EFF Looks at the Big Questions Surrounding Digital Books

Peter Brantley
August 19, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0) | Listen

At the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a post on what the future of digital books portends for pubishers and consumers:

Skeptics should remember that it wasn't long ago that many predicted that CDs would never replace vinyl, and later that MP3s would never replace CDs. You can still find great record stores that specialize in vinyl, but the trend towards digital music has been steady and unstoppable. And the music industry has paid a huge price for their failure to embrace the new technology. After first ignoring new technologies, they then proceeded to try to sue innovators, restrict users with DRM copy protection and then punish fans with indiscriminate lawsuits, none of which did a thing to stop online sharing of music. Sales are down, illegal filesharing is up, and no one has found a way to unite the industry around monetizing the sharing of digital music (though EFF has suggested a Better Way Forward).

Will the same thing happen to the publishing industry as books become digital? If the trend continues, with better devices promising longer battery life and better screen resolution, digital books will become a force to be reckoned with. Are we doomed to watch the publishing industry run through the same gamut of bad decisions that have plagued the recording industry for the last few years?

Related Stories:

• Open Question: Have You Seen a Kindle in Public?
• The Pitfalls of Publishing's E-Reader Guessing Game
• Treating Ebooks Like Software
• Charting the Pitfalls of DRM