![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
On the subject of e-books
Good morning,
It started out as such a great idea. When project gutenberg began, the dreams of a free, or at least low cost, digital format for books were flying high. Whether PDF or true-text, a book was to be a file that anyone could obtain, download, keep, and copy to their heart's content. No longer would readers be tied down to the object of a book, citations would always be accurate, and we wouldn't even need an internet connection to browse our own virtual libraries of any volume we might need.
However, this was not to be, as the primary interest of book seller -- profit -- was not being generated as quickly as the the costs associated with offering e-books. So it came to pass that a new generation of virtual books appeared, each tied to a user account and limited to the devices offered by retailers, yours for only a few hundred dollars and a regular subscription fee.
While I admire the market acumen of those who conceived of and implement the Kindle and Nook, I have discovered one further step to limiting the usefulness of e-books that I consider too far. The Nook Study, a new service to provide textbooks to students, has made that additional step to controlling the digital format by limiting the number of times a piece of text maybe copied from it, how often and at what volume it maybe printed, and when it can be accessed, as books rented or purchased via Nook Study can only be accessed when you are connected to the internet. Those of us who play games or use any DRM-controlled software services are familiar with the limitations publishers and retailers impose on their customers to use their software. That this phenomenon has spilled over into a medium wherein you can, for the same price, get a physical copy to own is, frankly, ridiculous. However it is marketed, it less appropriate for the e-book than it is for software.
So, it is with a heavy heart that I abandon the dream of e-books. Unless you get a file that you can use, just as you would with a real book and copy machine, it's just not worth it.
-F. F. White
It started out as such a great idea. When project gutenberg began, the dreams of a free, or at least low cost, digital format for books were flying high. Whether PDF or true-text, a book was to be a file that anyone could obtain, download, keep, and copy to their heart's content. No longer would readers be tied down to the object of a book, citations would always be accurate, and we wouldn't even need an internet connection to browse our own virtual libraries of any volume we might need.
However, this was not to be, as the primary interest of book seller -- profit -- was not being generated as quickly as the the costs associated with offering e-books. So it came to pass that a new generation of virtual books appeared, each tied to a user account and limited to the devices offered by retailers, yours for only a few hundred dollars and a regular subscription fee.
While I admire the market acumen of those who conceived of and implement the Kindle and Nook, I have discovered one further step to limiting the usefulness of e-books that I consider too far. The Nook Study, a new service to provide textbooks to students, has made that additional step to controlling the digital format by limiting the number of times a piece of text maybe copied from it, how often and at what volume it maybe printed, and when it can be accessed, as books rented or purchased via Nook Study can only be accessed when you are connected to the internet. Those of us who play games or use any DRM-controlled software services are familiar with the limitations publishers and retailers impose on their customers to use their software. That this phenomenon has spilled over into a medium wherein you can, for the same price, get a physical copy to own is, frankly, ridiculous. However it is marketed, it less appropriate for the e-book than it is for software.
So, it is with a heavy heart that I abandon the dream of e-books. Unless you get a file that you can use, just as you would with a real book and copy machine, it's just not worth it.
-F. F. White