In fighting brainless DRM schemes, TeleRead has plenty of company such as Mitch Wagner, author of a fine essay headlined Today We're Selling Digital Rights Management, Tomorrow We're Making Water Run Uphill. Here, adapted from a post today to the eBook Community List, are thoughts from moderator Jon Noring, speaking for himself rather than TeleRead.

Many blog posts and articles say DRM makes little sense from a consumer acceptance point of view.

The feeling is that consumers will ultimately rebel against most, if not all, types of DRM--especially for content they buy rather than "rent" for a short time.

Whether it's video, audio, or text, consumers prefer reasonably priced, unshackled content that's "permanent" and gives them added "perks" of some sort. So goes the thinking.

I myself believe that media companies wil make more money without DRM. Instead they could offer perks ("value added services") of some kind to consumers who actually buy content rather than "borrowing" from their neighbors or the library.

Some cool "value-added services" come to mind. For example, Random House could give out coupons/credits based on purchases to redeem for free stuff, a la Delta Sky Miles. How about Random-House Pages? Accumulate 10,000 "Pages" and get a free e-book or other media work of your choice? Or some other benefit? Maybe even redeem 100,000 Random-House Pages for 10,000 Delta Sky-Miles! A similar system can be used for other types of digital media such as music and videos. And the "Pages" can also be seamlessly used in the traditional paper realm, too.

Whatever the business model, shouldn't the fundamental purpose be to maximize profits for the publishers, authors, and stockholders by delivering products that consumers will enthusiastically buy? Makes one wonder what is being taught these days in business school.

It's equally amazing that a large publisher doesn't try the non DRM approach--I mean really try, not just offer one or two obscure books and not even advertise this to anyone. The publisher could price the e-books very competitively and maybe add some perks for actual purchase. Also, it could use a well-known non-DRM ebook retailer such as eBookAd.

The publisher just might be surprised by the direct and indirect revenue. Who cares about piracy if profits are maximized by the non-DRM approach? As for large-scale piracy for profit, it can and should be dealt with using the legal system, as is now done.

Focusing on rewarding consumers who buy digital media content--rather than preventing unauthorized copying by onerous DRM--appears to be the path to maximum profit. The idea of "Random House Pages" is simply one of many possible perks.

So maybe the focus of followup discussion of this article should be to come up with ideas for perks publishers and online retailers can give consumers for actually buying digital media content. Start the ideas rolling.

* * *

List member Jon Jeremy replied from Australia: "Someone pointed out a while ago that telecommunications companies are already much bigger than media companies, and one way they can attract more customers is to provide downloads of free or subsidised material. (Telstra in Australia is already offering a discount on downloaded music to its subscribers. And music tracks that are 20 minutes long sell for the same price as tracks that are 2 minutes long.) Rather than trying to match pricing to individual items, the money is made in selling generalised access.

* * *

And yet another view: James Senick, another eBook Community List member, writes: "The "Random House Pages" idea is a great one. But how about a simple, what-we-expected-in-the-first-place approach? Price the e-book versions right! Nearly everyone jumping on the e-book wagon a few years ago was shocked to find that the prices of digital versions of their chosen books were higher or equal to that of their printed counterparts. It's what we wanted and expected all along--cheaper pricing.

"Lose the DRM and perhaps you also lose the plethora of proprietary formats, the bloat of "phone home" mechanisms in hardware readers, etc. In other words, all the stuff we, the consumers, hate about digital media. What we have now is a choice of $5 books with $20 locks. Making readers happy is easy; just sell us the book...and only the book!

"As for extras, I don't think we need any.  If anything perhaps those that buy the first edition hardcovers should have the
opportunity to receive the ebook as well for free.  Why not?"

* * *

The TeleRead take: I'd welcome all kinds of alternatives to the mindless DRM-based ones used today--the stupidity that has resulted in e-books grossing only $10-$20 million globally, a fraction of p-book revenues. We've already noted an academic's observation that total telecom revenue is far, far greater than that of media companies. My own favorite approach would be a mix of the public library model along with private-sector bookstores and subscription plans, with provision for file-sharing. "DRM Lite"--just enough DRM to keep honest people honest--could be used as needed. But no DRM zealotry, please. It's poison to e-bookdom. Books are meant to be shared, at least within the limits of fair use--a concept that the greedier of the DRMsters loathe.
posted by David Rothman at 7:02 PM | permanent link

My wife and I went out to Lonestar last night, ahead of time. Carly's the omnivore, I'm the vegetarian, and in that context and others, I'd hope we'd be among the conflict-resolving validators discussed in a recent marital study. I had El Paso Salad--no bacon bits.

Check out the relevant sections of Fictionwise and eBookAd and eBooks.com and the rest if V Day is also on your mind. You can even buy The Kama Sutra, featuring one of the best typographical layouts in e-bookdom.

Of course, it's also nice if, like true love, romances come without charges.

Meanwhile, you can read about a couple of collaborators--yes, a couple in the married sense--who live in North Carolina and have written romances together, including e-books.

Speaking of The Kama Sutra: The joy of pagelets

Why aren't more publishers using pagelets of the kind available through Microsoft LIT and the Open eBook Publication Structure? Pagelets are smaller than regular pages and pop up when you click on appropriate links--they're a superior alternative to the sidebars of printed publications. You can even create multipage pagelets and theoretically, though you wouldn't want to, do a book within a book. Also you can link pagelets to each other. You can insert large charts, expanded image annotations, anything. While reading a pagelet, the reader can return to the regular book in a flash just by clicking outside the pagelet in the desktop version or, in the case of the Pocket PC, using the Return menu item.

For a timely and timeless example of pagelets in action, see an elegant and tasteful edition of The Kama Sutra from Blue Glass Publishing, a small e-book company owned by my fellow standards-booster Jon Noring. Right now the Open eBook Publication Structure does allow pagelets even if no specifics are given. Nice way to distinguish e-books from p-books! Too bad Mobipocket, my favorite reading system, did not support pagelets. Alas, when auto-converting from OEBPS to Mobipocket, the pagelet text or images will vanish. Lots of awesome opportunties, however, will exist for publishers who do get pagelets. One day pagelets could even display videos.

(Marital study found via TechDirt, Charlotte story via eBookAd.)
posted by David Rothman at 10:26 AM | permanent link

"It's rather appropriate that the logo for Disney is a mouse, because The Walt Disney Company this week announced its intention to throw money down a rathole. Disney became the latest company to license Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology. DRM doesn't work and consumers don't want it, so of course it's very appealing to big business, who are also in a big rush to sell other, equally practical products, such as anchovy flavored ice cream and bicycles with square wheels." - Tech Web SecurityPipeline article by Mitch Wagner.

The TeleRead take: The headline says it all: "Today We're Selling Digital Rights Management, Tomorrow We're Making Water Run Uphill."
posted by David Rothman at 11:42 PM | permanent link

Upton Sinclair's ghost undoubtedly would have his share of thoughts on Mad Cow disease, the meat packing industry, and related areas of agriculture. Sinclair, who wrote The Jungle, the novel exposing the industry, is also the author of another essential book, The Brass Check, about the cowardice of the media--a trait that still is in abundance for the most part. TeleRead put The Brass Check on the Net for the first time; and in the next few months we'll upload a still-better version with more proofing and in more formats.

Now I'm pleased to report that none other than Random House will be publishing a new biography of Sinclair. The author, Tony Arthur, an emeritus professor of English at California State University in Northridge, would much appreciate your help if you know of letters or other Sinclair-related information. Reach Prof. Arthur at rarthur1@socal.rr.com. Click here for more details about his book in progress, Upton Sinclair: Radical Innocent, which, if like the title itself, will sum up Sinclair's life perfectly. Interestingly, Sinclair, dead at age 90 in 1968, actually grew better as he aged, according to Prof. Arthur. Imagine--a writer who drew the admiration of Theodore Roosevelt and lived to be wheeled into the White House in 1967 to watch LBJ sign some meat-inspection legislation.

Suggestion for C-Span: You really should mention The Brass Check when you list Upton Sinclairs more important works.

The Bono angle: Upton Sinclair did not copyright The Brass Check. He wanted it spread around. Furthermore, I suspect that despite his long life he would have hated the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act--welfare legislation for entertainment conglomerates and rich heirs (as opposed to authors themselves). Next time Hollywood liberals defend the act, I'd suggest they ask themselves how Sinclair would have felt about this hypocrisy. Over the years, after all, Bono will drain billions from schools, public libraries and the public at large. Yo, Sen. Edwards! As a member of the Judiciary Committee, which deals with copyright law, you'd do worse than to follow Sinclair's example if you're really in a heat over the "two Americas." Stop worrying so much about dead authors and your corporate donors. Worry more about the young writers and future ones who would benefit from reading free modern classics on the Net.
posted by David Rothman at 3:05 PM | permanent link

Ironic, isn't it? Cranky old Harlan Ellison, a sci-fi writer, is still on a copyright-related jihad against AOL just because it didn't remove a pirated Ellison work quickly enough from its servers. I thought sci-fi writers weres to take us forward, not backward. Perhaps Ellison needs a few marketing tips from Cory Doctorow.
posted by David Rothman at 11:38 AM | permanent link

You'll be able to receive e-books on your Palm-powered phone or other Palm-OS device--no PC needed--under a PalmGear deal with Qualcomm's BREW Shop over-the-air download service. The same service will also transmit Palm games and software.

The TeleRead take: One of the hassles of PDAs--though less so with Palms than with PCs--has been synchronization with The Mother Desktop. The Qualcomm alliance is a neat way around the problem. With sales of traditional PDAs suffering, this could help give the e-book industry at least a small boost and maybe even more. Just wish Palm Digital Media would wise up about e-books formats.

Packetbook already allows you to receive public domain books via wireless, and the developer expects that commercial books will follow. Speaking of Packetbook, you can already order the e-book reader we described. Plus, the price for the reader is $0 right now.
posted by David Rothman at 9:12 AM | permanent link

Done, per dream. Carly needs Sunday for the coupons, so we'll continue that one. When the Post modernizes its e-sub options, I'll gladly pay for archival access and the other already-described services--ideally with a minimum of ads. Hey, nothing against relevant advertising. The Post could let subscribers choose ad updates for individual companies.
posted by David Rothman at 9:20 AM | permanent link

Even without the benefit of the very newest technology, I'm thinking of cutting out my paper subscription to the Washington Post--at least if Carly can live without the Safeway grocery coupons. Not sure of that. But I can dream.

Why? Too much to read on the Net, too much paper trash to carry out. Hey, we're at the other end of the hall from Room T.

An old story worth revisiting

I know. This is an old story--paper vs. electrons. Still, thanks to all the RSS feeds and other online goodies I'm reading instead of paper publications, it urgently deserves to be revisited. Pardon me, Posties. You're probably way ahead of most in the news biz. But by modern e-commerce standards, you're still in a cave.

Mind you, there is a way for the Post to keep every cent of my subscription money. It could enter the 21st century and give me unlimited access to its archives for the cost of a paper subscription. The same service would allow me to get e-mail alerts by keyword, with sophisticated options available. Perhaps I'm missing something, but apparently one can only subscribe to email newsletters by topic or subtopic. Can't the Post keep up with the New York Times and do the keyword routine?

Don't take away the free daily online edition, which, after all, costs much less to distribute than the p one. But do think about the right set of online perks for paying subscribers, one of whom I've been for decades.

Wanted: A slick HTML summary--just like the New York Times

What's more, each morning via e-mail, I'd love to get some slick HTML with a comprehensive summary of the entire paper, the same service the New York Times offers for free. Too, if I wanted, I could click on a collection of HTML files to be able to read the Post offline.

Also I'd like, via email, a generous helping of Alexandria, VA, news. More clueful than the Posties about localized email, the city lets residents sign up for emailed press releases with goverment news and even crime reports. Why isn't the Post offering this service with more of a journalistic twist?

Of course, if I can get the news via RSS, too, not just e-mail, that would be still better.

And most important...

In fairness to the Post, it has one of the best sites on the Net with a treasure trove of content, but, alas, when it comes to basics like ones above, the people on L Street still are living in the '90s--just like the majority of newspapers on the Net. Oh--and one more piece of free advice for L Street: Don't forget to post on the Web every bleepin' Safeway coupon!
posted by David Rothman at 7:20 AM | permanent link

"The U.S. Army announced Tuesday it will spend $43.7 million over the next five years on a center at Arizona State University that will develop flexible electronic displays. The idea is to give soldiers a tiny, rugged readout of current data about enemy troops, weather and geography that could take a bullet and still flash marching orders." - 'Makers Scramble to Put Some Bend in 'Electric Paper', Washington Post, Feb. 12.

The TeleRead take: The display news just keeps getting better and better--thank goodness. That has implications for all of publishing--and I don't just mean books. See the item I'm about to write on the Washington Post.
posted by David Rothman at 7:13 AM | permanent link

An e-book-related project in Bahrain will initially "target 11,000 students from 11 secondary schools. These schools will be provided with high tech-computer programmes to transfer the ordinary textboot to electronic books that meet the different learning requirements of students." - Bahrain Tribune.
posted by David Rothman at 11:34 AM | permanent link

Two-thirds of U.S. government documents released last month from the Government Printing Office (the GPO) went on the Web without reaching paper. Talk about the need for a well-stocked, well organized national digital library! Such documents could be well integrated with other publications in a TeleRead-style approach--and, of course, be available for linking. Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government for Kids is an example of the possibilities here.

GPO best-sellers, by the way, range from Emergency Response to Terrorism: Job Aid to First Flight: The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Airplane. Those titles are from the GPO's Best Sellers page, last updated in July 2003.

And, yes, apparently the word "seller" would apply. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I could not find free versions of the above titles online even though many thousands of other GPO-related documents are. Why? Perhaps the GPO should check out the e-book end of National Academies Press, which has more than several thousand titles on the Web for free.

Important detail: Publishers and writers and others outside the U.S. government should supply most of the books in a TeleRead collection and be paid by the access--according to popularity. The last thing we need would be Soviet-style, state-supported publishing houses. But what's the harm of making use of the GPO's existing efforts, which, for example, reproduce legislation or offer consumer-oriented advice from federal agencies? We're talking about taxpayers more easily reaping the benefits of existing GPO activities.

More on Ben's Guide: To give one example, children in grades 9-12 can learn How Laws Are Made. "Ben," of course, was one of our favorite Founding Fathers, a civic-minded printer named Benjamin Franklin.
posted by David Rothman at 8:36 AM | permanent link

Microsoft will offer a stripped-down, Thai-language version of Windows for only $40, a fraction of the usual price. Same could follow in other developing countries.

A possibility for the e-book industry? Rather than "stripping down" books, U.S. publishers could simply work with local companies and local governments to translate e-books and sell them at a fraction of the usual prices. That would be one way to popularize e-books in developing countries where incomes are a fraction of those in the States. And remember, the cost of books in the public domain would be $0 except for translation, for which local governments could pay, perhaps with help from U.S. and U.N. agencies.

Small-scale experiments now, expansion later?

Not all books lend themselves to display on low-cost, small-screened machines--textbooks with complex layouts may not work out--but think of all the books that would. eBookmans now sell for as little as $39 new, and Pocket PCs should in the next few years, so, yes, the economics should make sense, especially as battery-thrifty displays come down in price. The e-book industry undertake small-scale experiments and eventually expand them as the economics grew more attractive.

But back to Microsoft. Redmond is lowering the price of the OS to cope with linux, so it isn't as if we're talking saintly motives here, but I do think that the company in this case should be commended for creativity if nothing else. Also, keep in mind that some U.S. publishers already charge different prices in different countries for p-books, so the concept I'm advocating may not be that radical in the scheme of things, and for all I know, maybe some American publishers are already experimenting with affordable localized versions of e-books.

A role for e-books on phones in developing countries: Phones rather than PCs are the way millions of people throughout the world access text. Even in developing countries, this could eventually be an interesting distriubtion method to consider, among others. Remember, many of today's text-capable cell phones will be sold used abroad at dirt cheap prices. While the screens are hardly gigantic, this is a far, far more attractive alternative than no books at all, and the technology is sure to get much better. Furthermore, some people really aren't that put off by phone-sized screens.

Reminder: E-books are hardly a universal solution for the Third World. Right now, for example, books printed on demand have an important role to play for schools in remote areas.
posted by David Rothman at 7:09 AM | permanent link

The Importance of Being Ernest, The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, Gullivers Travels, The Playboy of the Western World and Dracula--those are among the offerings of Free Irish Literature Texts. Available formats are RTF and TXT.
posted by David Rothman at 2:41 AM | permanent link

The General has just raised the white flag, perhaps before his top people could even consider an endorsement of the Public Domain Enhancement Act, which a policy aide had deemed "reasonable." I won't expect miracles but will try to lobby John Kerry's people for PDEA--and, yes, a well-stocked national digital library system. Stay tuned. As I said, I'm keeping an open mind. Meanwhile best of luck to Clark staffers in the search for their next gigs.
posted by David Rothman at 1:12 AM | permanent link

"Try as they might, the makers of electronic books have failed to dislodge the traditional book printed on paper--because it's dead obvious how to use it, you can take it anywhere, and it will never need a new battery. Even more important, analog stuff such as books and traditional photos endure--in some cases for centuries. Digital formats are changing faster and faster, making orphans of erstwhile standards such as floppy disks." - Robert D. Hof, via BusinessWeek Online.

The TeleRead take: Notice the reference to format-related matters? It's a legitimate criticism that the industry must address. The format mess is very much related to the complexity problem. On the other hand, with E Ink and other battery-thrifty display technologies on the way, the battery issue just won't matter that much in the future. But how would Hof know? He's a Luddite and proud of it.
posted by David Rothman at 10:01 PM | permanent link

Ebooks: Evolution, Not Revolution, in Book Publishing repeats the comforting myth that e-books won't replace p-books. Wrong. They will, just not immediately--the same as the horseless carriage eventually usurped the horse-drawn kind.

Point is, e-books will have flippable pages that display the book being read at the time; I still believe in the Last Book concept. LBs may even boast instantly replaceable color covers. When that day comes, e-books won't be that different from the paper variety and will take over, albeit not completely. As I've noted before, some people like to ride old-fashioned buggies around Central Park. Same idea here. P-books have their charms, but better alternatives are on the way.
posted by David Rothman at 4:43 AM | permanent link

Just received from Richard Koman of Anywhere Books, USA...

KAMPALA, UGANDA, January 14, 2003 -- It's another early morning in sultry Kampala and Carol Kamohoro, a librarian with the National Library of Uganda, is preparing to hit the road again. Three times a week Kamohoro and a driver head out to primary schools in Uganda's Buikwe district on the Digital Bookmobile, or "Digi" as Kamohoro affectionately calls it.

The Digital Bookmobile, a project implemented by San Francisco-based Anywhere Books and funded by the World Bank's InfoDev group, is making fundamental changes to Ugandan education. The Bookmobile is an ordinary van outfitted with computers, laser printers, an innovative bookbinding machine, and a paper cutter.

The library staff download public domain books from the Internet Archive, a online digital library, and help school children print, bind and cut their own books. For the primary schools in Buikwe, a Bookmobile visit means the creation of school libraries, and availability of reading books in classrooms for the first time. In fact, says Kamohoro, schools are now teaching reading as a subject, because they finally have books.

"The Digital Bookmobile is a dream come true for schools," Kamohoro says. "This thrilling technology is also a great idea for pupils, most of whom are very happy to own their first books ever. The Digital Bookmobile has excited the teachers so much that language teachers who had no scheduled reading lessons are now making time for pupils to read and swap books they got from the Bookmobile."

The project works with copyright-free or government-owned materials. In addition to the approximately 30,000 public domain materials available on the Internet, the project will work to aggressively scan Ugandan books and health information, especially information on living with AIDS and improving childhood mortality rates.

In addition to the Uganda project, Anywhere Books is pursuing opportunities to help organizations in the developing world and in North America deploy their own bookmobiles, stationary printing centers and scanning centers. "

***

Anywhere Books is organized as a fund of the Rudolf Steiner Foundation, a 501(c)3 corporation.

Internet Archive is a 501(c)3 organization based in San Francisco.
posted by David Rothman at 3:54 AM | permanent link

PDAs without phones just ain't as hot as they used to be--selling 18 percent less than in 2003, according to IDG, the marketing research company--and the e-book biz had better wake up. Time to look ahead?

First, software makers should do readers for PDA-phone combos. Microsoft and Palm Digital Media have been dragging their feet. Second, the e-book biz should go for affordable e-book-optimized Linux devices rather than trying to ride the coattails of traditional PDAdom.

The latest info from PalmSource shows how urgently the e-book industry needs to adjust. Would you believe, the OS scene will get still more complicated under Palm's new strategy? And this is on top of the Tower of eBabel.
posted by David Rothman at 1:23 AM | permanent link

I'll vote for Wes Clark today in the Virginia primary while keeping expectations very low.

His people have yet to follow through with an e-mail or telephone call giving the specifics of his past statements on copyright--nor are the appropriate advisors picking up the phone when I try to inquire about this. Look, guys, it's okay if you simply can't nail down what I was told; honest mistakes are tolerable. It is not okay to ignore phone calls.

Furthermore, it'll be interesting to see if the very most senior people in the Clark campaign even have the guts to endorse the Public Domain Enhancement Act--a rather reasonable measure to bring at least a little sanity back into copyright law.

Positive surprises welcomed

I'll welcome positive surprises, of course. In this campaign there are precious few of them. The top candidate all have attractive qualities such as Clark's powerful intellect and his national security-related qualifications, but, alas, they have unattractive ones, too.

Unless Clark's people follow through with the details as promised--and time's about to run out for Virginia--I won't send out pro-Clark statements to e-mail lists. Wanna know why Clark's slipping? This is a good example. But opportunities for redemption are still at hand. If the Clark people turn out to be helpfully decisive about the Public Domain Enhancement Act, I'll be all over the Net with the news, and I'll share this, too, with major education associations. But the lack of a follow-up phone call or e-mail about the General's past record on copyright is not a good sign.

Reminder: TeleRead itself is a nonpartisan cause and the above simply reflects my personal thinking. Whatever your politics, I encourage you to speak out against the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Enhancement Act and try to get your candidates on record against it. Is Dennis Kucinich the only presidential candidate with enough courage to question Hollywood-bought copyright laws?
posted by David Rothman at 12:30 AM | permanent link

Packetbook.com has "developed an ebook reader for mobile phones that uses the Palm Doc format for source content," says the company's Chris Young.

Chris notes that "mobile phones are the predominant Internet connection for most people outside North America." True! It's something to consider when skeptics doubt the usefulness of e-books on phones.

Packetbook focuses on Java-enabled phones--"J2ME devices supporting the JAD/JAR standard (most devices)." Already you can download hundreds of special Packetbook-format titles via a special Web address or a data cable or infrared.

While we're gung ho on nonproprietary standards around here, we're also in favor of anything that helps people cope with the Here and Now, especially the Tower of eBabel.

So the addition of the Palm Doc format is most welcome. (Not sure about availability--I've queried Chris.)
posted by David Rothman at 4:56 PM | permanent link

Feeling SOL because you wanted to use Microsoft Reader to read ESSPC books and couldn't? Good news. Jerry Justianto at Pocket PC eBooks Watch says that help is on the way from Redmond. Still...talk about the frustrations of proprietary approaches! See below.
posted by David Rothman at 6:29 PM | permanent link