ebooks: bought but not owned
March 23rd, 2008 at 10:29 am
Some legal lemurs over at Columbia Law School are chittering and swinging their way through the legal ramifications of the new technology in Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s eReader.
Evidently, the purchase of an ebook does not follow the “first sale” doctrine, which allows you to lend a purchased movie, album, or book to a friend, and to also sell it to the likes of a Half-Priced Books. So it’s more of a lease or a rent, not really a buy.
Because we’re in a Recession, folks. And the book industry is hurting enough already. The margins are grim. So the Corporate Fat Cats in Big Chairs in Corner Offices are clutching to their paltry purses anyway they can. Despite the fact that the likes of BitTorrent consistently render their pitiful defensives irrelevant.
If only there was another series of books about a young wizard Out There that could revive things. Oprah, isn’t there anything you can do? Choose two books a month, maybe?
Not to fear though, Borders is just going to face all of their books out to increase sales. Yeah, that should “turn things around.” Ha!
And if that doesn’t work, Barnes & Noble will just buy them.
Why doesn’t the book publishing industry switch to a newspaper and Internet business model? Since books are such a vital source of information and our most important defense against the dangers of ignorance and idiocy, they should therefore be in the hands of society at any cost. So why don’t they slash the price of bound works ( to zero?) and place advertisements in them?
Lawyers could advertise in John Grisham books.
Life Insurance Companies could advertise in A Series of Unfortunate Incidents.
Wouldn’t everyone appreciate a coupon for $10 off your next oil change nestled inside the latest Mitch Albom or Jodi Picoult?
Airlines and hotels can advertise in travel books.
Casinos can advertise in all the Las Vegas Books.
Skinny white belt retailers can advertise in books by Dave Eggers.
Video game and porn companies can advertise in graphic novels.
There’s got to be some decent money to be made by advertising a nice big box kite in The Kite Runner.
Will I still be able to pay a premium for my “ad-free” version? Your article would be really funny if it wasn’t dangerously close to being a really really good idea.