Ebook Readers

With the announcement of Amazon's Kindle, the electronic book debate begins again. I am somewhat torn because the ideal of a book reader that can hold thousands of books is appealing but on the other hand I like how a book feels and I like to look at my book marker and track my progress. Can you really take an ebook anywhere? What about the beach?

Anyway the Kindle to me is the 2.5 generation ebook reader. The 1st generation is pictured to the left and was the Rocket Ebook. This came out in the early 90s and proved to be noteworthy. The fact the the company gave up and sold its assets to a third party clearly indicates it was not ready for the limelight. Next up is the Sony EReader, which came out a couple of years ago. It is already in its 2nd edition. Finally as mentioned, the Kindle is the latest and greatest. I call it Gen2.5 because there really isn't anything different from the Sony product but it does have the always "online" attribute which clearly is a step above other ebooks. Not having to have a computer is good thinking, nickel and diming you and not allowing pdfs? Well that is just bad product development. Judging on how quickly Amazon "supposedly" sold these indicates that others out there thought it worth their $400! So what to think? The ebook has been out and about for about 15 years. There is clearly a niche market out there because you can certainly obtain ebooks at all the major online book retailers and you can get these as pdfs, microsoft reader, and some other standards. The single biggest drawback to all these methods? Yup, the digital age ball and chain which is Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Okay I understand that alot of money is laid out to obtain a publishing right, or an author, or even a movie and/or band and that these corporations don't want freeloaders but why all the sudden is "digital" become the second coming of Satan? Last time I checked VCRs could record (TV and DVDs!), double cassette decks could make perfect copies (of cassettes, CDs, or vinyl no less!), and books could be purchased then dumped at a used book store or even borrowed from a library. Why did the issue change? Did Napster just make too much news? Honestly everyone with just a tad bit of knowledge has borrowed stuff and not paid for something. It is not like an author is getting any money when I walk out of a used book store. Why aren't these stores being sued and closed down? So back to the ebook...assuming you buy a book in some of the many formats you essentially never own it. If the reader or software or hardware go away suddenly you are stuck with books you purchased but never truly own. Why isn't that you can't just resell the book once finished on an online used book store? Why are you still paying almost full price for a book of electrons? Last time I checked electrons don't cost anything and as anyone thought to ask an electron if they want to be part of this...will they go on strike like Hollywood writer's? My point is until the DRM issue is solved no ebook reader will ever take off. It will always be a niche for the geek reader. I totally support authors and there desire to get paid but honestly the paper version will always trump an electronic version. If you have written something worthy (or written a good album or made a good movie) honest people (the majority I believe) will be willing to paid for it.