eBook Prices - Is it just me…

[Micah Sweet]

If you want to think you live in some dystopian Shadowrun society governed by a secret cabal of book publishers of all things, go right ahead. I don’t have time for this nonsense.

Publishing is what we're talking about here, but clearly the issue extends beyond that arena. We just can't discuss it on a gaming forum.

 

[Umbran]

This is a problem, yes. And it needs to be fixed—“perceived value” is just nonsense

With all due respect, for non-essential items, perceived value is the only value.

You cost to produce it do not determine value to the consumer.

 

[Umbran]

The problem is that the perceived value of the digital item is not the same as physical. Publishers have created this problem by making digital products licensed rather than owned.

That is generally not the publisher, but the platform licence agreement that does that.

If I buy a John Scalzi book, published by Tor, it comes with a notice that it is provided without DRM. Good luck getting it off your e-reader, though.

If you but the ebook from Barnes and Noble, for example, you need to root your tablet to get it outside the Nook app...

 

[Micah Sweet]

That is generally not the publisher, but the platform licence agreement that does that.

If I buy a John Scalzi book, published by Tor, it comes with a notice that it is provided without DRM. Good luck getting it off your e-reader, though.

If you but the ebook from Barnes and Noble, for example, you need to root your tablet to get it outside the Nook app...

What does "root your tablet" mean?

 

[Morrus]

With all due respect, for non-essential items, perceived value is the only value.

You cost to produce it do not determine value to the consumer.

You didn’t understand what I was saying. But it was a while ago and the conversation has moved on so
never mind.

 

[Belen]

And now a number of ebooks are being sold without DRM on the kindle store

It does not matter. Amazon admitted that there is still backdoor DRM because the book is locked to your kindle.

When you could download the book, a non-DRM copy could be read anywhere. No longer.

 

[Belen]

Couldn't they just buy the digital book and make as many copies as they want?

No. You are only buying an account based license now.

 

[Umbran]

What does "root your tablet" mean?

When they sell you a mobile device, the account you get in it can do a lot, but not everything. To "root" a device is to get root/superuser access on the device.

Sometimes, this is against your license agreement. Sometimes, if you don't have good tools, it can mean data loss.

On an android device, the Nook app keeps the ebook files in a directory that is not visible to the normal user. You have to make yourself a superuser to see them to copy them off the device.

 

[Umbran]

Couldn't they just buy the digital book and make as many copies as they want?

A library's agreement that allows them to distribute the ebooks limit them to so many copies at a time.

 

[Umbran]

Libraries are great. But they’re not known for breaking the law.

With the caveat that Librarians are among the most proficient practitioners at malicious compliance known to man....