07-01-2002, 08:11 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Does the lack of ebooks encourage piracy?
http://www.writingonyourpalm.net/column020701.htm
Jeff Kirvin has written an article this week called "The Truth About Piracy." If you are interested in ebooks at all I encourage you to read it. The crux of the article, for me anyway, is near the end. "Let's face it, most people are just lazy enough to prefer buying a professionally formatted, easily available ebook to tracking down a pirate edition filled with OCR errors." For me, this is a big "DUH!" Apparently the publishers don't get it though.
What do you think? I have a friend that has seen all sorts of pirated paper books in alt.binaries.ebooks and the like, but never one available as an ebook purchase. Why are publishers so paranoid about this and costing themselves customers?
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07-01-2002, 08:27 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,466
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I was under the impression that Microsoft's Reader project was pretty much dead. You don't hear anything lately about Reader ebook partnerships or updates to the application.
Is Microsoft leaving the field? :?
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07-01-2002, 08:32 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 7
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If every book I ever wanted was available on-line for a reasonable price, I would never hit alt.binaries.e-books again.
Having said that, I will NOT pay MORE for an e-book than I would for the paperback version of that same book. That's just ridiculous. I bet the majority of books today are type-set by computer, anyway, so somewhere there's a big .rtf file (or some other format) that could probably be converted to e-book format with little additional work.
Or I could just be wrong. Someone out there know anything about modern bookmaking?
Brian K
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07-01-2002, 08:35 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Foo Fighter
I was under the impression that Microsoft's Reader project was pretty much dead. You don't hear anything lately about Reader ebook partnerships or updates to the application.
Is Microsoft leaving the field? :?
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You seem to think that anything that is not currently undergoing a big media blitz is dead. Didn't you ask if the Pocket PC had been left for dead just a few weeks ago?
And Foo - read that non sequitur link I sent? ;-)
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07-01-2002, 08:44 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 46
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Nice read, Very true. The eBooks I have are from very old books that are not in print anymore (but I do have them in paperback in my library), and I know there is no way they will ever be done by the publisher. But I would buy the publishers version (if reasonably priced) of current or upto 3 years old Sci-Fi books. Would love to have some Sci-Fi series in legal format 
Sometimes (most times) the quality of the eBooks that you find on the Usenet groups are not that great.
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07-01-2002, 08:54 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 12
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lack of e-books
It seems that no matter how much of something is produced, there will always be theft of some kind unfortunately. The thing I find interesting, is after almost 20 years in the IT industry, usually the desktop and network guys have the most "free" (ahem) software.
I found the comment on Microsoft Reader interesting... I purchased my Jornada 568 during the Winter Olympics when one of the retailers had a special... after being a Palm user for over 3 years, I was amazed at how much more functionality I suddenly had in my hand! I tried out a few free e-books when I registered my software and one that stands out was World War II In The Balance... the MS Reader version was so loaded with typographical errors, spelling errors, and weird page formatting that I managed to struggle through to the end and read the whole book. Now I hesitate to purchase any books for MS Reader, wondering if the few freebies that I tried from the MS Reader site are indicative of other titles for MS Reader.
I have Palm Reader Pro on my Pocket PC and am thoroughly pleased with it. I've purchased about 10 e-books to date and can be found reading or browsing news channels on AvantGo usually when I'm on the train.
Never been much of one for the newsgroups (alt.anything at all) as I find it takes too long to sort through the spam and porn to find actual topic discussions. That's why I prefer sites like this to get my current information on what's up in the industry.
I think it's more profit greed that keeps the price of e-books high... if it's more about moving product than moving stock price, I'd expect to see prices come down and volumes go up. Would be interesting to see sales figures from sites such as Peanut Press or Amazon or Barnes&Noble for the e-book industry. Of course, at 38, I remember when you bought paperback books for $1 or less 8O
And for publishing from RTF files, in my previous job, I was a course leader for an education company. One of the courses I was about to start leading had course manuals that took up three 3" binders. I asked for and received the acrobat reader versions of the manuals, loaded them on my m505 (at that time my PDA of choice) and carried one small unit instead of tearing my arms off with two briefcases of paper. If it can be done in companies, surely the publishers can do the same?
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07-01-2002, 09:31 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 170
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I pirate books. I -LOVE- reading books on my PocketPC, have been doing so since the Palm Pro. Now, the books I want are not available online, in a flexible format, in a way that I can pay the author due tribute. Within 5 minutes or less on IRC I can get almost any book I want.
Now, yes, I know its not the most ethical thing to do, but I am out of options. I want to read books in my PocketPC, it is VERY convenient for me, but there is just no availability.
I hate warez, I am a software developer, and I guess I would feel the same way I do toward illegal software if I where a writer. But then, I dont blame a kid (and mostly one in the third world or in developing countries) to pirate a program like 3DStudio (over a grand), AutoCAD, or even Office, so he can learn and get skills that, on the enterprise, will pay him a good salaries. In the end, I think big software companies benefit somewhat from piracy, in this way they get the software on more people, and thus more people will have the skills to use that software in the businessplace, where most software is paid for.
Just my thoughts, IMHO the extreme case is the software industry. They got what they deserve if you ask me, ripping off the public and the musicians with outragous, unjustifiable prices.
Whatever, best wishes to all, as usual, kuddos to the guys fot the GREATEST pocketpc site out there.
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07-01-2002, 09:39 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 123
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I agree with the article. I have read pirated e-books (most of which I also own in paperback, because my wife still prefers paper books). I have also read a few e-books and e-magazines bought from on-line sources. If I could get the books I want to read on-line for the same price as a paperback copy, I would probably never read another pirated copy again.
I have fallen in love with e-books, and may never read another paperback book again, so piracy or ligitmate e-books are my only options. I refuse to stop reading.
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07-01-2002, 10:22 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 355
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Foo Fighter
I was under the impression that Microsoft's Reader project was pretty much dead. You don't hear anything lately about Reader ebook partnerships or updates to the application. Is Microsoft leaving the field? :?
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well consider this a somewhat formal offical announcement (but don't quote me). i've been part of 3-4 printed books so far in my life, and i'm now going 100% ebook, and only launching in microsoft reader (.lit). i can't talk about too much more than that, but stay tuned. it's going to be great for everyone.
i wouldn't be doing this unless i had 100% confidence in the format and the company.
if it doesn't work out, i'll quickly change my mind tho :-]
cheers,
pt
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07-01-2002, 11:49 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 252
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I have read one solitary ebook purchased from Palmpress (Up Country Nelson De Mille) and it quickly became my preferred reading method. It's the only one as it is the only one I could find that I actually wanted to buy. I have not read any pirated ebooks
If publishers could take their heads out of the bottoms they would see the potential of the medium. I would prefer to read ebooks (I'm have a siginificant shelf shortage problem) and bizarrely am happy to pay for same price as a paperback (or potenitally hardback if the author was somebody I normally buy hardbacks of and it came out at the same time).
I bizarrely as they don't have the same costs of production, distribution, retailer costs (I don't see how palmpress for example could expect the same markup without the overhead of warehousing, bricks and mortar stores, staff) etc.), No stock to remainder, no second hand book stalls taking away potential revenue. Publishers should be able to increase their margin and increase their profits.
Palmpress's use of a credit card number as key means that they are not going to get me handing out books to friends (which I will do with a paperback)
By refusing to embrace the ebook market people will be inclined to product pirated books and therefore the publisher pushes the market to one in which one book gets bought and 5000 copies are produced. They really need to wake up and smell the coffee.
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