Of e-book pricing, Justice Dept. charges, DRM, and Pottermore

[gb18]

Cnet opinion on ".....what feels wrong with e-book pricing ....."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-33620_3-57414926-278/of-e-book-pricing-justice-dept-charges-drm-and-potter...

[patgolfneb]

He did a good job of  highlighting the main areas of contention with e books. The most important point he makes, unintentionally, is he feels ripped off by e books. Most of the points he makes have been expressed repeatedly on this forum. It comes down to consumer values and expectations. Is DRM, no fair use rights, pricing of new releases, propietary formats, older books priced above paperback important enough to readers that they will reduce purchases from big publishers. Will watermarking and a widespread standard formt be accepted by the big players, I hope so, but no leader has appeared to champion these changes.

I am so old The articles authors picture didn't look like someone old enough to have 15 years exprience to me. I hope it was an old picture

[keriflur]

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patgolfneb wrote:

He did a good job of  highlighting the main areas of contention with e books. The most important point he makes, unintentionally, is he feels ripped off by e books. Most of the points he makes have been expressed repeatedly on this forum. It comes down to consumer values and expectations. Is DRM, no fair use rights, pricing of new releases, propietary formats, older books priced above paperback important enough to readers that they will reduce purchases from big publishers. Will watermarking and a widespread standard formt be accepted by the big players, I hope so, but no leader has appeared to champion these changes.

I am so old The articles authors picture didn't look like someone old enough to have 15 years exprience to me. I hope it was an old picture

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Tor is championing some of them.  They announced today that they are going DRM-free.  I assume if their transition is sucessful, Macmillian will consider the change across the board.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/torforge-e-book-titles-to-go-drm-free

[Ed_Mart]

Cnet has an article about Tor Books announcing that they will be dropping DRM from their entire catologue in July.  If only more publishers would move in that direction.

[moose_tracker]

OK, I will be the brave soul to ask the stupid question..

I am all for getting rid of the DRM, and ending the walled garden effect.. Watermark it whatever, I will be good as long as I can tote my book to whichever platform I desire, and loan it to a very few friends/relatives I would trust not to post it to a free for all website and hang me out to dry for it.

I don't though get how ending the DRM & walled Garden hurts Amazons chances for of a take-over.. How does it do that? I mean B&N is in their own attempt to wall us in, so we don't go off to by the cheaper book at Amazon. 

Amazon has their own propietary ebook format, which is a PITA to begin with, it will keep them from being able with DRM to continue that practice, as we could buy from them and change the format you wish.. So will now be able to buy from Amazon to read on our NOOKs..

Does this help B&N??  The Nook is not what makes them money, it is the purchasing of the books to go on the Nook.. So now Amazon gets to again sell books for less then they pay for the book, for how many years it takes to run everyone else out of buisness.. Then own a monopoly and charge what they want and force publishers to sell at their demands..  Where does the end of the DRM help with this takeover??

[moogs]

Do you honestly think I'm going to give up reading a great book from a major house because I can buy a so-so book from someplace that doesn't have drm. Books aren't a commodity like oil or soybeans, they're individual works of story telling. Besides, anyone who really cares about drm free material knows how easy it is to strip and already does so.

[Suvorov]

Hopefully someone from B&N is moderating this discussion. I'll be honest; I have significantly cut back on my ebook purchases. I like the convenience, but because the prices are just as high as a paperback and less flexible on usage, I started purchasing the paperback if I really want to own it. I have also increased my trips to the library. My total book and ebook purchases has decreased by more than 50% so far this year. I know many of my friends are in a similar situation.

I loan and borrow hard copies of books all the time. Bottom line, if I really like a book, I am going to purchase it anyway. Sometimes I will purchase both hard copy and ebook. Now, I will not simply purchase a book because it looks interesting. I will check it out from the library instead. Before, I may have purchased it outright. B&N- you are losing a lot of money on me. Last year alone, my family spent $3700 dollars on books. This year, you will not see even half of that.

My biggest issue is DRM. If I am paying the exact same price or even just $1-$2 less, I want to be able to do whatever I want with that book. I OWN the book just as I OWN the hard copy I purchase. I am not borrowing the book. If I cannot do whatever I want with the book, then the book should be priced no higher than $3. I cannot speak for others, but if I borrow a book from a friend and never purchase the actual book, it is a book I would not have purchased anyway; I would have checked it out of the library. If I borrow a book from a friend and love it, I will purchase it. So by allowing me to borrow ebooks, you would not be losing any money from me.

You are losing money by not allowing me to loan ebooks. If I see a book that I think my sister and mom would like, I may decide to purchase it because I can lend it to them. But if I cannot share the book, I will not purchase it; I will check it out at the library.

In addition, I can use coupons on actual books but not ebooks. So for actual books that are the same price or only $1 more, they end up costing less. And ebooks do not count toward Upromise credit, which I find unacceptable. Do they count toward Box Tops? There seem to be a lot of disadvantages to ebooks that I had not originally considered and are making a huge difference in my spending now.

B&N- it may not be up to you whether or not to DRM the ebooks, but you do have the ability to pressure publishers regarding that issue. Also, if this article is correct, once you pay the publisher its price, you set the retail price. That's gives you some room to give your customer a better price or at least be able to apply coupons. I'm losing some B&N loyalty here.

[MacMcK1957]

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moogs wrote:
Do you honestly think I'm going to give up reading a great book from a major house because I can buy a so-so book from someplace that doesn't have drm. Books aren't a commodity like oil or soybeans, they're individual works of story telling. ...

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That logic applies if you are reading every book you want to read.  I don't have the time.  At any given time I probably have dozens of books I'd really love to get to.  If some of those books are available from one publisher for $14.99 and others are available from someone else for $6.99, guess which ones I'll buy.  If the $14.99 publisher has a book that I feel I absolutely must have, I'll buy it, but normally there are tons of books to choose from.  If I had the time to read every book I want, it would be different, but I don't.  Maybe if I can win the lottery and retire early, but then I won't care what the books cost.

[flyingtoastr Scribe]

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Ed_Mart wrote:

Cnet has an article about Tor Books announcing that they will be dropping DRM from their entire catologue in July.  If only more publishers would move in that direction.

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I was actually lucky enough to get Peter Ahlstrom (Brandon Sanderson's assistant) to comment on this. Apparently Tor has been trying to go DRM free for a while now, and SMT/MM was shooting it down. 

I wonder what changed recently...

[keriflur]

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moogs wrote:
Do you honestly think I'm going to give up reading a great book from a major house because I can buy a so-so book from someplace that doesn't have drm. Books aren't a commodity like oil or soybeans, they're individual works of story telling. Besides, anyone who really cares about drm free material knows how easy it is to strip and already does so.

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Tor is a subdivision of Macmillian, and therefore *is* a big house.  If you don't read Tor books, that's fine, but you're missing the significance of this.  Tor has four imprints.  So four imprints of one of the big six are going DRM free.  If this works out for them, it's highly likely that it will spread to other imprints of Macmillian and probably to other pubs too.

And no, not everyone who cares about DRM is stripping it.  There are a lot of people out there who are inconvenienced by it that aren't tech savvy enough to run python scripts, or who don't want to (possibly) break the law.  And there are authors who want their books sold DRM-free.