News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Ebook Fraud.

Re:Ebook Fraud by dotBen on Monday April 04, 2011 @05:21PM (#2408586)
I've always felt it strange how Amazon has concentrated its resource on penalizing their own customers by locking down the portability/sharability of books - thus preventing customers from their full rights under copyright (such as full right to loan or sell on a book). They'll even enforce that by removing the API keys to sites like Lendle.

Yet they totally leave the door open for scammers to upload content they don't own the copyright to and have no interest in really enforcing that side of the business.

It's the main reason I won't buy a Kindle, as much as the thought of owning a beautiful ebook device reader attracts me so much.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ebook Fraud by mcpherrinm on Tuesday April 05, 2011 @04:02AM (#2410117)
With Kindle, you can lend books out. I don't any internal details on Lendle, but the action doesn't actually stop lending services, from what I can see.

It's really a fine balancing act of trying to deliver the best customer experience (Which Amazon really does want to do). Without the co-operation of publishers, there wouldn't be any content, and then what's the point? Before Amazon pushed the publishers, the eBook market was tiny and unfriendly. Getting the experience as good as it is today has been a colossal amount of effort.

I don't know how enforcement is on scammy books, but I can't seem them being a positive user experience, so I can only assume that some action should be taken.

But at the same time, you really don't want to take down stuff unless you're sure you want to. It is non-trivial to determine who owns what content, and requires human intervention.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ebook Fraud by hugh3 on Monday April 04, 2011 @07:21PM (#2409010)
It's the main reason I won't buy a Kindle, as much as the thought of owning a beautiful ebook device reader attracts me so much.

So buy a Nook. Or a Sony.

I have a Nook which I use exclusively for out-of-copyright content. (I doubt I'd ever pay real money for an eBook, since I like paper books far too much.)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ebook Fraud by elai on Monday April 04, 2011 @08:09PM (#2409134)
Sony pocket reader would be near perfect if they added amazon's side buttons, and a one/two tap method to get to a fully expanded out table of contents like iBooks. Being able to use it while charging from the computer would be nice too.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ebook Fraud by Estragon on Monday April 04, 2011 @07:25PM (#2409023)
It's not strange at all. Obviously Amazon makes money every time you buy Kindle content, even if it's crap, whereas Lendle threatened to reduce their revenue.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ebook Fraud by hugh3 on Monday April 04, 2011 @07:33PM (#2409041)
It is, however, short-sighted. If 99.9996% of the available eBooks are crap (like Sturgeon's law squared) then the e-publishing industry will die.
[ Parent | on HN ]