I don't know if this Idea can be made to work ? But I can't see the difference between reselling a paper book and a digital one .
A paper book is one book. You could copy it or scan it but it would take ages. An ebook can be copied without limit and within minutes. I could give you a file without loosing that file myself.
A paper book is one book. You could copy it or scan it but it would take ages. An ebook can be copied without limit and within minutes. I could give you a file without loosing that file myself.
But how the hell can an ebook be 'used'? It's not like the quality would be less. Colour me confused.
Another implication is that the person who does the file copying -- making 10,000 copies, say -- gets all the revenue and none goes to the author. Effectively, it turns the middle-man into the person who profits from the book. With physical books, you'd have to buy 10,000 copies to sell them, but with ebooks, you just need to buy one, and you're making all the money that would go to the author. The copier could price their book at .99 or even freaking give it away. It takes the power of material distribution completely away from the author. My suggestion is borrow an ebook from your library because many of them are lending ebooks now.
This inherently implies DRM, and furthermore, DRM that's exclusively under Amazon's control.The proposed used digital marketplace would take that one step further. Instead of loaning the access rights of an e-book, music file, video or application, in exchange for some cash, the original owner of the digital file would transfer the rights to use that file to another party permanently.
If the file were downloaded to a device, after the sale, the original owner would be unable to access the file. the data would still be on the device until deleted by the original owner, but access to the contents of that file would be turned off.
This inherently implies DRM, and furthermore, DRM that's exclusively under Amazon's control.
Publishers could rewrite their contracts with Amazon to specifically refuse to give a license for such as "resellabe" ebook, but I wonder if that will happen. It wouldn't be the first time Amazon has pissed off publishers.
You can specify a number of 'lends' allowed on Kindle. So presumably 'paid lends' would not be an impossible leap.
It could leave them saying what file-sharing sites do. That their members may break the law every second, but they are an innocent bystander. But with the extra legitimacy of the Amazon brand.
I don't believe Amazon would allow the sale of DRM-free or copied or otherwise "unregistered" ebooks. I don't get that from reading the article.
That's somewhat addressed by information in the article and the patent.
DRM is used to manage how many times content may be transferred/sold/downloaded/moved between devices/etc. Imagine this situation: I buy an e-book for $10. The rights/DRM are such that it can only ever be accessed from 5 individual devices ever. I download it to my Nook and a copy to my computer. I get a new e-reader for Christmas and download a copy. I buy a new computer and download it there. Now I decide to sell it. It can only ever be copied to one other device ever. When I go to sell it as used, I only get 1$ for it because the buyer can only put it on one device ever, and can't resell or ever because all of the licenses are used up. After the sale goes through, it is removed (or rendered inaccessible by DRM) from all of my devices.
That's just one example of how it could work.
article said:“There are no dog-eared pages or scratches or nicks or cuts or highlighter marks or whatever,” says Bill Rosenblatt, a consultant and expert witness in digital content patent cases. “It’s the same exact product.”
In other words, a customer given the choice between a “new” e-book and a less expensive “used” e-book will buy the used copy every time. The extra expense of “new” won’t get you anything better. So why would Amazon want to get into a business that would seem to undercut the business they’re already in?
It really puts the screws to the publishers and authors.
Therein lies my big issue. But I don't agree with the bold. I can think of many reasons Zon would want to get in this bed--it's going to turn a lot of heat up on publishers to lower their "new" prices, which is the same drum they've been beating for ages.
But what about the publishers and authors? Sure, I buy used and remainders. But I also buy new--for that new book smell, or to have that perfect dust jacket of a pretty new copy of my favorite author's book. But the used ebook is going to be the exact same--no remainder mark, no highlights, no bent edge, etc. So why would I buy a new copy (aside from timing) if I can get a used copy for even a dollar less?
It really puts the screws to the publishers and authors.