Comments on: The Kindle and textbooks, Orwell and E, the e-royalty dispute, DRM as a library toxin, and Wikipedia vs. vandals http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/07/18/the-kindle-and-schools-orwell-and-e-the-e-royalty-dispute-library-copyright-complications-and-wikipedia-vs-vandals/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Mon, 01 Dec 2008 19:05:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Daniel Udsen http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/07/18/the-kindle-and-schools-orwell-and-e-the-e-royalty-dispute-library-copyright-complications-and-wikipedia-vs-vandals/#comment-855467 Daniel Udsen Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:58:49 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/07/18/the-kindle-and-schools-orwell-and-e-the-e-royalty-dispute-library-copyright-complications-and-wikipedia-vs-vandals/#comment-855467 The US constitution os a $2.5 DRM protected purchase in ebook land, this is kind of the problem. Someone alays goes all the way, the kind of stuff is being mailed to you for free in the paper based world, becomes a DRM protected commercial product. It's not just the publishes who are acting against it the middle men at the ebook stores arent interested in a success if they arent getting to be the gatekeepers. If the publishers are scared of ebooks, ebook stores a scared of browsers or non specialized reading platforms, that can cut them more or less out of the loop, the way online bookstores did to a lot of local bookstores. The US constitution os a $2.5 DRM protected purchase in ebook land, this is kind of the problem. Someone alays goes all the way, the kind of stuff is being mailed to you for free in the paper based world, becomes a DRM protected commercial product. It’s not just the publishes who are acting against it the middle men at the ebook stores arent interested in a success if they arent getting to be the gatekeepers.

If the publishers are scared of ebooks, ebook stores a scared of browsers or non specialized reading platforms, that can cut them more or less out of the loop, the way online bookstores did to a lot of local bookstores.

]]> By: Greg Schofield http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/07/18/the-kindle-and-schools-orwell-and-e-the-e-royalty-dispute-library-copyright-complications-and-wikipedia-vs-vandals/#comment-854516 Greg Schofield Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:19:45 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/07/18/the-kindle-and-schools-orwell-and-e-the-e-royalty-dispute-library-copyright-complications-and-wikipedia-vs-vandals/#comment-854516 It may be my prejudice as recent teacher (I have finally left that trade) that textbooks are the crunch demographic for e-book technology. Entrenched paper publishing houses, whose works are well below par for the most part, will want to seal the market. They know that their print empires exist through delicately bound retailing connections. That their often shoddy, but lucrative print runs, are secured by having the right number of books (regardless of quality) available for education and that this fundamental reality permanently excludes small-time print competitors. It is an oligarchy in other words, secured by a canny use of a defacto situation. Huge potential demand, requiring huge stocks of books (after all what good is a very well written textbook, if the right numbers cannot be secured), produces a system of virtual preorders that only the big-boys can engineer. E-books must frighten the hell out of them, especially as we are seeing more eink devices and the beginning of a price slide. The writing is on the wall, but DRM and locked devices offer some hope that future generations of students will be subjected to second-rate texts - or so they hope. Imagine the effect, maybe just a few years down the track when teachers could pick the best written and most authoritative textbooks would be used. That production runs and retail strategies would no longer be the determining factor, when the oligarchy of textbook publishers was no more. Digital publishing would not be such a promising field if it were not also such a threatening one - let the battle begin, for however much they struggle, they will not survive. It may be my prejudice as recent teacher (I have finally left that trade) that textbooks are the crunch demographic for e-book technology.

Entrenched paper publishing houses, whose works are well below par for the most part, will want to seal the market.

They know that their print empires exist through delicately bound retailing connections. That their often shoddy, but lucrative print runs, are secured by having the right number of books (regardless of quality) available for education and that this fundamental reality permanently excludes small-time print competitors.

It is an oligarchy in other words, secured by a canny use of a defacto situation. Huge potential demand, requiring huge stocks of books (after all what good is a very well written textbook, if the right numbers cannot be secured), produces a system of virtual preorders that only the big-boys can engineer.

E-books must frighten the hell out of them, especially as we are seeing more eink devices and the beginning of a price slide.

The writing is on the wall, but DRM and locked devices offer some hope that future generations of students will be subjected to second-rate texts - or so they hope.

Imagine the effect, maybe just a few years down the track when teachers could pick the best written and most authoritative textbooks would be used. That production runs and retail strategies would no longer be the determining factor, when the oligarchy of textbook publishers was no more.

Digital publishing would not be such a promising field if it were not also such a threatening one - let the battle begin, for however much they struggle, they will not survive.

]]> By: Mike Cane http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/07/18/the-kindle-and-schools-orwell-and-e-the-e-royalty-dispute-library-copyright-complications-and-wikipedia-vs-vandals/#comment-853532 Mike Cane Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:15:02 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/07/18/the-kindle-and-schools-orwell-and-e-the-e-royalty-dispute-library-copyright-complications-and-wikipedia-vs-vandals/#comment-853532 I note an ebook that was apparently withdrawn at some point at the bottom of this post: http://ebooktest.blogspot.com/2008/07/frank-herbert.html S&S "offering" writers 15% for ebooks?! HAHAHAHAHA. Bend over and kiss your own, you greedy slugs. Authors should flood Congress with emails to get a bill passed making it ILLEGAL for print publishers to get e rights under Restraint Of Trade. How closed is the iPhone? It can read ePub. Can the Kindle?!!? If I was offered a free Kindle or a free iPT, I'd go for the iPT. I note an ebook that was apparently withdrawn at some point at the bottom of this post:
http://ebooktest.blogspot.com/2008/07/frank-herbert.html

S&S “offering” writers 15% for ebooks?! HAHAHAHAHA. Bend over and kiss your own, you greedy slugs. Authors should flood Congress with emails to get a bill passed making it ILLEGAL for print publishers to get e rights under Restraint Of Trade.

How closed is the iPhone? It can read ePub. Can the Kindle?!!? If I was offered a free Kindle or a free iPT, I’d go for the iPT.

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