Comments on: The Big-Publisher Ebook Scam

By: Lynoure Braakman

Lynoure Braakman — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:34:47 +0000

Recently I bought an ebook about Pomodoro method. After ordering it for 16 dollars, the publisher wanted to know if I also want the paper version of the book for 13 dollars. Frankly, I would have left a happier customer if that offer had not been made.

I did like the book, but unfortunately the .epub was optimized for iPhone (colours, and backlight) and .mobi for Kindle (more grey tones), so all versions had quite crappy images on my Sony Reader Touch edition.

By: Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho

Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:15:09 +0000

Baen’s Webscriptions has been selling ebooks for 4–6 dollars per book for a decade now (with only some specialty items having a bigger price than that), and I hear they’re profitable. AND they don’t do DRM.

In any case, as Charlie Stross writes (http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/01/amazon-macmillan-an-outsiders.html), the issue in the recent AmazonFail incident is not the price of the book, but the relationship between Amazon and the publishers.

By: Lars Wirzenius

Lars Wirzenius — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:55:37 +0000

I won’t reward publishers that use DRM, so conversion tools to remove DRM don’t help me. I won’t buy paper books, at least now that I’m travelling around the world looking for a job. As a result, for the time being I’m limited to free stuff. So far, it’s been fine.

However, I would not mind at all paying for e-books, as long as I don’t get DRM. I have done so in the past. I am so very disappointed in not being able to give money to publishers (and, indirectly, to authors). Sigh.

By: John Goerzen

John Goerzen — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 06:29:33 +0000

I’m totally with you on the evils of DRM.

I’m not sure what to do about it. I certainly won’t buy something where I can’t get at my own data. Tools are available, on Linux even, to strip the DRM from the vast majority of Kindle files, and also to convert the resulting .mobi to a directory containing HTML.

I don’t like it either, but carrying around paper is even less attractive to me (not to mention more expensive and less environmentally friendly.)

By: Lars Wirzenius

Lars Wirzenius — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:47:29 +0000

Today, I wanted to buy the third and fourth volumes in the Sharing Knife series by Lois McMaster Bujold as ebooks. I did not succeed.

I will not buy a DRM-infested ebook, not for any price. For every store I looked at, either the DRM-status of the ebook was unclear or it was clear that DRM was used. Either way, I had to put away my credti card, held in my eagerly shaking hands, so that I could grab a tissue and wipe my eyes as tears started swelling after yet another disappointment.

Even if I did consent to buying a DRM-infested ebook, I wouldn’t be able to read it. I read ebooks either on my laptop, running Linux, or my phone, also running Maemo. Neither is a popular target for DRM-enabled ebook readers. In fact, I don’t know of such a reader for either platform.

It should not be this hard to give publishers money.