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- such as No Starch press (http://nostarch.com), and quite possibly others.

Don't forget the biggest of the DRM-free ebook publishing houses: Baen.

They focus on a fairly narrow niche (Sci-fi, especially military sci-fi, with some fantasy), but within their niche they're a dominant dead-tree publisher and in general I think they were the first e-book publisher to really "get it". Everything they sell is available in multiple non-DRM'd formats, their prices are reasonable ($4-$6 for individual books, or they sell $15 bundles containing 5-6 books) and they even offer a Free Library containing complete titles from all of their top authors. They've also pioneered an interesting practice of including a CD with dozens of full novels (mostly NOT from the Free Library) in the back of their hardback editions, and they actually encourage sharing of those CDs and fully support the efforts of someone who has put these CD images online for free download.

Baen has been selling e-books this way for over a decade now (since 1999), and what started has something of an experiment has continued as a very profitable business plan.

I'd say more like 10 or 15. I've basically got any money I'll make from it by then (if any). There are very few exceptions to this, LotR and Foundation come to mind for books.

Not to mention that these books cost like $8 each, and a lot of fans would buy them even if they were available online for free (see: Baen Free Library).

This is a link from yesterday that I saved. It's worth your 2 minutes to read the first half of that page. It deals with book piracy, but the principle is pretty much the same.

To begin, a link: Baen Books Free Library

The problem here is you didn't described what books you like! I read pretty much everything that isn't nailed shut and I'd be there with a claw-hammer prying the nails out. No joke. Even just pointing at a genre (Science-Fiction, Fantasy, etc.) isn't good enough these dsays. For instance, in Science-Fiction you have Military Science-Fiction (a favorite here given my background), Space-Opera (still alive and kickin'), even cross-over series such as the Recluce series (which is most definitely a scientific magic based series, and if you don't believe me, go read "The Practice Effect" by David Brin and completely different from L. E. Modessitt's novels). Hell, I read romances, especially historical and vampire romances, thank you Mom!

To borrow from an advert that came out when Baen Books was getting started: "I like Baen Books because they taste good." While I haven't ever eaten one (although with this economy and a healthy bit of mayo, it looks tempting), the author of that had the sense. What books taste good to you? I've probably read them and I'm certain the other denizens here have so we can recommend away.

[OMG, have I opened the Thread From Hell? Will my Karma survive ;-).]

Their free ebook program has pretty conclusively proven that books that are past their peak sales mark (usually 2-6 months after first publish) see a substantial increase in sales after publishing the ebook for free.

Don't hide it, promote it!

The prime palaver section really details why this works, but the lengthy introduction on the front page is good enough for it to make sense to most people.

This quote really sums up the real problem quite nicely:

Income doesn't derive from preventing theft, it comes from making sales. A certain amount of loss due to theft is simply one of the overhead costs. Obviously, taking simple measures to eliminate as much theft as possible is sensible. But at a certain point -- and much sooner than you might think -- the measures you take to prevent theft can start cutting your income.

James P. Hogan?

Both Fascism and Socialism support a very strong government. This is why some conservatives/Libertarians consider them about the same thing.

For a 2-d figure that compares them see

http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm

Tim S.

technological progress will become extremely fast, and consequently will make the future (after the technological singularity) unpredictable and qualitatively different from today

If that's your definition then it happened decades ago. Nobody* predicted the internet, nobody predicted cell phone, nobody predicted advances we're making in metamaterials, etc.

The "science" of futurism is bunk. If not, where can I go to get a degree in futurism?

* nobody but science fiction writers anyway, Murray Leinster's A Logic Named Joe[full text at link] kinda sorta predicted the internet in 1956, for example.

Well, it's pretty hard to come up with something new. Murray Leinster wrote "A Logic Named Joe" about the internet -- in 1946.

I think this is the actual story, but it's firewalled off here.

Agreed. It's probably been mentioned to death on here by (by myself more than a few times) but it must be said again - Baen usually sells their ebooks (even new releases) for $5-6. Unfortunately, there's only a handful of excellent authors in their stable that I like (and perhaps a dozen or so objectively good authors otherwise) - also, it's largely SF & Fantasy. Good thing Flint, Weber and Bujold have been so prolific over the past decade.

While that $9.99 price tag does make me puke every time I have to shop on Amazon or B&N for ebooks, I think of it as an easing in period. Unfortunately, I still haven't decided whether it's an easing in period for the consumers (to get used to high prices for ebooks notwithstanding the almost comical lack of material resources needed to produce digital books) or for the publishers (to get used to lower prices for ebooks notwithstanding the usually high prices they extort from the consumer for new release hardcovers). If you're a Stephen King fan, you might recall the unbelievably honest disclosure from the publisher preceding Under the dome (to the effect that they would be delaying the ebook release to avoid stepping on hardcover sales - the worthless assholes!)

When mainstream publishing stops pulling egregious stunts like this on its customers, you can expect the price tag to dip a little. Until then, might as well get used to it (or start moving towards the independent publishers - of which there are several popping up now, many that are ebook only now that the ereader market has gone mainstream with the Nook and Kindle [*sigh* yes, and iPad too, though that's the last time I admit it in public =p]).

There is at least one publishing house (Baen) that is probably the most enlightened (out of self-interest, not altruism, so I trust it) corporation to ever exist. No DRM in their ebooks. Ebooks cost ~$5-6 (and their hardbacks and paperbacks cost the standard market price on their site as well as with other retailers). Further, they have a free library where selected works of their authors (with the blessing of the author) are posted for free. There's an article by Eric Flint (one of their authors) about this on the front page of their free library. I would encourage you to check it out, if for no other reason than to show you that there is still hope for humanity =) with everyone winning out financially, the idiots at the RIAA, MPAA and the Agency 5 (publishers) notwithstanding.

I used to do the same thing you do (ebooks for classics and pbooks for new stuff) but the problem is simply one of space. I live in a small but comfortable apartment but two large bookcases are the limit (unless I want to start sleeping in my car =)) and they are now full. I only buy books that I want to keep and reread at some point (the rest is library stuff). At this point, ebooks are the only way to expand. Maybe I should just go to war and annex my neighbor's place =). I wonder if that's the origin of war. More space for your library.

You missed GP's point. Today, he has money to waste on entertainment. He just PAYS FOR IT, because it really is faster, and easier. The pirate who wants to play Super Duper Mario Brothers Meet the Exterminator and Predator has to find a download, find a crack, apply the crack, etc ad nauseum. Then, he probably can't play the online version, which includes the "value added" appearance of Alien.

Piracy is work, in case you hadn't noticed. People who are willing to spend no money, no time, and no effort to get their games/music/entertainment have to do without.

I agree, companies need to fight piracy, but following a mindless nazi doctrine that all pirates are evil and should be exterminated is as stupid as stupid gets.

Jim Baen, over at Baen Books came to understand that. He fought piracy by giving away books. http://www.baen.com/library/ Somewhere on their site, is a rather long discourse, in which Baen Books proves that every time they give away a book, especially an older, out of print book, not only does Baen realize a profit, but so does the author whose books was released for free.

Wake up and smell the coffee. Cooperating with the pirates can be lucrative.

Game producers could take a hint, and release a "pirated" version of their game, put it up on the torrent sites, sit back and allow the wider community to pay for distribution - then wait for a lot of pirates to come back and pay for the "value added" version that includes Alien.

I wish I could find the link. The study was commissioned by a book publisher trying to find our how much piracy hurt book sales. Generally when a book is published, sales spike a few days later then drop, and it's a couple of weeks before it's scanned and on the internet. What they found was that when it hit the internet, rather than a drop there was a second spike.

Perhaps you were thinking of Eric Flint's posts on the Baen Free Library. In particular, read his Prime Palaver #6, where he shows the actual effect that releasing works for free had upon his sales (Hint - he ain't unhappy with the results).

I wish I could find the link. The study was commissioned by a book publisher trying to find our how much piracy hurt book sales. Generally when a book is published, sales spike a few days later then drop, and it's a couple of weeks before it's scanned and on the internet. What they found was that when it hit the internet, rather than a drop there was a second spike.

Perhaps you were thinking of Eric Flint's posts on the Baen Free Library. In particular, read his Prime Palaver #6, where he shows the actual effect that releasing works for free had upon his sales (Hint - he ain't unhappy with the results).

Since nobody has referenced "Melancholy Elephants" yet, I will.

Gets more and more apropos every day, it seems.

In response:
1. 300 books gets heavy to carry/store, and means you have to decide beforehand exactly what you want to bring (if you can even bring all you want).
2. I'm sure the tree-huggers are equally upset at eBook readers as they are at paper.
3. Many of the better heavy-use eBook readers use E-Ink displays, and have a time between charges measured in weeks.
4. DRM'd electronic media is all about "me me me". My non-DRM'd electronic media is easier to lend than the physical books. In fact, some is even distributed freely as a promotion (Baen Free Library and Baen CDs hosted by The Fifth Imperium). If I can't get it non-DRM, I'll get it in hardcopy.
5. Well, technically, non-DRM eBooks could be too, but I'll agree on this point.

I doubt we'll ever convince any of our publishing friends to support HTML unless there's a DRM wrapper around it.

ORLY? (The FAQ is outdated; they've added EPUB and Sony formats).

Suppose I have a Kindle (or, say, one of the requisite apps on some other hardware platform), and I've bought a few books for it that I've noted and highlighted. Suppose, then, that I lose my Kindle. Or it gets run over by a bus. Or stolen. Or dunked in a hot tub. Or whatever.

All I have to do is procure/install a new Kindle, enter the appropriate account identification, and my books and notes are transferred to the new device.

Which, you must admit, is pretty cool. (Hey luddites! The cloud has uses!)

The fatal flaw in your argument is your unspoken assumption that a specific type of hardware owned by the provider is necessary to implement this scenario. I can think of three examples off the top of my head that invalidate that assumption. The first is available for MS Windows and OS/X today; Valve's Steam service.

"Ahh," you say, "That's for games, not books." True, but let's take a look at what Steam provides anyhow. There are hundreds of games from dozens of companies available through the store. The store is set up to allow an individual to purchase, download, and install any game listed on multiple PCs as long as only one login is active at any time.

The second is O'Reilly Publishing's Safari Books Online. This browser based, subscription service allows you to search through all of the online publications that O'Reilly has created. Depending upon the level of subscription that you buy, you can download immediately, or purchase access to, any publication that catches your interest.

The final example is Baen Publishing's Webscription.Net. Here you'll find books from Baen and six other publishing companies. Again, browser based so no special hardware necessary.

Although the name implies an ongoing charge to access material, no such subscription is required. Buy a book once and you can download it in several different DRM free formats. (Yes I said DRM FREE!)

Webscription keeps track of what you have already purchased, so a lost or trashed copy is no problem. Just log in and download your books again.

(BTW, Baen Publishing also hosts the Baen Free Library as a marketing tool. More than 40 authors have agreed to post some or all of their books there for free. Yes, I said FREE. DRM free, too. You don't even have to create an account to get access to all this largesse. :) Well worth browsing if you like science fiction or fantasy.)

Of the three alternate services that I've noted above, Webscription is clearly the most user friendly. What Amazon can provide that the other services can't is a much, MUCH broader range of material. That is a huge advantage and in IMO that is what is driving Kindle sales more than any other factor. (I don't mean to say that I think the hardware itself is trash. Quite the contrary.)

So, instead, please: Let's simply discuss the implications of Amazon sharing your highlights with others. (This is a matter that I really don't have any opinion on in this instance, but I guess I'll don my flamesuit anyway...)

The nub of the issue is that any vendor supplied solution inevitably means is that you're locked in to some extent. It's the nature of the beast. The question is, how much lock-in are you willing to accept in order to take advantage of the service? How much re-use of your personal information are you willing to accept?

Getting back to the immediate issue at hand: In my view, the fact that (a) it's only highlights; (b) it's anonymized; and (c) it's turned off by default makes it a pretty benign use of personal information. Frankly, if Amazon offered similar functionality as software on a platform that I already owned, I might seriously consider using it.

The real issue for me is that I have no d

iBooks supports ePub, and you can add your own books via iTunes. I've got a couple of the free Baen books in my iPad's library already.
A large number of Gutenberg's collection are in the iBooks bookstore for free (often with automated formatting), but you can get them directly from Gutenberg if you like.

If you like sci-fi or fantasy, buy your books from Baen Books. They sell eBooks directly to the customer, no DRM, pricing at about $2 per book (more for collections). Also, they give many books away for free - the first book in a trilogy, etc.

The free books are in the Baen Free Library, the shop is called Webscription.net. Support publishers like this, and the other publishers will have to fall in line.

http://baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm

I read this a wwwwhile ago and thought it a farce that stated the state of programming to a T

Read: This, you'll love it. It's from: Code of the Lifemaker. That book takes evolutionary principles and applies it to machines that replicate imperfectly. After a process of a few million years humans meet these machines inadvertently. The substrate for these machines is absolutely not organic molecules yet they are in the logical sense undeniably alive.

The sony is not bad (505 model), but I have a hard time buying from the Sony book store. The DRM sucks, and the store SUCKS.

I do get a lot of Free books from ManyBooks.net, and have started buying from the only Publisher that I think gets it.

http://www.baen.com/

No DRM and their books are under 8 bucks. Good stuff too if you like SF or Fantasy.

Gutenberg for one. Baen Free Library is another. There's no need to limit your book reading to current NYT bestsellers only.

They want to outlaw Joe.

Might I also volunteer http://www.baen.com/library/ ? Baen have a nice line of Sci-Fi and have seen sales of some older titles increase as a result of having free e-books of them.

Eric Flint and Jim Baen have already refuted Mr. Murdoch's contention with hard sales figures for real books. When electronic versions are made available for free, in a non-DRM-protected format, sales of paper editions increased.

• Prime Palaver #6
• Prime Palaver #7

Eric Flint and Jim Baen have already refuted Mr. Murdoch's contention with hard sales figures for real books. When electronic versions are made available for free, in a non-DRM-protected format, sales of paper editions increased.

• Prime Palaver #6
• Prime Palaver #7

Hi,

First of all i have to mention that i am addicted to reading.

This was already a problem as a kid: Once i was ill my aunt gave me five books as a gift. The next morning i called her and asked for more. In a hindsight, this was really embarrassing.

But once i started earning good money, this problem has multiplied. I am running out of shelf space. With my marriage i gave away about 1.000 books to friends just to have a little space for my wifes books.

So started with ebooks as a measure of self defence. I started with the Iliad Irex about 3-4 years ago. Since then i purchased several hundred ebooks. The good thing is: i drive on vacation without any fear of running out of input.

Therefor i am very interested in everything that concerns costs of books.

I totally hate any kind of DRM. Since i started i went through several different reader. Any restriction to move a book with me feels like theft. This one reason my favorite publisher is Baen. They have the most honest approach towards the reader. I think Eric Flints Introducing the Baen Free Library gives the best summary on that topic ever written.

I also worked as author, editor and publisher for books (on a very small scale). Therefor i know how much money is in the production (very little) and distribution (a lot) process and how little ends up with the authors. So i think that ebooks will greatly improve the percentage an author will get from the book sales (but not the overall revenue).

Current contracts give authors a certain percentage of all revenue. So it is in the interest of publishers and authors to get the prices as high as possible. But while the publishers still get the same share, they do a lot less for the sale of an ebook than for one of a paperback.

So at this point customers are on the side of Amazon, that an ebook should cost significantly less than a paper based book.

Currently the frontlines run between Amazon and the customers on one side and publishers and authors on the other. But the authors are not on that side due to their own interest but due to the current publishing system. I don't think that this situation will remain static. The publishers are bound to loose the authors as allies and then the fight next.

A typical question is: It's the same book, why shpould the reader pay less for an eboook?

It is the same book but it is not the same service. With a paper based book, they have to print it, ship it through the world, provide shelf space in the bookstore, pay the cashier guy,...

The transport of an ebook is by a factor 1.000 cheaper than a paper book, the cashier is fully automated, it does not take shelf space,....

If the producer has less costs, the product should become cheaper.

Where i agree: The author provides the same service, so he/she should get the same amount as before.

Who works less is the publisher and the bookstore. They should get less for an ebook.

The problem is the typical contract between author and publisher. Usually there is a certain fix percentage of the revenue (no matter wether ebook or paper book) designated for the author. While the percantage of an author at a book is around 10-15%, it should be higher (e.g. 30%) for ebooks. Of course the publishers are not in favor....

Publishers dislike ebooks not just due to the prices. If ebooks become too popular, the need for publishers is decreasing. An author could go just directly to Amazon without the help of publisher. Currently an ebook will not sell very well if there is no paper book to create demand. But this will change. The publishers (like the RIAA before them) wants to fight it. But they will have as much success as fighting entropy....

Personally i am totally in favor of the development. The service i am interested in is someone like Pat writing fascinating novels. I am also willing to pay for the editor and the distribution. But i am not interested in trees getting chopped down and trucks blowing carbon dioxide into the air while carrying harcovers.

CU, Martin

[...] [people] are not going to pay for [songs] if they are made available for free

Prove it. This statement is built on the assumption that people that pick the free download would have bought the product anyway. This assumption is not proven.

In fact, with e-books there is a strong indication that free downloads actually increase sales.

Mart

The changes this would make to society are too great. The politicians would never allow common people to have that much freedom. No borders, no passports, no way of stopping people from going where they wanted, when they wanted.

That sounds like the internet, only the internet is more so, and back when Murray Leinster wrote A Logic Named Joe (Full text of the story at the link, it's a good, albeit dated, science fiction story) they would have said the same thing about the internet then if anybody could have believed such a thing could ever be developed.

One asshole with one of these and a pocketful of golf balls could cause carnage in a city centre at rush hour - no way to track or find the culprit afterwards.

One asshole with a pocket full of golf balls could do the same thing from the top of a tall building, only more easily.

there'll be idiots who'll be delighted to abuse this even worse. Drug dealers, criminals of any kind who want to make a clean getaway (get 10 feet off the ground and nobody's catching you, no matter how fast the police car).

The police won't be allowee to use these? The same could have been said of the automobile when it was new. Besides, didn't you see Star Trek where the cop outruns young Kirk, who is driving a vintage Corvette, with his flying motorcycle?

"What are we going to do when every possible piece of music (words excluded) exists?"

We become melancholy elephants.

Unless copying is blatantly commercial in nature it should be permitted.

Well then you can say goodbye to alot of creative endeavors. Why write a book when it will only sell a single copy before being copied all over the internet? I can't make a living off the time spent writing when sales drop. Can't be a very successful band without some form of digital media, whether you're signed or produce it yourself. That won't turn a profit once its all across the web.

Tell that to Baen Books. http://www.baen.com/library/

My roommate has tons of David Weber books...very prolific writer. Haven't read his stuff...due to my eyes getting worse & worse the older I get.

http://www.webscription.net/10.1125/Baen/0743435710/0743435710.htm
Here ya go, complete 1st novel free in the series "On Basilisk Station", thank you very much Eric Flint.
Change the font size on your browser to something comfortable and ya got a personal "Large Print Edition"
Other free novels: "Retief!" (in the series: "West of Honor", "Changer of Worlds","Crown of Slaves","The Honor of the Queen","The Shadow of Saganami") here:
http://baen.com/library/

Ditto. I bought my first e-book from Baen.com in 1998 to read on a Palm VII (monochrome); since then, I've used a VIIx, i705, T3, T5, TX, Nokia 9300, 9300i and E90 smartphones, plus about a dozen laptops with Win 2K-XP-Vista-7 and Ubuntu Hardy-Intrepid-Jaunty-Karmic. Baen made it easy with the Baen Free Library; the first six dozen e-books, are free, little boy (he he he).

Maybeso a Nook be better, but I *always* have my smartphone with me, and spending $500 on a reader equates to buying 105 e-books.

Plus, e-books have probably saved me from scoliosis, as I no longer have to carry a dead tree book in my hip pocket to have something to read wherever I am.

And, what is this DRM of which you speak? Baen doesn't cripple its e-books, and every time I change platforms, I can redownload my e-library in the new format. For free.

I'd like to know where an author stands in the copyright debate, and this can be demonstrated by how they license the content they produce.

If we are to shun musicians who cling to the RIAA, shouldn't we at least grumble at authors who cling to the old school book publishing establishment (I'm not even sure if there is a similar organization in book publishing) ?

You didn't try very hard... I checked out the publishers web page, and oddly enough its about six pages and they only seem to publish three books. On the good side, they have a free preview online book reader thing, bad side its in flash (why not just text). On the bad side, about the third page or so of the free ebook preview is the usual dead tree title page "all rights reserved" legalese, so its not CC. Odd that a "software dude" would go all closed source. Also their six page website has a ridiculously serious terms and conditions page, roughly as long as the review, as one of their six pages.

So, they don't have as modern of an outlook or technologically advanced as Baen Books, on the other hand, they don't seem to be "old school" obsolete by any means. Like most things in reality, not all black or all white, and in this particular company seems to be somewhat better than average, with some remaining areas for improvement. I'd give them about a grade of "B-", mostly for effort.

http://www.codegreenpublishing.com/

http://www.baen.com/

Read http://baen.com/library/palaver6.htm for a factual demonstration that e-books increase *hardcover* sales of the *same titles*. Next time Sherman Alexie's speaking at Powell's, I'll do the math with him and 'splain a few things.

and the Baen Free Library.

'Nuff said.

By providing inexpensive, DRM-free electronic editions, and even a Free Library , and occaisionally bundling entire DRM-free CD-ROMS of many of their books with new offerings, with not just permission, but ENCOURAGEMENT to freely copy and distribute.

The folks at Baen seem to realize that if you trust your customers, and provide a good product, you'll sell books. The books may not be to everyone's tastes (the general Baen audience is distinctly right of center. . .), but that's life. . .

By providing inexpensive, DRM-free electronic editions, and even a Free Library , and occaisionally bundling entire DRM-free CD-ROMS of many of their books with new offerings, with not just permission, but ENCOURAGEMENT to freely copy and distribute.

The folks at Baen seem to realize that if you trust your customers, and provide a good product, you'll sell books. The books may not be to everyone's tastes (the general Baen audience is distinctly right of center. . .), but that's life. . .

Ya, I concur, the PhD candidate should probably continue to read some more Mil-SciFi like Weber/Ringo, etc. given I Baen actually bothers to try and be a good vendor and puts some of thier stuff online for free ( http://www.baen.com/library/ ), there's no excuse. :]

$300 for a device that's easier on the eyes than an LCD screen, and can store 1500 books? I think that's a perfectly reasonable price for what you get.

I would agree with you, except you still have to purchase all 1,500 books. And they are not discounted to reflect the savings of no physical production, shipping, storefront, etc.

As many have already pointed out, there are plenty of public domain ebooks available from Project Gutenberg and Google Books.

Some publishers also give away free ebooks to build readership - like the Baen Free Library.

Some libraries also lend ebooks. My local library does, and we're a pretty small town. I'd imagine that if my library is doing it, it must be fairly widespread.

Also, while most ebooks are not discounted, there are some available. I've been watching the Barnes & Noble website for a couple months now and they'll periodically have a decent ebook on sale for just a dollar or two. I've picked up several that way.

Plus, both the Kindle and the nook can read PDFs. I don't know about you, but most of the manuals I get these days are PDFs. It is much easier to read a PDF on something small and portable with a paper-like screen than to print out everything you need, or keep running back to a computer to read it.

And then there's the possibility of subscribing to a newspaper or magazine on the thing.

You will not get an argument from me if you say that e-books should be cheaper, but...

Speaking as someone who does buy hundreds of books, it does indeed save money over time. Your supposition of saving $1.60 per book is a worst case scenario. I buy lots of books as they are new releases in hardback, and I save $15-20 on those. Many authors give the first couple of books in a series for free on Kindle (the first one's always free) in the hopes that you will purchase more. Those obviously save the full $7.99. This doesn't even count the free public domain books that would still cost you $7 in paperback. Also it's good to note the http://www.baen.com/library/Baen Free Library for loads of free modern SciFi and Fantasy. All Authors and Publishers aren't super greedy.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/KeyMasterOfGozerMy physical library is at 642 books right now, but it hasn't increased much in the past year since I bought my Kindle. The Kindle is way more convenient for me when I travel, and yes, I've saved more money in books than I spent on the device.

My biggest complaint is that I can't share my books with a friend. If the price per book was cheaper, as you say, then it would be easier for them to give a book a try.

• The goal of Skiff (from the press release): "connect publishers and marketers with consumers". Translation: getting advertising to the consumer is just as important as getting content to the consumer. The isn't anything the consumer wants; we see where their priorities are.
• Eliminate the middleman: Who the heck said this? It isn't in TFA or even in TFS. Skiff wants to be the middleman.
• Kindle; no control over your content: Lots of comments complain about the Kindle, the lack of control over the content you have purchased, and being tied to a particular company. Why has no one stated the obvious solution?
  1. Buy eReaders that support the ePub format (Kindle does not, guess why).
  2. Buy ePub books and keep your library on your own computer.
  3. Most important of all: support publishers like Baen Books, whose eBooks are DRM-free.

Maybe this is the kind of internet he wants? (Linked story written in 1946)

I found this a very interesting short story on the consequences of prolonged copyright.

I believe that the FCC (and the Federal government in general; indeed, most of the world's governments) would like the internet to be like Murray Leinster predicted in 1946.

The link goes to the story itself, a very good sci-fi short story that comes the closest to any story I've seen to predicting the internet, even more than Asimov's "Multivac". But Leinster's story is based on the premise that an uncensored internet would be disasterous.

But what if it becomes subject to widespread censorship?

In 1946, Murray Leinster's "internet" ("Tanks" and "logics") was censored, and the story revolves around one particular "logic" (PC) overcoming the censorship and the horror the lack of censorship would unleash.

Or pay-per-byte?

I never thought I'd pay for local phone service by the minute, but I guess anything can happen. However, POTS was never by the minute, and minute rates for cells have been dropping. Now I have Boost and don't have metered service.

It could happen, but like phones it would take something radically new, and even then unmetered would probably win. It's not like gas or electricity, where the more the company produces the more it costs.

Or 90% of Earth's population dies from a new plague and maintaining an open, high-speed digital network surpasses the survivors' capabilities and priorities.

Um, with 90% of the world's population gone I don't think you're going to have any problem finding as much of anything as you want -- unless this "plague" is a disease that strikes food crops. You'll still have the internet, provided you have electricity.

Now, this "cracked" magazine; slashdot's FA is from a magazine about crack? I didn't RTFA (silly FA if you ask me) but I hope it's about cracking networks and not smoking crack. "If the internet magically dissapears" sounds like something a crackhead would think up.

Hi,

since i am german and an ebook user for several years (iRexx Iliad), i would like to comment on that:

• It is very hard to purchase german ebooks. Only a small percantage of all books is actually offered as an ebook. If they are published at all, the ebook version comes months or even years later.
• The german book market is heavily regulated and publishers/authors are mostly happy with the status quo. The ebook is seen as "a disturbance of the force" and therefor not appreciated. Publishers already try to get lawmakers to extend the regulation to ebooks as well.
• Germanys "Intelligenzija" (from which a lot of authors are recruited) is notorical hostile towards technology.
• The primary clients for ebooks are geeks and technology friendly young adults. Those can read books in english. Since those are even a lot of cheaper, germanys ebook shoppers buy beyond the border (e.g. i have 200 ebooks from Baen.
• The trend of germans reading "english" literature is already demonstrated by Amazon Germany having an own category "English books". Patrick Rothfuss fulminant debut with "Name of the wind" costs 25 Euro as a german book or 7 Euro as an english one (both including S&H).
• The early adopters of technology typically read a large share of Science Fiction & Fantasy... not a strength of german authors (few exceptions). SF&F is still frowned at, not considered to be "real literature" here. This also drives readers into exile.

Like the music industry the publishers are currently comitting sucide due to the fear of death. By trying to preserve the status quo, they are scaring away a big part of their future customers. Ebooks are only a symptom here.

I have purchased and read about 1.000+ books during the last 25 years. Due to a still progressing carreer, my budget is rising. But i am less and less inclined to spend it on the local market.

Sincerely yours, Martin

He may not have, but Eric Flint has.

http://www.baen.com/library/

Exerpt:

In the course of this debate, I mentioned it to my publisher Jim Baen. He more or less virtually snorted and expressed the opinion that if one of his authors -- how about you, Eric? -- were willing to put up a book for free online that the resulting publicity would more than offset any losses the author might suffer.

The minute he made the proposal, I realized he was right. After all, Dave Weber's On Basilisk Station has been available for free as a "loss leader" for Baen's for-pay experiment "Webscriptions" for months now. And -- hey, whaddaya know? -- over that time it's become Baen's most popular backlist title in paper!

And so I volunteered my first novel, Mother of Demons, to prove the case. And the next day Mother of Demons went up online, offered to the public for free.

Sure enough, within a day, I received at least half a dozen messages (some posted in public forums, others by private email) from people who told me that, based on hearing about the episode and checking out Mother of Demons, they either had or intended to buy the book. In one or two cases, this was a "gesture of solidarity. "But in most instances, it was because people preferred to read something they liked in a print version and weren't worried about the small cost -- once they saw, through sampling it online, that it was a novel they enjoyed. (Mother of Demons is a $5.99 paperback, available in most bookstores. Yes, that a plug. )