can't write on the book. This can be simulated with e-books, but it's really not the same<br />5. Can't photocopy pages<br />6. If you drop the e-book reader on the floor, you're in big trouble.<br /><br />I could go on. E-books have some attractive features, but for me the disadvantages greatly outweigh the advantages, <i>even disregarding DRM</i>.<br /><br />And as for DRM, well, that's the whole point of e-books. The idea is fundamentally a rent-seeking scheme. The companies involved are hoping to move books, like other "content", to the subscription/license model, which allows them to rent-seek with impunity. In no sense do e-books and e-book readers represent innovation for the customer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-47313061203093980182011-04-22T04:06:05.958-07:002011-04-22T04:06:05.958-07:00I use an e-book reader mostly because I can downlo...I use an e-book reader mostly because I can download e-books I need from lib.ololo.cc and flibusta.net and Project Gutenberg. And I am happy, that I won't have to leave these books behind when moving to a new place.<br /><br />Yes, most of the books on flibusta.net are in Russian; but they are not available on the shop shelves where I live nor they are not available from Amazon, most of them are out of print for a long time, and the authors are often dead. This is a good example of what a community can do. It is up to the community to create and maintain such libraries, they would not exist without active support of the users. It is the product of a lot of OCR, formatting and proof reading work by volunteers. Existence of such libraries is the most effective weapon against Kindle-like markets and copyright extortion schemes.<br /><br />And I agree that modern e-book prices are ridiculous, and not buy into DRM fraud. Unfortunately, Amazon does not have an incentive to lower prices unless a cheaper alternative exists.<br /><br />Occasionally I buy a DRM-free e-book on the net, if it's price is reasonable (< $5) and I want to support the author. Occasionally I donate to authors directly (mostly when the book is under CC license). IMO a fair price for a DRM-free e-book should be less than that of a hardcopy newspaper, i.e. $1 max. Up to $5 for a rare technical e-book is acceptable too. DRM-encumbered e-books should be either in unlimited access for a flat fee or orders of magnitude cheaper, $0.02 per file copy sounds fair for me.<br /><br />For now I choose e-readers which support DRM-free formats, and believe that the readers should change the book delivery world, not the publishers. And the laws will have to be changed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-23798837488082324742011-04-22T03:50:44.546-07:002011-04-22T03:50:44.546-07:00gwern,
I'm familiar with the argument, but I&...gwern,<br /><br />I'm familiar with the argument, but I'm not sure it works for real. when I buy a book I'm buying the information for use immediately, and the price of the book is the price I pay. I don't mentally deduct a hypothetical second hand value. In any case the typical payment at a second hand bookshop is tiny compared to the original cost (most of the price at a second hand bookshop is markup), and selling the odd book via Amazon is more trouble than its worth.Paul Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07353083601285449293noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-75070741926461797982011-04-21T00:44:32.828-07:002011-04-21T00:44:32.828-07:00Nice summary of the problems of current eBooks. In...Nice summary of the problems of current eBooks. In my opinion for new books to buy, eBooks are not really an option, especially because of the DRM hassle.<br /><br />I can understand a lending mechanism that prevents me from reading the book when I gave it to someone else, but limiting the time and the number of times I can do that?<br /><br />Nevertheless, the points against eBook (readers) is mainly about problems with DRM. I got mine after looking through Project Gutenberg and use it primarily for those books, secondarily to read pdf papers I wrote myself. For this use-case the eBook reader was totatlly worth it.<br /><br />regards,<br />MatthiasAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-41211230196322402372011-04-20T23:19:00.293-07:002011-04-20T23:19:00.293-07:00The Baen CDs are a fairly established practice by ...The Baen CDs are a fairly established practice by now, no longer an experiment. Of course, for Bujold it would still be an experiment.Antti-Juhani Kaijanahohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07645833467712195955noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5975524006824862804.post-36796256625957821082011-04-20T17:11:05.453-07:002011-04-20T17:11:05.453-07:00> I've already paid the author for the word...> I've already paid the author for the words when I bought the dead-tree version. (Or have I? Some of my books were purchased second-hand. Interesting conundrum there.)<br /><br />IMO, the conundrum is easily answered. The ability to resell a book - the existence of a second-hand market - is part of the value of a physical book and part of the price. (You can see this empirically by looking at prices when books cannot be resold, such as sometimes with college textbook or with many ebooks. The prices are lower.)<br /><br />Or to put it another way, if there were no people like you buying used books, part of the value of a book would disappear, and at the margin, people would buy fewer books - and by supply and demand, the price would drop.<br /><br />So indirectly, your dollars are feeding the authors.gwernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18349479103216755952noreply@blogger.com