Comments on: Christian Science Monitor contributor labels Kindle a ‘Trojan horse’

By: Ambrec

Ambrec — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:10:07 +0000

http://blogs.sun.com/joehartley/

This is a good post summarizing that what you get with the Kindle is the right to read not the right to own.

By: Joe Hartley

Joe Hartley — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 23:50:14 +0000

I just blogged about learning this the hard way after my Kindle broke. You say it better than I did — you’re buying access not the book and at a high price too!

By: Paula B.

Paula B. — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:27:14 +0000

Amazon’s implementation isn’t particularly good for authors, either. We authors feel that we have to be available there because of Amazon’s reach, but they take a whopping 65% of the proceeds! Sure, publishers take more, but when there *is* no publisher, why should Amazon take so much? Lulu.com sells the same book and takes only 20%. What’s up with that?

And BTW, you’re still subject to returns. I’ve had two of those this month. Why anyone would be so cheap as to return a 99-cent e-article is beyond me, but someone did.)

By: Miko Barnes

Miko Barnes — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:53:54 +0000

She is exactly right. You are buying restricted access to an ebook when you spend money on a kindle book. Which is why I have only purchased a handful of books on my kindle in the last year. Most of these are throw away potboilers that equate to a cheap paperback. Although it still irks me that I can’t pass my ebook on to somebody else when I’m finished.

Even with DRM I should be able to resell or trade my ebook by a simple transfer of rights. Amazon sells downloadable music that is free of DRM. But the idea of DRM free ebooks probably scares them to death since they will see it as a threat to their core business. My guess is that they hope to acheive total dominance of the ebook market in which case they can keep the onerous DRM and just tell consumers to take it or leave it.