With the recent announcement from Apple regarding their new tablet device, the iPad, and with Amazon announcing the newer (and bigger) Kindle, I’ve come to the conclusion is that the future seriously sucks for electronic books. I won’t buy an e-reader of any description. Firstly there is the digital rights management system that locks the book into whatever device you’re using. And there are different digital rights management systems, almost all incompatibile with each other.
I used to subscribe to Audible and I “own” two of Susanna Clarke’s titles in audio format. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and The Ladies of Grace Adieu. I am locked, through iTunes on my Mac and PC, to listening them on up to 5 devices. I could, if I wish, burn the contents onto CDs (and for JS&MN I’d need a LOT of CDs) and taken them wherever I wanted. But it’s impractical.
Google very recently sent me a Nexus One smartphone, as a gift, for my volunteer work on their Google Apps forums. This is a marvellous device (although not without it’s flaws) and I use it as a general multimedia portable (as well as a phone!), replacing my iPod for much of the time. I say that because I can’t transfer my audio books over to the Nexus One – because of Apple/Audible’s DRM. I still have much of my iTunes library tied into DRM and Apple want to charge me £61 to replace the DRM content with DRM-free versions. No, no, NO. But much of this isn’t Apple’s fault. No; they have actually tried to give the public something useful, but this has been at the expense of some freedom. It’s the content providers that are to blame. Publishers set tight controls on the content and DRM is the result. This not only greately inconveniences consumers, but says to them: “We don’t trust you”.
Now that Apple are bringing out the iPad, we are to get the iBook store. Already publishers are forcing price hikes on Amazon and other services and this is going to be horrible for the consumer in the long run. Google, who are trying their best to put a bit of kick into the electronic book ecosystem, is already soliciting lots of bother from publishers and even Governments for their attempts at creating a digital library. As well as the technical problems associated with reading books on a screen, I really just can’t invest in ANY e-reader. Especially if I’m going to be locked down to a DRM format that I can migrate from or have publishers tell me when, how and what to read.
Give me a bound paper book ANY day of the week. Gilbert Norrell would have probably told these electronic book publishers to f**k off. Well, he wouldn’t. But I’d like to think he would.







