Comments on: Free, ad-supported books: Vonnegut, Orwell, Styron, Huxley among modern greats included

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 04:43:40 +0000

Thanks, Mike. I also notice that Wowio inserts the reader’s name on the cover–at the bottom–along with the warning that “Unauthorized reproduction of distribution of this ebook is illegal.” – David

By: Michael A. Banks

Michael A. Banks — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 03:07:57 +0000

I went through the signup process and it was painless, no problems.

The copy of Vonnegut’s Player Piano that I downloaded had six ads. I interview WOWIO’s founder, who told me that their goal is to keep the ad page to content page ratio to 1:3 (below that of many magazines).

It’s a bit of a surprise when you come across an ad. The ad pages are larger than the text pages, so you get this minor *whomp* effect. I think readers can get accustomed to the ads. (There’s a linked advertiser index at the end of the book.)

The DRM system includes a lengthy serial number in the lower-left margin of every other page.
–Mike

By: Garson Poole

Garson Poole — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 20:59:54 +0000

Perhaps “Mind's Eye Fiction” is the company that Robotech_Master discusses. Their website was located at tale.com and the WaybackMachine does have some archived copies. There is a CNN article from 1999 here about anti-ad-blocking software developed by “Mind's Eye Fiction”.

By: Robotech_Master

Robotech_Master — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 20:29:39 +0000

I don’t think it is. I’m pretty sure the name was something else. But I could be wrong.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 20:28:37 +0000

Robotech_master and Garson: What great stories. Meanwhile I note with interest the fact that the company’s content just up and vanished. Kinda like Blackmask, eh—at least if you lack easy access to the old Blackmask CDs. As for the power of “free,” I’m a believer. Like Bingle, I don’t want it abused. So, while I heartily approve of Freeload’s expermentation, given the current stinginess in government toward the urgent needs of students, I encourage people keep up the discussion. – David

By: Garson Poole

Garson Poole — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 20:18:14 +0000

Years ago the website BiblioBytes attempted to provide ebooks “free” using advertisements as a financing mechanism. They began by primarily providing excerpts and chapters instead of entire works, but eventually they provided entire books without charge. The archived pages of the website claim that “BiblioBytes was founded in January 1993 by Glenn Hauman, Todd Masco, and Andrew Bressen with the purpose of selling electronic publications over the Internet.”

The Internet Archive WaybackMachine records pages from the Bibliobytes website starting in 1998. Here is an excerpt from the front page:

“We give up! You’ve convinced us– you’ll take the time to download books, you’ll spend hours reading them on screen or printing them out– you just don’t want to pay for them! So we’ll give them to you– for free! We’re giving away hundreds of free books, and hope to add hundreds more in the next few weeks!”

Perhaps this is the company Robotech_Master mentions above.

By: Robotech_Master

Robotech_Master — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 17:35:58 +0000

Wowio isn’t the first to offer ad-supported ebook reading. Waaaay back in the nineties, one of the very first handful of ebook merchants (which was subsequently gobbled up by Alexlit, another such merchant, then went off-line and vanished entirely—to my annoyance since I had bought some stories from them and hadn’t bothered to save them, so they’re gone for good) had a “you can read our ebooks if you view an ad every so often” scheme. They also pioneered “anti-ad-blocker” technology, to detect when an ad-blocker was in use and then refuse to serve the content if so. I only wish I could remember their name, so I could see if the Internet Archive had a cached version of their front page.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 23:37:08 +0000

Heck, Branko, as I’ve written, I don’t see this as a panacea. There are issues you didn’t even mention such as the credibility of ad-supported books. Still, I doubt that GE or GM will insist on rewrites of Orwell. Perhaps we need book-by-book biz models rather than saying one is for every situation. Meanwhile I’m delighted that Wowio is around. If people don’t want to have to turn over credit card numbers, risk spam, etc., then they should fund their libraries adequately. Since that isn’t happening, then Wowio-style services will spring up to address legitimate needs. Thanks. David

By: Branko Collin

Branko Collin — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 23:22:23 +0000

Hm. Privacy, credit card, PDF. If you don’t mind “giving up” the first two, and can live with the latter, it seems like a good idea. Let us know how you like the scheme in twelve months, David.