WiFi’s lesson for the e-book biz
The guy down in that small Southern town–the place with a thirty percent illiteracy rate–chatted with me yesterday about e-books and other do-goodin’ stuff. We’re thinking Last Mile, the whole works, and inevitably WiFi came up. It turns out that Florida has a horrible law–industry-bought, of course–that can possibly wreak havoc on jurisdictions trying to do WiFi.
So what’s the lesson for e-books? Well, in the cases of both WiFi and e-books, laws have been used to bolster short-term commercial interests, harming the long-term interests of even the companies themselves. Far from cutting out commercial WiFi providers, MuniFi should be a nice market for those able to adapt. None other than Earthlink, hardly a bastion of socialism, is serving the city of Philadelphia. No need for Earthlink itself to do huge advertising expenditures to convince people to take out overpriced subscription! Too bad other Pennyslvania localities will face the obstacle of a law somewhat in the Florida vein. MuniFi and ad-supported WiFi are far, far more logical and sustainable as business models than the gouge-based type. MuniFi just isn’t that expensive compared to its benefits in areas ranging from K-12 to business development.
Now on to the e-book parallel. Think about the DMCA police mentality and the onerous anti-piracy measures that some e-book-related companies have imposed on consumers–initially thinking that convenience wouldn’t matter so much, now that the law was so obliging. Instead all but a tiny fraction of consumers have shunned e-books. High e-book prices, less of a problem now but still a factor, haven’t helped, either. I’m hopeful that the industry will wake up and rely less on the law and more on a customer-friendly approach and improved business models to turn a profit. DRM books if you must; but keep the system gentle, since, no matter what system is in use, thieves will merely scan and digitize paper books. Don’t think “What’s best for business?” without also considering “What’s best for consumers?”
Interestingly, a TeleRead-style library approach, comparable in some ways to MuniFi, albeit at both the local and national levels, could be more profitable to the private sector than just the retail one alone. We badly need libraries and e-bookstores alike. I want readers, writers and publishers to benefit from the volume of the library approach. At the same time it mustn’t be the only one. ‘Crats shouldn’t be able to dictate our reading tastes, and retailers are essential as an alternative even to the freest and most open-minded libraries. As in the world of paper books, libraries and stores can be very good for each other–just as MuniFi can be good not just for citizens, but also for contractors and other businesses.
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