Sony Breathes New Life Into Library Books

Barence writes "Sony has launched a new range of touchscreen eBook readers — and is breathing new life into the concept of public library books. The readers offer support for free eBook loans from local authority libraries. If you're lucky enough to be a member of a local library supporting the service (50 have signed up so far in the UK) you'll be able to visit its website, tap your library card number in and borrow any book in the eBook catalog, for free, for a period of 14 or 21 days. The odd thing about this is it works in a very similar way to the good old bricks-and-mortar library. While a title is out on loan, it's unavailable to others to borrow (unless the library has purchased multiple copies); it only becomes available again once the loan period expires and the book removes itself from your reader."

Comments

Re:A limited # of digital copies?

[bsDaemon]

The cost of the book goes to cover paying author royalties, the editors, the type setters, etc. Just because you don't have a "press" anymore doesn't mean you don't still have pre-press. This seems "good enough" for now. Digital copies of books, movies and music are already cheaper than the physical ones, and most commercially-produced content isn't going to be free-as-in-beer, because they can't operate like that. What's good for software doesn't necessarily work for other things.

LCD

[DogDude]

I see the move to e-books in libraries as a bad thing. If anything, it's the antithesis of what a library is for. Libraries exist so that everybody, no matter how poor or disenfranchised can both educate and entertain themselves (LCD = "lowest common denominator"). Anybody can read a book. Only the wealthy can afford e-book readers and the subsequent fees. If libraries move to having titles on ebooks instead of having hard copies, that immediately eliminates people who cannot or won't buy those silly, overpriced book readers.

Not only is it disenfranchising, but it's putting control of information even more in the hands of just a few big corporations. Who trusts Sony with their books? I certainly don't. What happens if Sony discontinues their service? What happens if Sony goes under? What happens if a suit at Sony decides that it's no longer in their best interests to continue this program? A book is simple, and nobody, short of a thief or vandal, can take those away from people or libraries.

I'll keep checking out physical books from my library, and I'll continue to pres my library to acquire more physical books, instead of Sony licenses.

Re:LCD

[Lemmy Caution]

I see the move to eBooks as providing a better hedge against the loss of a book than the physical possession of the book is. That "short of a thief or vandal" (or simply losing a book) is a much bigger drain on resources than you're letting on.

Libraries also have problems with space. The San Francisco library actually had to shrink its collection when it moved to its new facility, and other libraries are facing similar problems, especially for periodical collections.

Libraries have been subscribing to electronic databases of articles for ages, too. The risk of ProQuest's ABI/Inform going under is probably a bit higher than Sony disappearing, yet it seems to be working for libraries.

An e-Reader can be acquired for about $100, as well - hardly the stuff of "only the wealthy." Sony is providing e-Readers to the libraries, as well. Granted, they too can be lost/vandalized.

Re:LCD

[Again]

I see the move to e-books in libraries as a bad thing. If anything, it's the antithesis of what a library is for. Libraries exist so that everybody, no matter how poor or disenfranchised can both educate and entertain themselves (LCD = "lowest common denominator"). Anybody can read a book. Only the wealthy can afford e-book readers and the subsequent fees. If libraries move to having titles on ebooks instead of having hard copies, that immediately eliminates people who cannot or won't buy those silly, overpriced book readers.

You talk of the LCD as the poorest person who is unable to afford an ebook reader. Well consider the LCD who is bed-ridden or for some reason unable to visit the public library. This type of model allows them to now also make use of the library.

Re:LCD

[michael_cain]

I sympathize with your perspective, but once the cost of hardware comes down some more (OLPC's XO-3 is targeting $75, and could be stripped down even more for an ebook-only device), and the publishers and authors figure out that there's an optimal pricing strategy, the libraries are going to be in trouble no matter what.

The "right" pricing scheme, based on what has worked for other types of content, has three tiers: initial release at $10-25, depending on the author and some other factors, mass market release at $4-8 a few months later, and when sales fall far enough, library replacement at $1-2. If you want the ebook version of the new Stephen King novel the day it comes out, you pay a hardcover price for it. Not because it's hardcover, but because it's new content. If you are willing to wait a few months, you pay the paperback price. And if you want to read last year's release, it costs a buck or two. A secondary reason for making the long term price that low is that it undercuts piracy.

By the time you get to the last step, most of the money should be going to the author. The publishers should cover their costs — and they do have costs, for editing and publicity and such, even for ebooks — on the first releases. If you're the author, which do you prefer: 10,000 loans from the libraries or 10,000 sales at a buck, most of it going to you? A prolific author probably earns a significant revenue stream just on those long-tail sales. At a dollar, lots of people are going to prefer the ease of buying a copy rather than making a physical trip to the library, or waiting in queue to access the library's copy of the ebook.

If I'm the publishers, one of my goals is to put the libraries and used-book stores out of business.

Re:A limited # of digital copies?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, actually... it takes a lot of resources to make a physical book. Which is why I understand paying say $7.99 for a physical copy. That appears (all those paperbacks all over) to pay the author, the publisher, the printer, ink-maker, paper-maker, cover-artist, etc., everyone---everyone makes a profit or they wouldn't be doing it.

In the digital world, you pretty much only need to compensate the author---the rest of the costs become jokingly low (and if they're not, you're doing something wrong). So how come electronic books don't sell for 1/1000th's of the physical book price?

Now, imagine if a digital copy of *any* book cost $0.25. It would be more hassle to plug-in your device than to just buy a new copy per device. It would mean *way* more sales---there are plenty of books I'd like to look though, but don't wanna pay a few dollars for---that's why I still go to physical book stores. You don't think the authors can make a living of 0.25/book download?

Re:I hope this dies on the vine.

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

Is there any exception made if the book is in the public domain?

Re:I hope this dies on the vine.

[MozeeToby]

Your knee jerk reaction is everything that is wrong with blind idealism. Yes, this is DRM, it's DRM that opens up functionality that would not otherwise be economically feasible or even legally defensible. Do authors deserve to get paid for their work? Because unless they don't, you can't have libraries giving out unlimited, copyable, no-return-required copies of books. This is the only realistic way that libraries will continue to exist in any form if we move towards a 100% digital distribution, an idea that I personally believe isn't as far fetched as a lot of people seem to think it is.

Re:I hope this dies on the vine.

[MozeeToby]

The department of Sony that runs their eBook stuff is apparently run quite a bit different from the rest of the company. They support open standards, don't heavily push DRM, and don't try to sue their customers into oblivion. It's a big company with a lot of diversity, I'd bet that 95% of the people that work in the eBook department have no significant contact with people in the games, movies, or music department. For all intents and purposes they may as well be their own company.

Re:I hope this dies on the vine.

[delinear]

Sony is made up of many different wings under one umbrella. The hardware department responsible for pushing the e-reader obviously think this is a good move, since it's likely to shift a few units (actually if I'm paying money for a book I like the physical copy, I can put it on my bookshelf, it's easier to read and hold, I don't care if I forget it on a train, etc - being able to get a free copy from the library makes these e-readers marginally more attractive to me), and they're probably allowed to do this right now because it doesn't step on any other department's toes. I can imagine if it was the walkman department suggesting libraries allow free music loans, they'd be shot down in short order by the music wing of the company. Still, I think it's positive and while I'd wish they didn't impose the artificial restriction, I can see the reason why they'd want to (if they didn't you could effectively keep the book forever, the library wouldn't mind renewing it every two weeks or whatever because they'd have unlimited copies).

Re:I hope this dies on the vine.

[mcgrew]

What's wrong with giving them away? Giving them away results in greater book sales, odd as that sounds. Cory Doctorow credits his free downloads of his books to his status as a best selling author. One publishing company, trying to find out how badly piracy hurt book sales, was surprised to find that when the books were scanned and hit the internet a few weeks after initial publication, there was a second sales spike -- the piracy HELPED his business.

Jesus would be so confused by the economy

[RabbitWho]

Okay Jesus what we're gonna do is we're gonna keep these loaves and fishes in this little box.
- But my child, there is no need, there is an infinite number of them.
yes but Jesus Christ we don't want them decreasing in value, people won't appreciate your creative energy.

Re:I hope this dies on the vine.

[Bigbutt]

You don't have to have a Nook to lend or read an ebook. Just the nook reader app. A friend loaded me Daemon from his iPhone to my iPad.

[John]

Re:A limited # of digital copies?

[Anonymous Coward]

The cost of the book should go to cover paying author royalties, the editors, the type setters, etc., but doesn't.

FTFY.

Until I bought a Kindle a few weeks ago I believed the same thing you did; now that I am actually buying ebooks I have been gobsmacked by just how much worse the editing, typesetting, etc. are when compared with the print editions of the same books. Let's take as an example the classic novel Dune ... At $13.99 for the ebook of a novel first published in 1965, you'd expect that high price to produce a masterfully edited, typset, etc. ebook.

And you'd be horribly, horribly wrong: http://www.thebookcritics.net/dune-40th-anniversary-edition/ makes it quite clear that absolutely nothing of that high $13.99 price was spent for pre-press work. Similar reviews by other people caused me to download the free sample instead of buying sight-unseen and what I saw in the sample is as badly done as the reviews said.

Re:Sony?

[IndustrialComplex]

Yeah, they did the XCP thing. And ripped Linux off of the PS3. But if you want to send a message, you buy the products they make that conform to standards (assuming they're worth buying), and don't buy the ones that don't. That's the stuff that influences what they make. Just crossing a company off the list for something they did years ago isn't a way to affect change.

So I buy the stuff from them that meets my needs and conforms to standards... until it doesn't.

Sony's actions with regard to OtherOS makes this an impossible goal. They literally altered a product after the fact. You don't have the protection of buying a standard because most of the time, you aren't making decisions based on standards, but features. They altered the deal, and you just have to pray that they don't alter it any further.

You can't change their ways by buying their 'good' products if they can turn them into 'bad' products at will.

They have escaped your bounds for which a company can be controlled by purchasing their good products.

To paraphrase another movie quote: at this point, The only winning move is not to play.

Re:A limited # of digital copies?

[Buelldozer]

Digital copies of books are cheaper than physical ones? The truth of that is declining every day.

Here, look at this:

http://www.amazon.com/Changes-Novel-Dresden-Files-ebook/dp/B0030DHPAW/ref=pd_sim_kinc_7?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

The kindle edition is $12.99, price set by publisher.
The paperback edition is $9.99, price set by publisher.

That's right the publisher, in this case Penguin, has decided that the digital version should be MORE expensive than the the dead tree version. This is becoming more common as time goes on. I put the blame for this squarely on Apple and the iPad. If you don't know why then go look it up.

Re:The Nook already does this in the US.

[networkBoy]

I thought the same thing about the DRM part.
This is the only 'good' use I've seen yet. I particularly like that it is automatic return from loan, that I don't have to drive to the library to return the books.
-nB

Re:I hope this dies on the vine.

[hedwards]

I wouldn't be surprised, this is a swipe at the second hand market. Most libraries stock up on large quantities of popular books to keep the wait manageable. When the demand drops they sell the extras to recoup a portion of the costs. So the book publishers basically get dinged multiple times. First they lose sales from the people who borrowed, then they lose from the second hand sale.