Dollars & Sense: Amazon Kindle Equals the Death of Personhood, Ownership, and Free Speech?

[marmar]

Amazon Kindle Equals the Death of Personhood, Ownership, and Free Speech?
by Dollars and Sense


An interesting if broad-brush attack on e-book readers in today’s Christian Science Monitor:

All you really need to know about the dangers of digital commodification you learned in kindergarten.

Think back. Remember swapping your baloney sandwich for Jell-o pudding? Now, imagine handing over your sandwich and getting just a spoon.

That’s one trade you'd never make again.

Yet that’s just what millions of Americans are doing every day when they read “books” on Kindle, Amazon’s e-reading device. In our rush to adopt new technologies, we have too readily surrendered ownership in favor of its twisted sister, access.

Web 2.0 and its culture of collaboration supposedly unleashed a sharing society. But we can share only what we own. And as more and more content gets digitized, commercialized, and monopolized, our cultural integrity is threatened. The free and balanced flow of information that gives shape to democratic society is jeopardized.
...
But it comes with restrictions: You can’t resell or share your books—because you don’t own them. You can download only from Amazon’s store, making it difficult to read anything that is not routed through Amazon first. You’re not buying a book; you’re buying access to a book. No, it’s not like borrowing a book from a library, because there is no public investment. It’s like taking an interest-only mortgage out on intellectual property.

Read it here.


http://www.dollarsandsense.org/blog/2009/03/amazon-kindle-equals-death-of.html

[aquart]

1. Which is why I will stick with Microsoft Reader on my iPAQ.

I can make my own damn books.

[Deja Q]

6. Didn't Apple sue Compaq because the latter came up with the "i___" name first?

:evilgrin:

[aquart]

14. Dunno. iPAQs preceded iPods and iPhones as far as I know.

[X_Digger]

8. You can make your own kindle books..

Mobipocket converter, AmberLIT converter, etc.. I took all the ebooks that I had for my iPAQ and converted them to kindle. It's a two step process, but fairly straightforward.

[Javaman]

meh. If I get sand in my book I shake it out. if it gets wet, I can still read it.

beat that kindle.

the tools in the original article aren't even aware of their own irony. are they writing on typewriters?

Fools.

[arcadian]

2. Kindle will go the way of Betamax

n.t

[X_Digger]

3. LOVE LOVE LOVE my kindle

Kindle DRM has been broken, and there are converters for _every_ type of doc.

I'm slowly replacing some of the 1800 paper books that are in my library, especially those that I re-read a lot and have to replace every couple of years. (Dune series, LoTR, Stephen King..)

I've bought very few new paper books since I got the kindle- just too easy to find online (either amazon store or otherwise.)

[InvisibleTouch]

4. That's a rather extreme viewpoint.

I've never used Kindle, but I can see the appeal. Instant access to hundreds of thousands of books, from a small light handheld device? Sounds wonderful. I don't want to own a physical copy of every book I've ever read. I wouldn't be able to move, for all the books! On the other hand, there are books that I do want to own copies of - books that I can pull off my shelf at 2 AM when I absolutely must have the answer to some burning question, and don't have to fire up my computer to get it. Books I could read even if the power goes out. Books that I can carry with me, highlight and write notes in the margins, lend to friends. There's a place for both kinds. I don't see the one muscling out the other any time soon.

[tonysam]

45. Believe Me, the Column is Accurate.

And it will be the masses to will be forced to "read" nonbooks while the rich will still be able to have tangible assets.

[Deja Q]

5. Like Adobe's web-based photoshop version, forget the kindle (aka 'kindling')

My intellectual property is not given away. I am not a slut.

[hunter]

30. Selling sex or paying for it is against the law in most of the U.S.

:shrug:

I'm a total slut with my intellectual property. It's my time that's valuable, although maybe not so much in today's grim market.

[Baikonour]

7. Kindle books are cheaper than regular books.

CSM at it again..

[Posteritatis]

16. Sure, after the first hundred, until you drop the reader one day (nt)

[Scout]

9. we've been hearing for 20 years how electronic devices would replace real books...

hasn't happened yet.

i have no desire for electronic books, in any format.

i like the real thing. even though i no longer work in book manufacturing. (i am still a typesetter ... from the days when typesetting was an actual profession. i'm not a "desktop publisher.")

[BlooInBloo]

10. I don't know what stupid babble they're talking about, but the problem I have with a kindle-type...

of widget is the fact that the fuckers can change the book on you without telling you - literally rewrite history.

PDFs are just fine by me. If they update it, I'll download a new one.

Besides, who wants an entire contraption that can't do hardly anything besides display books?

[serrano2008]

11. Uh...this article doesn't mention that most people will NOT buy the Kindle

Like kids who read books and lower income people and senior citizens. Prices may come down on Kindle to make it more available but still kids in libraries are going to be reading paper books for a long time down the road (at least 2 years probably).

There are still plenty of other book sellers out there and there will always be a market for coffee table books, picture books, art books. I've looked at a relative's Kindle and know I wouldn't enjoy it. I probably buy 20 or so books a year but I just don't see myself ready my kind of books on there.

[Fleshdancer]

12. What a silly argument

"You’re not buying a book; you’re buying access to a book."

Umm...so? I don't buy a book for the purpose of holding it, opening it, and then storing it on a bookshelf when I'm done. I buy it to read it. I buy it to access the words inside.

With the Kindle or the Sony Reader (which is what I have), I can store numerous books on one small unit, have it on me no matter where I go, read large books with one hand, and know that I'm not wasting paper. I'm ok with not having the physical book the same way I'm ok with buying digital music and not owning a record, cassette tape, or a cd.

[Lyric]

19. You've never loaned a book to a friend?

Donated one to a thrift store? Given one as a gift to a poor child through a Christmas program? Sold one at a garage sale? Purchased one for a library?

Because library access for the poor is (1) not universal, and (2) often hampered by things like late fees and fines that people cannot afford to pay, the poor rely heavily upon thrift stores, yard sales, loans from friends, and other after-market sources to get books that are far too expensive for them to purchase themselves from a store.

I am a twenty-nine year old English major and poet who's about to receive a prestigious scholarship from my university. I am also a child of the worst kind of Appalachian poverty. The only books I ever had were ones that my parents bought for me (usually a buck or two for a whole box) from yard sales and thrift stores, and the few that were at my reading level from the school library. We couldn't use the local public library, as we didn't have a car, and the operating hours for the library were the same hours that my Mom was at work; I couldn't leave my younger siblings to go wandering off on the bus. If not for the kindness of strangers who bought physical BOOKS and then re-sold them for cheap after reading them, I would not be where I am today, and my childhood would have been infinitely more painful to bear.

Even if someone started a charitable e-book program, the fact remains that poor people cannot afford Kindles. They largely cannot even afford computers. There is an entire generation of impoverished children growing up right now, at this very moment, who need our used books desperately. If the Kindle (and the inevitable competitive technologies) catch on nationwide, how many fewer books will there be in the thrift stores and yard sales of America?

Public libraries are a blessing and a salve, but they are not a universal solution. While I appreciate that Kindle makes life easier for those who can afford to buy "access" that cannot be shared or passed along, I fear greatly for the ones who depend on after-market books for access to information and education.

No, it is not a "silly" argument--not by a long shot.

[Fleshdancer]

31. of course I have. I just don't think the Kindle will end all of this

I don't know any electronic book owner who has sworn off actual books. It's just a new medium.

[Hekate]

33. Thank you for saying this so well. I had the same argument w a friend 15 years ago over computers

He was very certain that access to computers, which "everyone" would shortly have, would be the Great Equalizer. I could not convince him that his great idea would leave millions out.

Nothing can truly replace books except more books. Several college-educated friends who grew up poor -- in Appalachia, on a Dust Bowl Oklahoma farm, places like that -- have commented that what gave them a window to the wider world was a set of The Book of Knowledge, a multi-volume children's encyclopedia, which they read over and over. How their families afforded this treasure I do not know, but I think it was peddled door to door like the Britannica and so could be purchased over time.

Books can be passed from hand to hand, are not dependent on batteries or electricity, can be read by daylight or candlelight, kept as a personal treasure whose very cover speaks to you...

Congratulations to you for finding your way.

Hekate

[mentalsolstice]

47. Sony Reader for me too!

:hi: They'd have to pry it out of my cold dead hands. And I'm a fictionwise.com addict as well!

[sinkingfeeling]

13. Nothing will ever beat out a great hardback book. I own a couple of thousand of them.

[Posteritatis]

17. And they don't become unreadable after a format change in five years, too (nt)

[csziggy]

46. The format thing is one factor that has kept me from exploring electronic books

Can you view TXT and PDF files on things like the Kindle? If you can, then the Gutenburg Project has hundreds of free classics and public domain books, and a huge number of other works are available for free download from other locations. But since that question has never been clear to me I have not ever explored the use of electronic books.

For me, no electronic screen can replace the feel and convenience of a paperback book that can fit in my purse and go with me everywhere. But I might could adapt if I could download free older works as well new books, as well as newspaper and magazine articles on an electronic book the same size as a regular - not trade - paperback. To me that would be ideal.

I did read a plan once to provide school students with an electronic book with all their textbooks pre-loaded. I could see how that could be an excellent use for them!

[AB_Positive]

15. Do you own records or an iPod?

Same diff. If you love literature I bet you'll have a kindle AND the hard bound book.

Kindle = iPod for books. I bet it'll take off in a couple years and probably spark an intense raise in reading in youngsters as eBooks become as cool as mp3s.

I want one, and I'm not even that big of a reader. However having access to that many programming manuals at a touch with a screen that doesn't require backlighting is amazing.

Don't like eBooks? Ok, read regular books. Lots of people prefer vinyl to this day for it's better sound, people will prefer the real "tactile-ness" of regular books to the Kindle as well. I don't see this as eBooks replacing books, I see it as complimenting and broadening the horizon. I don't have room for the thousands of reference books needed for tech, repair and projects. But I have room for a kindle.

End result - don't worry. It'll be popular and books will still be around. Both can co-exist easily. The end. :)

[sweetpotato]

32. I want BOTH

I would like to have a Kindle because I love to read in bed and the arthritis I have in my thumbs makes it hard to hold heavy books - especially in bed. I'm having surgery for my right thumb soon and a Kindle could be held with my left hand.

I'd also like to read some books that have scads of pages, but the books are too heavy to hold. A Kindle would solve that for me.

I also enjoy owning the regular hard back or paperback books. Love the look and feel of them -

I miss LP album covers.

I don't think books will go away any time soon. I like the idea that its an IPod for books.

[tonysam]

44. Books Will NEVER Go Away

There is something to be said about tangible possessions, not a bunch of vitual "books" and "cds" and so forth.

[AlCzervik]

18. Does anyone have one of these and can you make the font larger? My Nana loves to read

but her eyesight is for shit since she's 88 now and i was thinking of getting one of these for her. One more question, i'm guessing you can adjust the brightness of the screen?

[X_Digger]

20. Yes to the first, no to the second

The font can go up to old fart big reader scale, and there's no brightness because the kindle isn't backlit- a regular booklight will work.

[AlCzervik]

21. okay, thanks for the info.

[wickerwoman]

22. My problem is that the kindle books are just too damn expensive.

Ten dollars a book? For what? It's basically a PDF file downloaded into device I already paid $400 for. So to recreate one shelf of my library of secondhand paperback sci-fi novels (about 40 to a shelf) would cost $800. The originals cost about $100 and I could resell them for $15-20 of store credit. So Kindle is ten times more expensive than my current method of acquiring books and I don't even get to hold a book in my hand.

Plus when Kindle 3 comes out there's no guarantee I won't have to buy the whole f*in library all over again.

It's a good idea but a complete rip-off at the moment considering that the publishers don't have to pay printing, replication, distribution costs, etc. There's no way they should be charging $10 a book. I'd pay $2 or 3 and I'd expect some kind of guarantee that they wouldn't cut off my access to the files.

[TornadoTN]

25. This is my hang up with the Kindle

The pricing structure is just really bad and poorly executed. But people are buying it, so I guess that argument goes only so far.

The device is great and I would love to have one myself (this sort of thing appeals to me), but I can't justify the highway robbery that they are committing with their book pricing. That's not even to mention the fact that they can take the book away from you at any time, with little to no warning.

[Retrograde]

26. Mine as well

although there are a lot of Project Gutenberg texts available for free that can be read on it. The new books are overpriced, IMHO: I don't begrudge paying an author, or even giving Amazon a small kickback, but since distribution costs are minimal I'd like to see that savings passed on to the reader.

What would be good, though, would be a limited time rental for, say, guidebooks, so you could have the latest versions when you need them and not have to haul around the physical copies.

[TornadoTN]

27. A true rental system would be a good approach

There are some books I read and will never read again. I think many people are like that, which is why a library is so nice. Amazon creating a "library" of sorts would, in my opinion, be a major boon for the company.

If you really wanted to keep the book in your possession, you could pay 5 bucks to keep it (after you had paid a $1 or $2 rental charge) with no strings attached.

We do this stuff with movies, video games, and mp3's. Why couldn't we do it with books?

[wickerwoman]

29. Most authors' royalties are 6-8%

so for each $10 Kindle book you buy the author is getting 60-80 cents. Tack on some money for the editors' salary, the cover art and R&D for the Kindle and profit for Amazon and you still shouldn't get anything close to $10.

Rental is a really good idea but for guidebooks I'd rather have an iPhone with internet access and go to tripadvisor.com for the most updated information. And since I'd only consider $2-4 a fair price for owning the file, I can't imagine a rental price structure much lower than that.

[Edweird]

23. Doing serious reading from an electronic device sucks. The kindle will only go so far.

I doubt that it will ever replace books on any real level.

[EFerrari]

24. Why does it suck, in your opinion? I'm taking a poll. :-)

[NashVegas]

36. For One Thing, It's Inadvisable to Bring It In the Bathtub

Where's the fun in that?

[Retrograde]

35. It's better than I expected

We tried a friend's before Mr. Retrograde made the plunge (he had a bunch of Mobipocket format obscure books he had purchased, things that are not in print). It's a fairly comfortable size, bright screen, and light-weight, which makes it good for trips. I've got a couple of public domain Mark Twain books on it for an upcoming trip, so we'll see how well it actually works.

I still like the feel of a well-made book, and will continue to buy them, but I'm getting more selective about what gets shelf space.

ETA: Mr. Retrograde's idea of light vacation reading is The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (seriously), and the Kindle version packs a lot better than the 3-volume paperback!

[EFerrari]

38. Ha! I once took my Shakespeare with me to Europe

but that was more about separation anxiety than reading. lol

[Spike89]

28. You never owned a book you didn't write

You owned the paper. You can own the Kindle. I'm not really a fan or a believer in the short term future of the Kindle, but mainly because the economics of the device and publishing model are still very flawed. However, this argument has a logical flaw--nothing has really changed, except that with paper books you buy the access and the "player" (paper and ink) everytime. Nothing (but price) stops you from lending or selling your Kindle book--simply hand over the device.

Readers really do need to become cheap, and despite the advances of late, they still need to become better. When I can have solar charging (like a calculator), sturdiness (less important if the price drops significantly), and access to a truly large and diverse selection of media, then I'll gladly embrace them. There really isn't anything magical about paper--except its efficiency.

[Hekate]

34. Predicted by sci-fi 50 years ago, and I want one. But I still won't give up a single book...

I think Kindle is exciting primarily because it would enable me to carry as many books as I wanted wherever I go. I am never without at least one book. My house is overflowing with them -- they're my primary addiction.

But I still hesitate. $350 all at once is a lot. And then I have to spend more money for each book, especially ones I already own that I want on Kindle. And then it turns out that there are a lot of titles (maybe even most of them) in my specialized library that Kindle doesn't seem to list. On the other hand, the inventor seems to have solved the problem of my desire to underline, annotate, and otherwise make notes in the margins.... But what happens in a power failure? Do all your books expire?

Strangely attracted, but not yet ready to commit,

Hekate

[NashVegas]

37. This Is Going to Do Nasty Things to the Publishing Industry's Supporting Businesses

For example, printers who make book jackets.

[AB_Positive]

41. But... books aren't going to go away

I find the above to be flawed. Case in point again using my ipod argument - Vinyl LP production and sales have gone up since the digital ipod "revolution" took hold.

Many people like to have *both* formats and like my digital love (linux) it's all about choice. You can have one, the other... or both.

Book jackets aren't going anywhere. In fact there's a decent chance they'll get more work from this.

[NashVegas]

43. Vinyl Never Went Away For the Real Junkies

That's why production went up. As the majority of music consumers moved to file sharing and mp3 downloads and stopped buying CDs, record labels and manufacturers looked at the most passionate crowd and catered to them, giving younger people who grew up with CDs a reason to keep buying something physical.

Nonetheless, what would you guess to be the ratio of the number of jobs in record companies/vinyl manufacturing/record stores in 2009, compared to 1983? This is what's about to happen to books. Not right away, not for a few years, but it's coming. Look at how the Seattle PI just stopped printing.

[handmade34]

39. I was given a Kindle a couple of weeks ago

Didn't think I would but, I love it, and love the feel of it and the fact that I can adjust the size of the font.. I like that I can go 'online' wherever I am and 'pickup' a book. I just bought "The Republic" for $1.99 and "The Federalist Papers" for $.99. I also love my hardcover books and will never give them up... and I still use the Library. Books have always meant security for me and I will take them anyway I can get them. My partner has the Kindle II and all books are transferable. I understand the potential problems and risks. I believe there is room for E-books and traditional books both and I still buy and send my granddaughter books every week in hopes that she learns to love them as I do. I did a stint administering the testing for NCLB and one of the general questions asked of the students was how many books are in your home- I was aghast at how many said none or just a few. I always appreciated the RIF program in schools because it put books in a lot of kids hands and homes that may not have otherwise had them. My kids always came home with the best books, like "The Happy Hocky Family" by Lane Smith... haven't found that on my Kindle yet.

[Jack_DeLeon]

40. I would not buy something that I couldnt not transfer to another device...

I prefer my music without DRM and I would not buy any ebooks unless they were the same.

DRM free and Open Source are a good combination IMO.

[X_Digger]

42. Kindle DRM has been broken

So you _can_ transfer them. (Until / unless a new DRM scheme comes out, then it'll take a while for _that_ one to be broken.)