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My long-ish view on ebooks: :mrgreen:
I read a LOT of ebooks. I love the format, I love the idea, but I hate the "hooks" that most commercially available ebooks come with. If reading an ebook is more difficult than finding a paperback on your bookshelf, that particular ebook format has failed.
As has been said before, the only disadvantage to the medium that I see is that the majority of digital rights management schemes are too draconian to be workable in their present form. If I pay for a book, I want to have all of the advantages that I'd get from buying a paper book. I want to be able to read it at any time, on any of my devices, whenever I want, for as long as I want.
Removing these fundamental aspects of the reading experience in the interest of generating additional revenue streams is reprehensible at best and criminal at worst.
Books are NOT like music - they will not be shared in the same volume as songs, as they are not as disposable as songs. They require an investment on the part of the user that is much longer than the 3 to 5 minutes that a song needs. Reading a book is a commitment, and in my opinion, the bond between the reader and the author is much greater than that generated between a musician and listener.
I think that publishers would make a killing if they released their books in unrestricted plain text format. If I could pay $3 for something that effectively (in comparison to the razor thin profit margin of traditional books) costs the publisher nothing, I'd be deliriously happy, and would buy MORE books than I do now.
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