In the interest of provoking some intra-publication antagonism—who doesn’t want news organizations fighting one another?—I predict that The Stranger’s book editor Paul Constant will buy an Apple iPad, whether he knows it yet or not, in order to read electronic books.
Constant extols the glory of a device he hasn’t yet seen and which I have, nyah nyah, especially the potential for comics and graphic novels to be reproduced in glorious LCD backlit color.
Oh, but, boo hoo, Paul, he doesn’t like him some digital rights management (DRM) that Apple will certainly allow (or require) publishers to use to lock content in an encrypted format preventing items sold to be read on an iPad to be read on other devices.
Constant points to a misinformed LA Times blog entry that makes it sound like it’s news that Apple will use its Fairplay technology that locks down video, audiobooks, and other content–but no longer music–to restrict use of ebooks as well.
DRM is used by Amazon for Kindle content already, and Barnes & Noble, Sony, and other early ebook reader manufacturers lock down content as well. It’s unfortunate, because as a best-selling author buddy of mine has said many times, anyone who can read can exactly duplicate the contents of a book, “e” or otherwise; with music or video, you have to crack the encryption to extract and duplicate the content.
As Cory Doctorow wrote yesterday, as part of his ongoing documentation of releasing a new book in print, limited edition, electronic, and audio formats, “Apple’s longstanding love-affair with proprietary formats and lock-ins will very likely make the iPad every inch the roach motel that the Kindle is. Apple pitches this as a design decision, but it’s also a powerful anticompetitive strategy that raises the cost of switching to a competitor’s device.”
Now, Apple had its music-selling hegemony disrupted when the biggest music labels used the removal of DRM as a way to allow market access to the iPod: the iPod can only play DRM files locked by Apple, but can play unprotected MP3, AAC, and other audio formats.
Labels gave Walmart, Microsoft, and Amazon the right to sell their catalog without protection, and that allowed labels to shove a knife into Apple’s door and jimmy open pricing. Apple had wanted to set pricing at 99 cents for all songs, and $9.99 for most albums. The pricing is now in a wider range, some lower and some higher.
In this case, though, removing DRM doesn’t give publishers a particular advantage. Macmillan’s battle over what it would allow Amazon to charge for its books and what Macmillan would discount e-titles to Amazon for resale had everything to do with Macmillan’s supply of unique items, and Apple’s entry into the market. Books that can be interchanged among many different readers using a universal format just isn’t a negotiating point.
So enjoy your weirdo Notion Ink Adam or Plastic Logic or whatever the hell, Paul, because you’ll be Apple’s bitch in the end if you want to have any content to read–or Amazon’s or Barnes & Noble’s or Sony’s. I suspect you’ll prefer the iPad. Save your pennies now. The iPad starts at $499.
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Howdy Mr. Fleishman,
I'm flattered for the attention. Thank you.
Let me say this first: I love my job. As one of two books editors left in Seattle, I think I'm the luckiest S.O.B. in town. But let me say also that the one thing I was not prepared for when I took my job was that a modern book editor (an endangered species if ever there was one) also has to be a fairly literate tech reporter. It is the part of the job that surprised me the most, and it's one of the facets of the job in which I have the most to learn, and I am learning it in public,in what the kids call “real time,” and occasionally I do a very poor job of learning in public. I appreciate it when tech people try to straighten me out, and I certainly understand their disgust at my tech writing. But I think a literary-minded perspective is an important one to have focused on the upcoming crop of e-readers, because literary-minded people see things that tech people can't, just as tech people see much that literary-minded people can't.
But you're also promoting a half-assed reading of my post here. I said that I wasn't into an e-reader for the stores. The DRM thing isn't the major reason why I'm not into the stores (although I agree with Cory Doctorow). So let me repeat the reason why I need an e-reader: One of the things that makes my job so good is that I get free books for review every day. And many of those books are going to start (and are already) coming in PDF or ePub format instead of a physical one. An e-reader will become necessary to properly do my job.
But let me state—clearer than I did in my original post—why I'm not interested in either Amazon or the iBookstore. Part of my job as books editor is to be a cheerleader for local bookstores and libraries. I love that part of my job most of all. While Amazon is, geographically, local, they have not until recently done anything as a business to support the local literary community. In the last year, they started giving to Hugo House and 826 Seattle and a few other worthy organizations. But they have a long way—hundreds of years, in my opinion, at the rate that they're donating—to go before they've begun to contribute what businesses like University Book Store or Elliott Bay Book Company or any of our astounding local bookstores and libraries have given back to Seattle. To my knowledge—and you can correct me if I'm wrong—the iBookstore has not given one red cent to the many, many literary institutions that improve the quality of life in this town. And for those reasons, I'm going to keep going to our local bookstores and libraries when I need “content” that's not provided to me by publishers for review. I understand that the American Booksellers Association—the independent booksellers' group—will soon have an ebookstore that will give back to local businesses. If there's anything “content”-wise that I need that is only available in an e-format, I'll go to them.
And in the end, neither of us really know what's going on, Mr. Fleishman. As you point out, you've handled an iPad for a few minutes. I'm sure it was a suitably religious experience. But until any of these devices are released to a mass audience, we're just a couple of grown men chattering about a couple of consumer electronic devices that don't exist in any meaningful way yet. Tell me we don't have the best jobs in the universe.
Hi-ho,
Paul Bobby Constant
P.S. I apologize if parts of this post don't make sense; this comment system is kind of baffling. I can't see any more than five lines above where I am right now, so my goldfish memory might not make for the most coherent post.
Awesome response.
Dear Mr. Fleishman:
Granted, you're talking up the iPad. But you're also putting Sony, B&N, and Amazon above Constant's “weirdo Notion Ink Adam or Plastic Logic or whatever the hell.” So, for the benefit of me and anyone else who had never heard of you until 40 minutes ago, it would be awesome if we didn't need to stumble through a bunch of links to learn that you used to work for Amazon. You could just disclose it right in the post. We'd probably just shrug. Still, disclosure is reassuring. (It's part of why I use my real name when I post comments on blogs.)
Also, it's cool that this post is “all meant in good fun.” But that's not the tone that came through to me. A link from Paul Constant brought me here. I trust Paul not to link to crap. So I read further than I would have otherwise. I gave up on finding anything worthwhile in your post after “boo hoo, Paul, he doesn’t like him some digital rights management.” I don't pretend that was fair or reasonable of me. Just my gut reaction.
- David Quigg
I worked for Amazon in 96-97, and I didn't get any stock because I left after six months. I don't hold a brief for them, and have written about them critically here and elsewhere any number of times, and praised them when justified.
Thanks for the response. I was trying to provoke a little light hearted banter about how we were all being screwed by siloed content, but I understand your orientation from the books perspective.
I was riffing off your link to the LA Times and the “discovery” that iBooks would have DRM. That seemed to be what was driving you to another device. The iPad will read unlocked Epub, PDF, and other format files, so it'll be perfectly fine to read unlocked stuff; Apple just won't sell unlocked stuff (that's my guess at least).
I didn't know your job involved being a local bookstore cheerleader. I've been watching indie bookstores collapse for 15 years, and it's fairly depressing, because only a handful recognized (or have still recognized) that their business still involves books but is vastly different. Bookstores used to be insulated from books being fungible because books were material objects, hard to move around, with high margins because of the cost of shipping and returns, etc. I don't know any indie stores that got rich when they could charge full cover, and that should have always been an indication of what the market was about.
When new books became fungible (partly due to Barnes & Noble and other big chains), smart bookstores figured out how to revamp and discount differently, add or ramp up used book sales, and sell over the Internet. Used books and Internet sales are different businesses that involve books, and I can see why Elliott Bay et al doesn't want to be in them, but I also don't see how they survive by selling new books mostly at list price now that new books will have slipped their physical wrappers.
Ebooks may actually have a worse effect on chain and big-box stores because ebooks will suck more of the mass-market and textbook audience away than readers who like the gestalt of a store, the curatorship of what's available, and the experience of books–especially used books, which are unique objects.
I don't have a problem with Amazon not giving money to charity, since it's publicly held, and its responsibility is to shareholders (yes, I said that with a straight face. If companies donate money or goods, it's really marketing, however it appears. Instead, I appreciate firms that make it easier for employees to give, and rich bosses like Jeff Bezos (DISCLOSURE: WARNING: I WORKED FOR HIM LONG AGO [see comment below]) should be giving away from their personal wealth, not money that belongs to shareholders. (Although he and his family are still the majority owners, I believe, of Amazon; at least they control voting stock.)
You're being disingenuous when you say it's about the reading, not the buying, because you said you don't want a reader that doesn't let you move books around (phone to reader), nor that supports DRM.
“And in the end, neither of us really know what's going on, Mr. Fleishman. As you point out, you've handled an iPad for a few minutes. I'm sure it was a suitably religious experience.” Oh, sure, but my attempt to be funny (since I've only had a whopping 30 minutes with an iPad under tightly controlled circumstances) didn't play for you. The only insight i have better is how it feels and looks, which is great, but you know that from the videos. (The page-turning is really not cheesy in person; I expect it was being shown off in demos, where you can make it really obvious by dragging slowly.)
zzzzzzz……
Mr. Quigg, please post your resume, so we can be assured that there are no conflicts of interest in your comments. Be especially meticulous about every position you held more than 10 years ago or for less than six months or any companies that completed changed their stock and business model in the meantime. For all we know, your opinions on McDonalds could be tainted by that two weeks you worked the register.
Where did anyone get the impression that non-DRM content or applications will be available on the iPad? Why do you think the big media companies are so gung-ho about a gloried portable tv?
Fair enough.
Resume:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-quigg/8/ab6/740
Short bio (with bad picture):
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-quigg#
And yes, if I were writing about McDonalds and I had worked there (even for only two weeks), I would mention that. The details GlennF gave in response to my comment don't erode my confidence in him. They boost it. It's especially useful to know that he didn't get stock from Amazon. I'm also reassured by his easily verifiable statement that he writes both positive and negative things about Amazon.
BTW, Jeff Jarvis gives the most obsessively complete disclosure I've ever seen.
http://www.buzzmachine.com/about-me/
Maybe it's overkill. But I think it builds trust with readers. Am I as preemptively thorough in my own disclosure? No.
http://www.davidquigg.com/post/394451410
Finally, I guess I should mention that I've written a novel. Maybe posting my initial comment here was one big inept conflict of interest. Maybe my subconscious believes my comment will ingratiate me to Paul Constant and somehow result in a glowing review for my as-yet-unpublished novel. If so, my subconscious is a fool.
That's all for now. I won't be online again until tonight.