My concern is of different nature. First - it gives the published the total control of the distribution and circulation of the book after it has been sold. You will not be able to loan a book to someone else (except on the conditions prescribed by Amazon) or buy a used copy. There is no after-market on e-books - you have to buy your copy from Amazon (or other distributors.) Many people do not think much about it, but I simply do not trust corporations, especially when they exercise uncontrolled monopoly power.
Second - and this is a very remote possibility at the moment - the digital control of the e-book distribution will make Bradbury's vision of book burning (Fahrenheit 451) a far more easy to implement. They will not need to send to send firemen with canisters of kerosene anymore - they will simply pull the plug and change the code. It is that simple. Again, I am not saying that it is imminent or likely to happen but, hey, before 1939 few believed that the nation of Bach and Goethe will be overrun by barbaric mass murderers.
Wojtek
On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 4:23 PM, Jeffrey Fisher <jeff.jfisher at gmail.com>wrote:
> welcome the new digital overlord:
>
> http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/01/kindle-is-mightier-than-the-bo.html
>
> This does not of course indicate a decline in reading. If anything, quite
> the contrary. It's a lot of money to spend on something you only use for
> reading books.
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