[Web4lib] Kindle vs. Accessibility

[Jesse Ephraim]

>I think this is an essentially religious argument. 

I wasn't arguing in favor of pirating, or even saying that any industry
is going to crash and burn.  I was saying that the reality is that no
digital media file can be fully protected, and that anything that can be
pirated, will be pirated.  The music industry found that out the hard
way, and the movie studios are starting to experience the same thing,
particularly when it comes to early leaked, incomplete versions of
movies (as happened with Wolverine: Origins).

>You are quite wrong on the Amazonfail thing. 

I don't believe that the amazonfail incident was a specific attack on
the GLBT community, if you are referring to that.  There are still a lot
of folks in that segment who see it that way, though, since Amazon has
done such a poor job of PR with the whole incident.  Things never would
have spiraled out of control like they did if Amazon had simply taken
the time to do decent PR work.  What it DID demonstrate is that Amazon
manipulates its own sales data and ranking system to the point that it
is almost meaningless.  It shows that the company works to make it more
difficult in the general search to locate "adult" materials, however
they choose to define that.  I do consider that to be a poor business
practice, and incredibly bad PR.

My point with the ebooks is that DRM-style controls are not what the
public wants, and they will fight against them, as they have with music
and movies.  Piracy isn't the only factor - people also vote with their
wallets, both in terms of which ebooks AND which readers they purchase.
The Kindle came out of the gate crippled, in many ways (not just audio
reading feature).  That's a bad sign, and is one reason that there is so
much attention being focused on the Sony device.  

Amazon is working hard to build the type of proprietary system with
ebooks that Apple has favored for so long in all its products.  There is
a reason that Apple has never regained the market share it used to have
- locking users into proprietary formats and trying to control their
access to the things they have purchased is not a good long-term
business strategy.

The publishers can try to milk the public for money right now, and they
undoubtedly will.  I just don't want to hear them whining when things
don't work out the way they hope.

- Jesse