Paper book or Ebook?

[Errant Bard]

In other words the "Steam" method of making it easier to access the desired property legally than pirating? That said how do you make it easier to legally buy an eBook than to download for free from a torrent site?

You remove the DRMs and the limitations that makes users obligated to do more than what they do by using the torrents (use third party software to copy or backup their stuff,) you offer easy links to google drive or the like, you decide on an universal standard for books, you work with hardware producers to integrate your stuff better, provide an open api so third party apps can connect to you easily, and perfect your own apps, while making examples of the most blatant sites catering to illegal distributors of copyrighted content... stuff like that. Also, by damn, you make your damn downloads platforms compatible for every OS: I am on linux at home, and I couldn't get the copy of Neverwhere I just paid for, last time. Yes I know it's because of DRMs/security/pirates and stuff, and that's the point: it's not helping, I almost gave up and downloaded it from someone distributing it illegally (heh, I paid for it anyway so technically I had a right to one copy.)

Thinking of the youtube automatic removal debacle, the nice thing about books is that contrary to music/film, it's text, and in small files: it can be scanned for identity really fast.

But of course it will not remove piracy, nor prevent it growing with the number of people who switch to digital

Isn't part of the problem that different publishing companies have the right to publish particular books in different countries and not all of them are releasing eBooks?

Yes, but laws in that domain would benefit from a good overhaul. If I can buy a book from amazon* UK, US, DE or JP as easily as from amazon FR, it seems daft that digital download would remove that freedom.

*used for the sake of the example, it stays valid for all overseas companies I've used, big and small.

Certain parts of the industry may be making more money but as someone who used to work in retail marketing for Virgin Megastores I can assure you the above statement is incorrect. Aside from a few hold outs (Amoeba records etc.)and small nostalgia projects the brick and mortar store model is done. Online streaming has replaced some of that but then you have issues like this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/14/business/media/pandora-suit-may-upend-century-old-royalty-plan.html?_r=0

But neither are relevant to pirating, are they? Surely nobody can make pirates responsible for a bad redistribution of the money actually paid to listen to songs (or more accurately, reading the article, for some people getting greedy and wanting a bigger piece of the pie,) or of consumer habits changing, helped a lot by the hardware sold by branches of the companies that whine about the paradigm shift?

[MisterOJ]

Isn't part of the problem that different publishing companies have the right to publish particular books in different countries and not all of them are releasing eBooks?

That is a problem. I only buy and read ebooks. I don't buy paper books anymore. A year or two back, I wanted to read a book that wasn't available in the US as an ebook. I could buy an "imported" paper book - or not at all. Oh, or I could pirate the ebook and pay nothing at all while reading it in the format I wanted. I would have happily paid for the ebook - which was out on the Internet, but I wasn't allowed to buy it because I lived in the U.S.

If you can buy an "import" copy of a phyiscal book, I would think it behooves publishers to allow customers to likewise "import" a copy of the ebook.

[Alester Florent]

Paper books for me. For all that I want anything to do with them, ebooks might as well be the congealed bodily secretions of Beelzebub himself.

Which isn't to say that I disapprove of them; for people who find them useful, are short on space, travel extensively, don't get on with paper books etc. I'm sure they're very useful and I'm always in favour of anything that helps more people to read (even if it's Fifty Shades). They're just not for me and I can't imagine that they ever will be; I like me my paper books far too much, even if I have more than I can conveniently store.

[naz]

Yeah, you'll never get me to read paper books. It's all hand-written vellum scrolls for me. I just love the way my scrolls stack up on my shelves, their wooden handles clickety-clacking against each other. And I just love to smell that musty scent of dried calf skin when I'm unrolling them. The beautiful, painstaking calligraphy work... there's just no substitute for that. Movable type? Pshaw! You can keep your machine-made, high tech leather bound volumes. What am I, a robot or something? It's so much better to read something that took weeks and weeks to make, by a real live human being.

Oh, and don't get me started on my papyrus sheafs. You can pry them out of my cold, dead hands.

[Mr. X]

Oh naz, you and your newfangled papyrus and vellum.

Etched stone tablets or GTFO!

[Alester Florent]

To be honest, any kind of storytelling that isn't done orally by a bard is a nail in the coffin of civilisation.

[naz]

Cave paintings FTW!

[Errant Bard]

To be honest, any kind of storytelling that isn't done orally by a bard is a nail in the coffin of civilisation.

What do you know, I was discussing with a middle ages historian some time back, and it appears that this was a real argument, in my country, though it was done by a minstrel/troubadour corporation/guild.

[Alester Florent]

What do you know, I was discussing with a middle ages historian some time back, and it appears that this was a real argument, in my country, though it was done by a minstrel/troubadour corporation/guild.

It's an argument that's been made a number of times, although it's not surprising to find someone who makes their living from oral storytelling decrying it. Socrates apparently disapproved of writing, thinking it would stunt the art of conversation (presumably this is why he didn't write anything), and before him I think Rameses II (might have been a different king) discouraged writing in Egypt, because he thought it would have a detrimental effect on the memory.

[bloodsteel bitterraven]

I prefer paper books but I don't own a house so every time I move to a new apartment I have to move all my stuff :(

So it's hard to buy too many paper books.

[Damp Hair - The Prophet]

I have all the book on a nook & it's nice because I can quickly search key words or quotes & zap I'm on that pay -makes reference easier.

[Deedles]

I've cold sweats and shaking.

My poor little kindle Frank, is sick, and a reboot isn't working. I'm going to have to wait until I get home from work to troubleshoot it properly, but I'm worried about him. My partner & I are going on hols in 2 weeks. I need to bring a kindle with me. I can't manage a 2 week holiday, with 11 flights, 4 centres and only one suitcase without him. My commute I can just about manage, but my holiday never. We do have another kindle, but we need two. I see shopping in the future if I can't get him working again.

3 years ago I swore blindly that I would never use a kindle, now I don't know how I couldn't.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Deedles,

Not sure how many years ago people started gushing about ebooks and ereaders. I still don't use one.

Hope your kindle isn't perminantly crapped out. If it is I hope no data is lost when you transition to a new one.

Isn't three years a pretty short lifespan for an eReader?

[SilentRoamer]

I think digital Piracy is a big problem and always will be. There are no easy solutions. I work in the IT industry and see this across the board.

In truth I have downloaded quite a few books - but, I only download books that I already own or that are out of print (generally these can be secondhand on Ebay for ridiculous prices that is not seeing its way to the author). So I buy a paper book and then I obtain a copy for my Kindle HD if I want to re-read or do more in depth analysis.

For me the biggest problem with my Kindle is not DRM, licensing, bad eyesight or anything like that. My problem is waking in a blind panic that I have rolled onto my Kindle during the night and cracked it! Falling asleep in bed with a paper book is a lot less worrying and I am a sucker for trying to finish a chapter even as my eyelids are being born to the ground by wild horses.

[Deedles]

Oh I see why people don't use them. I was one - but I have fallen in love - as has my back.

I think the only data loss would likely have been the position of the "bookmark", and as the last activity I'd had on that kindle was finishing a book, that's not an issue. All the books bought are available in the kindle cloud so you could always down load them. I guess marks / high lights might go as well, but I don't typically mark up books, so it's not a factor. I hope Frank lives too! As you say, 3 years isn't that long but he has rather weaseled his way into my life.

[Errant Bard]

I only download books that I already own or that are out of print

There are a lot of out of print books whose text is actually in the public domain, it's rather surprising when you are thinking of buying a well known story, and you see it on project Gutenberg. I think that 90% of my e-reader's content is like that. (for some reason, I still lug around paper books and the think stays powered off for months on end, though. Not too sure why)

[Madfunkymonkey]

College text book, instructional manual, training program, etc..., paper.

Reading book for enjoyment, E-book.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Mfm,

It's unpleasant or not enjoyable to read a normal book?

[paddington]

Sometimes I don't want to be looking at a screen, so a paperbook is a nice break. I also love the smell and feel of a paperbook, which I may have mentioned before.

[Deedles]

I type all day at work. My hands and fingers are sore enough already (means I find knitting etc very difficult), believe it or not, it's much easier to read a behemoth like Neal Stephenson on a light kindle than to be lugging it around in my handbag or even at night.

I enjoy paper books. I continue to buy some in dual formats - partly to support the author, partly so I can have something I can loan out, or have people read when at mine. One does not exclude the other. For instance, I find it hard to read "new" books in audio format. I don't know when I can skim, how long interminable battle scenes last etc, so I don't typically buy audio books new. I repeat buy them. If I think a book was enjoyable and would like to reread it, I'll often buy it in audio rather than paperback or ebook.