Before the Content stands a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who seeks to gain access to the Content. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment. The man thinks about it and asks if he will be allowed to come in sometime later on. ?It is possible,? says the gatekeeper, ?but not now.? The gate to the Content stands open, so the man bends over in order to see through it, but his view is blocked by the towering figure of the gatekeeper. When the gatekeeper notices this, he laughs and says, ?If it tempts you so much, I will stand aside and let you look at the Content. But if you try to go inside despite my prohibition, take note. I am powerful. And I am only a lowly gatekeeper. If you try to access the Content without my permission, you will be met with foes far more powerful than I.? The man from the country has not expected such difficulties: the Content should always be accessible for everyone, he thinks, but as he now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at the heavy wrought iron key hanging off his leather belt, and his long, thin, black Tartar?s beard, he decides that it would be better to wait until he gets permission to go inside. The gatekeeper gives him a stool and allows him to sit down in front of the gate, and there he sits and watches the Content from afar. He sits for days and years in front of the gate. He makes many attempts to be let in, and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests. The gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly, questioning him about his homeland and other things, but they are indifferent questions, and at the end he always tells him once more that he cannot let him inside yet. The man, who has brought many things along for his journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper. The latter takes it all but, as he does so, says, ?I am taking this only so that you do not think you have failed to do anything.? During the many years the man observes the gatekeeper almost continuously. He curses the unlucky circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud; later, as he grows old, he only mumbles to himself. Finally his eyesight grows weak, and he does not know whether the Content is becoming dimmer or whether his eyes are merely deceiving him. Now he no longer has much time to live. Before his death he gathers all his strength to ask one question which he has not yet put to the gatekeeper. He waves to him, since he can no longer lift up his stiffening body. ?What do you still want to know now?? asks the gatekeeper as he bends down to the man. ?Why do you carry a key,? asks the man, ?when the gate you guard has been open this entire time?? The gatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach his diminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him, ?There?s another door to the content, and you had only to ask me for the key to unlock it and go inside. I will now throw away this key.?
solarein, dude, I gotta say, first you bust my & the original posters chops over in this thread:
Original article posted here, but I copied the content (it's mine) to here because it seemed awkward to provide only a link to a post on another Apple rumors site.
---
I see you don't work with technology for a living, specifically IT. Let me illuminate you a bit, if possible.
..........
Thanks for illuminating, but you might or might not be aware that the size of an an epub file can be as small as 10% or even 5% of a SINGLE song which devalues your long lists of arguments a slightly.
(And terribly sorry to say, but for the last 26 years I earned my few cents in an environment of books/music/IT.)
I'd like to see a law passed that makes it illegal to "sell" media formats that need permission to operate. A sale of media implies that the media will work as long as the purchaser handles it correctly. That's not the case with permission-based DRM. The media and all backup copies will fail when the seller abandons support for them. Call them rentals or leases but they're definitely not a sale of anything at all.
There is NO way 14.99 can be perceived as a price that is justified.
As we get the technology setup, there are considerable costs involved. But it's a different economic model that scales incredibly well.
If Apple charged $14.99 but could subsidise the iPad with that it might make sense. But there'll be people who buy lots of books and those who buy none. The subsidy model is hard to predict (though Apple discounted the AppleTV the moment they had Movie rentals).
Quote:
Originally Posted by yuusharo
Its so stupid that publishers believe that by somehow not adding copy protection you're opening the floodgates to piracy. Its not true at all. The people who are sophisticated enough to use P2P to steal something will do so regardless, and you can't stop it. Period. There's no such thing as "casual" piracy anymore - its a myth. Everything is done online now, and people are smart enough and willing to pay for their content with the promise that they can view it on any device they want.
Yes people will find free content easily enough if they want it. But I think a lot of people don't realise they've got DRM on their file until they try to give it to someone... and they might not even know how to try to give it to someone (like an App on the iPhone). Those people just buy the book (and perhaps delete it later).
But... there's scope for better usages on digital devices.
One option would be for the DRM to replicate a physical book's limitations.
eg: allow someone to give their book to someone else (and the original owner no longer has it or any rights to it)
Or allow someone to lend their book to someone else (so they no longer have it), but with the advantage that they automatically get it back 2 weeks later.
That model might be possible if Apple chose to use it. (It wouldn't allow the book to go off Apple devices though)
Quote:
Originally Posted by ltcompuser
I download ebooks from our library. They have X copies of a title at a time, and the viewing times only lasts a set period of time. After I "return" the item, or the loan period expires, another person can download the same item.
Very interesting.
To some degree I have to wonder how the model of "loans" holds up in the digital age. Libraries come from an age where individual books were expensive, a book was paid for once and loaned hundreds of times. Now a library could potentially have no upfront book cost, but pay per loan of the book. But it's certainly possible to replicate the "buy-once and loan hundreds of times" model.
I doubt Blockbuster could buy 1000 copies of a movie and then loan out (digitally) 1000 at a time without further payment to the movie distributors.
We might eventually rent a book for $2. It could have a time limit, or only allow reading forwards through the book (with limited skimming back in the book)
To some degree I have to wonder how the model of "loans" holds up in the digital age. Libraries come from an age where individual books were expensive, a book was paid for once and loaned hundreds of times. Now a library could potentially have no upfront book cost, but pay per loan of the book.
I wonder how it'll end up. As you have explained though, there are digital versions which replicate the old model. I doubt Blockbuster could buy 1000 copies of a movie and then loan out (digitally) 1000 at a time without further payment to the movie distributors.
I wonder if we might eventually rent a book for $2. It could be a time limit, or only allow reading forwards through the book (with limited skimming back in the book)
I think this could be achieve with a licensing option that uses a key. Similar to the way iTunes Store authenticates and de-authenticates accounts in iTunes.
For example, a library buys the digital book Moby Dick with 10 licenses or keys. Each time it's rented by a library user to an approved device with an approved account that key is with that device through a 3-way handshake. When the user returns the book the key is then available for someone else to borrow the book.
If they go over their 2 week loan time they are fined from the Library's server. The book reader will keep track of these timeframes and keys and will inform the reader the time is up and perhaps allow for certain small extensions. If the user can't return the book and key for whatever reason (stolen, broken, lazy) then the library charges them the cost for getting another key to have available for other readers, essentially buying the book. If they try to return it after the key has been de-issued the handshake with the server will make the book permanent to the user.
I had wished that Apple would have been the first to find a way to give away eBooks. I think this is a big deal but it may be too soon for the still nascent digital media world to make that happen.
I think this could be achieve with a licensing option that uses a key. Similar to the way iTunes Store authenticates and de-authenticates accounts in iTunes.
It could certainly work as you say, and pretty well simulate the general model of physical books on library loans. It could go even further and count how many times it's been read and limit it's life to 1000 reads (however long a book really lasts), forcing the library to buy more copies if it's been well-used.
My question is more... SHOULD it simulate a physical book model?
It artificially creates a limited supply of something that has no limit. It supports a model where there is a significant cost to each physical copy which must be respected in its use.
Personally, the more I think about it the more a "rental" model makes sense to me (for me as a user, and for the distributor). Pay $4 and have 6 months to read a book. Not that borrowing ("free rental") isn't appealing... I just don't see much in it for the distributor.
It could certainly work as you say, and pretty well simulate the general model of physical books on library loans. It could go even further and count how many times it's been read and limit it's life to 1000 reads (however long a book really lasts), forcing the library to buy more copies if it's been well-used.
My question is more... SHOULD it simulate a physical book model?
It artificially creates a limited supply of something that has no limit. It supports a model where there is a significant cost to each physical copy which must be respected in its use.
Personally, the more I think about it the more a "rental" model makes sense to me (for me as a user, and for the distributor). Pay $4 and have 6 months to read a book. Not that borrowing ("free rental") isn't appealing... I just don't see much in it for the distributor.
I like your additional idea of a maximum loan time for the material.
After thinking about this in my sleep I think this is really the only fair model available to everyone. There are hurdles to tackle, like how the key works, how a reader get approved, who maintains all this, but I can't think of any other option that maintains a public library system.
If it can be displayed on a screen, it can be copied, and no amount of digital rights management is going to change that!
Lol, I just thought about why the Home Button/Power Button screenshot might not work (it didn't in the test units at the demo). When reading a book, I could just take screenshots of pages as I read them and then mass email them to my friends or others. Wow, didn't think about that.
DRM has always been up to the content owner, while it may have had some benefits for Apple over the years, it's also costs Apple in R&D and changes/support over the years.
Enterprise IT is ALWAYS more expensive than standard home or small office IT expenses. EMC, IBM, HP, Cisco, etc. etc. all want their money. I wish I could add a terabyte for what a drive off the shelf costs, that would cut IT budgets tremendously.
If the big publishing houses are making money printing books which retail for 14.99, the ebook version should be at most half and they will still make more money, remember printing is still very very expensive.
The one thing that was touched on by a previous post, the Author that gets denied by the publishing houses can now publish through the iBook store. Will we see the 'big' publishing houses start to diminish? Will the authors that have contracts with the publishing houses now go direct with their books and bypass the houses alltogether. Will we the public now have access to authors and books/publications that were previously blacklisted or filtered or passed over due to the high cost of printing and projected poor market penetration? That's going to be interesting.
Comments
Before the Content stands a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who seeks to gain access to the Content. But the gatekeeper says that he cannot grant him entry at the moment. The man thinks about it and asks if he will be allowed to come in sometime later on. ?It is possible,? says the gatekeeper, ?but not now.? The gate to the Content stands open, so the man bends over in order to see through it, but his view is blocked by the towering figure of the gatekeeper. When the gatekeeper notices this, he laughs and says, ?If it tempts you so much, I will stand aside and let you look at the Content. But if you try to go inside despite my prohibition, take note. I am powerful. And I am only a lowly gatekeeper. If you try to access the Content without my permission, you will be met with foes far more powerful than I.? The man from the country has not expected such difficulties: the Content should always be accessible for everyone, he thinks, but as he now looks more closely at the gatekeeper in his fur coat, at the heavy wrought iron key hanging off his leather belt, and his long, thin, black Tartar?s beard, he decides that it would be better to wait until he gets permission to go inside. The gatekeeper gives him a stool and allows him to sit down in front of the gate, and there he sits and watches the Content from afar. He sits for days and years in front of the gate. He makes many attempts to be let in, and he wears the gatekeeper out with his requests. The gatekeeper often interrogates him briefly, questioning him about his homeland and other things, but they are indifferent questions, and at the end he always tells him once more that he cannot let him inside yet. The man, who has brought many things along for his journey, spends everything, no matter how valuable, to win over the gatekeeper. The latter takes it all but, as he does so, says, ?I am taking this only so that you do not think you have failed to do anything.? During the many years the man observes the gatekeeper almost continuously. He curses the unlucky circumstance, in the first years thoughtlessly and out loud; later, as he grows old, he only mumbles to himself. Finally his eyesight grows weak, and he does not know whether the Content is becoming dimmer or whether his eyes are merely deceiving him. Now he no longer has much time to live. Before his death he gathers all his strength to ask one question which he has not yet put to the gatekeeper. He waves to him, since he can no longer lift up his stiffening body. ?What do you still want to know now?? asks the gatekeeper as he bends down to the man. ?Why do you carry a key,? asks the man, ?when the gate you guard has been open this entire time?? The gatekeeper sees that the man is already dying and, in order to reach his diminishing sense of hearing, he shouts at him, ?There?s another door to the content, and you had only to ask me for the key to unlock it and go inside. I will now throw away this key.?
solarein, dude, I gotta say, first you bust my & the original posters chops over in this thread:
Welcome to the Apple Garden
And then you bust out the above quoted??!?
All I want to know is this?
Will you introduce me to your dealer, cause you are smoking some killer chiba?!!!
Original article posted here, but I copied the content (it's mine) to here because it seemed awkward to provide only a link to a post on another Apple rumors site.
---
I see you don't work with technology for a living, specifically IT. Let me illuminate you a bit, if possible.
..........
Thanks for illuminating, but you might or might not be aware that the size of an an epub file can be as small as 10% or even 5% of a SINGLE song which devalues your long lists of arguments a slightly.
(And terribly sorry to say, but for the last 26 years I earned my few cents in an environment of books/music/IT.)
There is NO way 14.99 can be perceived as a price that is justified.
As we get the technology setup, there are considerable costs involved. But it's a different economic model that scales incredibly well.
If Apple charged $14.99 but could subsidise the iPad with that it might make sense. But there'll be people who buy lots of books and those who buy none. The subsidy model is hard to predict (though Apple discounted the AppleTV the moment they had Movie rentals).
Its so stupid that publishers believe that by somehow not adding copy protection you're opening the floodgates to piracy. Its not true at all. The people who are sophisticated enough to use P2P to steal something will do so regardless, and you can't stop it. Period. There's no such thing as "casual" piracy anymore - its a myth. Everything is done online now, and people are smart enough and willing to pay for their content with the promise that they can view it on any device they want.
Yes people will find free content easily enough if they want it. But I think a lot of people don't realise they've got DRM on their file until they try to give it to someone... and they might not even know how to try to give it to someone (like an App on the iPhone). Those people just buy the book (and perhaps delete it later).
But... there's scope for better usages on digital devices.
One option would be for the DRM to replicate a physical book's limitations.
eg: allow someone to give their book to someone else (and the original owner no longer has it or any rights to it)
Or allow someone to lend their book to someone else (so they no longer have it), but with the advantage that they automatically get it back 2 weeks later.
That model might be possible if Apple chose to use it. (It wouldn't allow the book to go off Apple devices though)
I download ebooks from our library. They have X copies of a title at a time, and the viewing times only lasts a set period of time. After I "return" the item, or the loan period expires, another person can download the same item.
Very interesting.
To some degree I have to wonder how the model of "loans" holds up in the digital age. Libraries come from an age where individual books were expensive, a book was paid for once and loaned hundreds of times. Now a library could potentially have no upfront book cost, but pay per loan of the book. But it's certainly possible to replicate the "buy-once and loan hundreds of times" model.
I doubt Blockbuster could buy 1000 copies of a movie and then loan out (digitally) 1000 at a time without further payment to the movie distributors.
We might eventually rent a book for $2. It could have a time limit, or only allow reading forwards through the book (with limited skimming back in the book)
I wonder how it'll end up.
Very interesting.
To some degree I have to wonder how the model of "loans" holds up in the digital age. Libraries come from an age where individual books were expensive, a book was paid for once and loaned hundreds of times. Now a library could potentially have no upfront book cost, but pay per loan of the book.
I wonder how it'll end up. As you have explained though, there are digital versions which replicate the old model. I doubt Blockbuster could buy 1000 copies of a movie and then loan out (digitally) 1000 at a time without further payment to the movie distributors.
I wonder if we might eventually rent a book for $2. It could be a time limit, or only allow reading forwards through the book (with limited skimming back in the book)
I think this could be achieve with a licensing option that uses a key. Similar to the way iTunes Store authenticates and de-authenticates accounts in iTunes.
For example, a library buys the digital book Moby Dick with 10 licenses or keys. Each time it's rented by a library user to an approved device with an approved account that key is with that device through a 3-way handshake. When the user returns the book the key is then available for someone else to borrow the book.
If they go over their 2 week loan time they are fined from the Library's server. The book reader will keep track of these timeframes and keys and will inform the reader the time is up and perhaps allow for certain small extensions. If the user can't return the book and key for whatever reason (stolen, broken, lazy) then the library charges them the cost for getting another key to have available for other readers, essentially buying the book. If they try to return it after the key has been de-issued the handshake with the server will make the book permanent to the user.
I had wished that Apple would have been the first to find a way to give away eBooks. I think this is a big deal but it may be too soon for the still nascent digital media world to make that happen.
I think this could be achieve with a licensing option that uses a key. Similar to the way iTunes Store authenticates and de-authenticates accounts in iTunes.
It could certainly work as you say, and pretty well simulate the general model of physical books on library loans. It could go even further and count how many times it's been read and limit it's life to 1000 reads (however long a book really lasts), forcing the library to buy more copies if it's been well-used.
My question is more... SHOULD it simulate a physical book model?
It artificially creates a limited supply of something that has no limit. It supports a model where there is a significant cost to each physical copy which must be respected in its use.
Personally, the more I think about it the more a "rental" model makes sense to me (for me as a user, and for the distributor). Pay $4 and have 6 months to read a book. Not that borrowing ("free rental") isn't appealing... I just don't see much in it for the distributor.
It could certainly work as you say, and pretty well simulate the general model of physical books on library loans. It could go even further and count how many times it's been read and limit it's life to 1000 reads (however long a book really lasts), forcing the library to buy more copies if it's been well-used.
My question is more... SHOULD it simulate a physical book model?
It artificially creates a limited supply of something that has no limit. It supports a model where there is a significant cost to each physical copy which must be respected in its use.
Personally, the more I think about it the more a "rental" model makes sense to me (for me as a user, and for the distributor). Pay $4 and have 6 months to read a book. Not that borrowing ("free rental") isn't appealing... I just don't see much in it for the distributor.
I like your additional idea of a maximum loan time for the material.
After thinking about this in my sleep I think this is really the only fair model available to everyone. There are hurdles to tackle, like how the key works, how a reader get approved, who maintains all this, but I can't think of any other option that maintains a public library system.
If it can be displayed on a screen, it can be copied, and no amount of digital rights management is going to change that!
Lol, I just thought about why the Home Button/Power Button screenshot might not work (it didn't in the test units at the demo). When reading a book, I could just take screenshots of pages as I read them and then mass email them to my friends or others. Wow, didn't think about that.
DRM has always been up to the content owner, while it may have had some benefits for Apple over the years, it's also costs Apple in R&D and changes/support over the years.
Enterprise IT is ALWAYS more expensive than standard home or small office IT expenses. EMC, IBM, HP, Cisco, etc. etc. all want their money. I wish I could add a terabyte for what a drive off the shelf costs, that would cut IT budgets tremendously.
If the big publishing houses are making money printing books which retail for 14.99, the ebook version should be at most half and they will still make more money, remember printing is still very very expensive.
The one thing that was touched on by a previous post, the Author that gets denied by the publishing houses can now publish through the iBook store. Will we see the 'big' publishing houses start to diminish? Will the authors that have contracts with the publishing houses now go direct with their books and bypass the houses alltogether. Will we the public now have access to authors and books/publications that were previously blacklisted or filtered or passed over due to the high cost of printing and projected poor market penetration? That's going to be interesting.