Serendipity35

eBooks and eBook reading devices (like the Kindle) are still emerging technologies, especially in education. eBooks make up 1 percent of current book sales, but publishers are apprehensive about the time when digital reading will be commonplace. It has to remind us of what we have gone through previously with software, music and movies.

I heard a segment NPR that was talking about the topic and the anticipated problems.

The first concern is an old one. What happens when a legally purchased book can be sent around the world digitally? How does a publisher recoup their investment and protect books from being freely copied & exchanged?

Enter digital rights management technology (DRM) again. That technology would be embedded into eBook files. DRM controls how copies can be made and also which devices can display them - when it works. Users have complained that DRM sometimes also prevents them from reading the eBooks they've bought. For example, you might buy an eBook and not realize that you can't move it to your laptop.

Did the music industry make a mistake by not putting DRM on CDs early on? Would it have prevented the sharing of MP3s for free on the Internet?

Publishers want eBooks to have DRM right from the start. Amazon's Kindle (not the first eBook reader, but the first to get real public attention) has deals almost exclusively with eBooks that have DRM. But, if you lose or bust your Kindle, or they stop being made, you will have no way of reading what you bought because no other device can open the files.

There are still a lot of people who argue that there isn't good proof that file-sharing is THE reason that music sales crashed. It's definitely a factor, but so was pricing, promotion, the decline of radio and MTV popularity and, perhaps, a shortage of good music.

That NPR segment mentioned science fiction writer Cory Doctorow as a sample of a writer who tries to give away as much of his content as possible. Of course, Doctorow is not your typical writer. He is also a blogger, journalist, co-editor of the very popular blog Boing Boing, an activist in favor of liberalizing copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons. Some of his sci-fi books actually are about issues like digital rights management and file sharing. He gives away books online, but also sells the content and is able to make a profit.

Record companies seem to be realizing finally that fans who pass around music can actually create new fans and that with increased numbers, if a decent percentage buy the music and support the artists, it can be profitable. They were opposed to even legal downloads like Apple's iTunes at first, but now embrace it.

TV networks are realizing that allowing people to watch episodes of current and past shows online at sites like Hulu has the same effect of bringing new fans to the shows on the air. (Plus they sell a little more online advertising.)

Publishing is a different business, but with eBooks inevitably becoming the next thing, they would be wise to learn from the music and media companies and not make the same mistakes.