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Old 10-31-2009, 12:50 PM   #19
Ide
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Seattle
Posts: 361
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Re: "Feels like a book" (for e-readers or against?)

Ebooks are undoubtedly very convenient, and fairly easy on the eyes, I think the Sony, Kindle, and Nook all use E-ink right? So you don't have the screen glare, though the resolution stll isn't as good as a book, and you don't (yet) get color -- though most books don't use color in the text anyway.

The biggest problem I see with ebooks is DRM. Who actually owns the collection of books on your reader? What happens with the used book market? How easy is it to transfer the ebooks you bought to a new device? I don't think these questions will get sorted out for some time, and meanwhile ebooks and readers will get more and more popular. Publishers will be paranoid that books will go the way of digital format music (i.e. totally pirated) and they're not going to go easy into a DRM-free future.

In theory artists could do very well in this situation -- if they keep control of their material. If they can form a direct market connection with their readers. But if publishers maintain this connection, I feel like both artists and readers could get shafted.
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