As for DRM, I don’t understand what that is, so I didn’t comment on that, so not sure if the above is really what you are talking about, sorry! Something that came to me about ebooks thats bugging me.

I’m hoping some code cracker will come up a cheap software to convert all different types of formats to the one you want until the market figures out format.

Doesn’t it make sense to make books easily available? They seem so concerned about the future piracy of a book they are hurting the first sale by making it frustrating for the consumer.

I love ebooks — but I’m not a big fan our our current “protect everything from everyone at all costs” legal environment, it’s dangerous.

I think it’s more like “protect some things from some people,” but I get your general point and agree.

Rights that gather around the general category of expression are being curtailed, and most people don’t even realize how efficiently and effectively endangered those rights now are. It’s dangerous and it’s scary, IMO, mostly because it’s happening with so much passive acceptance.

Actually, I have no problem at all getting straight pdf when I buy from publishers. It’s just when I go to retailers that I have an issue.

Sorry I should have said DRM’d .pdf files. When I bought my ebooks from Harlequin (direct from Harlequin not from a retailer) I had to use digital editions. I had to have the latest edition of digital editions or the file would not download. I had to have the latest version of digital editions or I couldn’t view the books I’d already bought. I also lost a couple of books because of this forced upgrade. Adobe’s solution was to download again, you can’t do that if the retailer no longer exists. I refuse to be beholden to adobe to view my books.

I read on my laptop, in .pdf format, but this experience has me leery of buying e-books, especially from a new source.

I have never had a problem buying and reading an ebook directly from an epublisher. I think most epublishers are savvy enough to know how DRM and stupid issues like Digital Editions, etc, annoy their customers. I have yet to buy an ebook from a major print pub, mostly because of the price thing–DRM and compatibility problems only add to my reluctance.

I see the DRM like I see some of TSA’s procedures at airport security: the thought counts for something, but does having to take off my sweater, my shoes, my laptop out of it’s bag, and putting all my liquid items in a separate plastic baggie really increase security? Or does it just irritate people instead of solving the problem?

And I HATE the prices of ebooks when compared to print prices. It’s the same intellectual property, right? Is there just as much cost distributing a digital file as there is a book that must be typeset, printed, packed, shipped, unpacked, and shelved? Whenever I pay the same price for an ebook as I would for a print book, I feel like I’m getting willingly fleeced.

And for pity’s sake, we need some sort of uniformity in formatting. For movies, we have DVDs, which are now shifting to BluRay and that other one–three main formats. For music, we have CDs and mp3–two biggies. How many formats are there for ebooks? If the people who make the readers are worried about profits, why not have one format your reader can support, sell a converter for it, and have the pubs and distributors sell a single master format? Anything that will get it closer to the ease of buying a print book and opening it right away will increase the likelihood of people buying ebooks instead of pirating–which at this point is aften easier than jumping though the various digital hoops between paying for an ebook to reading said ebook.