Bigmouth Strikes Again: Carrie Marshall's blog

Nice ebook. What about the DRM?

There’s little point in my blogging about Google’s latest announcements: all the tech blogs are covering Google Pack and the Google Video download thing, so head for Engadget or The Register if you want to know more. For me, the most interesting thing to appear at the CES gadget-fest is Sony’s Reader, which is the first ebook reader I’d actually consider buying.

That said, there’s two things that would put me off, and inevitably they’re pricing and DRM. It’s unclear what restrictions Sony will slap on its ebooks: its previous Librie ebook reader killed your copies after 60 days, whether you’d read them or not. Without knowing the DRM details, it’s impossible to say whether Sony’s ebooks will be a sensible purchase at any price.

The other issue, pricing, is turning me off too. Sony promises that titles will be 20-25% cheaper than regular retail price. If that’s the RRP rather than the street price, then ebooks will be more expensive than printed ones: thanks to the ongoing book price wars and bundling deals, the price you pay for a real book is almost always considerably less than the RRP.

Put it this way: Sony’s promising DRM-restricted digital books for 25% less than RRP, and those books may be time-bombed. Amazon sells physical books for an average of 30% less than RRP. Proper books don’t have DRM, don’t have an expiry date, and don’t explode if you drop them in the bath.

Sony Reader details and pics – Engadget

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Comments

0 responses to “Nice ebook. What about the DRM?”

  1. russ the knife

    I dropped a book in the bath to test this and not only is it less usable now. My wife hit me and yeld at me. Don’t drop real books in the bath, drop an electronic copy!

  2. Squander Two

    Ah, I can see what you did wrong there. Never drop a book on your wife when she’s having a bath.

  3. David

    OK, I’m a bit of a gadget freak but I don’t understand “the first ebook reader I’d actually consider buying.”

    Why?

    £200 for something that allows you to read books that you have to buy for about the same as you’d pay for the paper one. Even I would have a hard time justifying that one.

    As a PR exercise, why don’t Sony give it away and advertise that Sony saves trees?

  4. Gary

    Paul at All Talk No Action’s suggested something similar: magazine publishers could give the ebook as part of a subscription deal.

    > I don’t understand “the first ebook reader I’d actually consider buying.”

    I meant in terms of, the first ebook reader I can see as a paper replacement – provided that the content I want is there.