Charles Stross on why the big six publishers will kill DRM:
It doesn’t matter whether Macmillan wins the price-fixing lawsuit bought by the Department of Justice. The point is, the big six publishers’ Plan B for fighting the emerging Amazon monopsony has failed (insofar as it has been painted as a price-fixing ring, whether or not it was one in fact). This means that they need a Plan C. And the only viable Plan C, for breaking Amazon’s death-grip on the consumers, is to break DRM.
As with plenty of other people around the world, I’m very curious to see how this plays out. Unlike plenty of other people around the world, I don’t think I can predict it. But Stross put forward an interesting scenario.
There are a number of government funded programs around the world that give a free book to every child born in that region along with literacy information for the parents. Tennessee however have gone a step or two (or sixty) further:
Tennessee has an amazing program called Books From Birth or Imagination Library. The program provides every child in TN (if they sign up for the program) with a new book of their own, every month of the year, from birth through age 5. And it’s all FREE. Can you believe that? The books arrive in the mail, and it’s so much fun to find them waiting in our mailbox on each arrival day.
Brilliant.
If you are interested in the present and future of libraries but aren’t reading what Hugh Rundle has to say, you are missing out on thoughts like this:
The real value of libraries is not the hardware. It has never been the hardware. Your members don’t come to the library to find books, or magazines, journals, films or musical recordings. They come to be informed, inspired, horrified, enchanted or amused. They come to hide from reality or understand its true nature. They come to find solace or excitement, companionship or solitude. They come for the software.
Do yourself a favour and go read the whole thing.
Pew Internet Project have released a new study on the rise of e-reading. Full report here. Press release here.
Some snippets:
In mid-December 2011, 17% of American adults had reported they read an e-book in the previous year; by February, 2012, the share increased to 21%.
I’d love to see some Australian stats for comparison.
It’s now clear that readers are embracing a new format for books and a significant number are reading more because books can be plucked out of the air.
I’ve heard several accounts of people saying they’re reading more because they always have a book with them now.
E-book readers and tablet computers are finding their place in the rhythms of readers’ lives. But printed books still serve as the physical currency when people want to share the stories they love.
This in reference to stats that show people prefer paper books when reading to kids or sharing with others. There are clearly logistical reasons around this.