If Used Software Can Be Sold, Why Not Used eBooks?
mikecanex.wordpress.com
mikecanex.wordpress.com
If I uninstall adobe photoshop and sell you my license key, you can install the same version and activate it using the key that I sold you. Now I cannot re-activate my copy of photoshop because my key no longer works, it's already being used by you. There's one copy of the key...it cannot be reproduced.
eBooks do not require license keys to read the book. You can essentially make a copy of the ebook and send it to me and we can both read the ebook (DRM issues can be a whole 'nother post here). The only way selling an ebook would work is if they required license keys that can be transfered around but not reproduced, and that would prevent me from reading my book after I've sold my license, my rights to read the book.
If I buy a Blu-Ray disc for $10, I'm reasonably assured I can unload it used for $2 to $5 later on. I can also lend it to people. The digital HD copy I bought for the same price that's typically locked to an individual device has zero resale value.
You can't purchase digital goods these days. At best you get a long-term rental agreement.
"To produce a quality eBook takes just as long and costs just as much as producing a quality paper book. Yes, you save some money on paper, printing, and binding. And you save some money on warehousing and shipping. But you incur other costs."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-zack/making-ebooks-is-h...
In fact the difference in price between many ebooks and the the print copies is often more than the cost of the physical book (which is usually less than a dollar).
This doesn't hold true for an optical disc, where the disc has to be physically manufactured, have its contents written, be put in a case, and then shipped (probably across an ocean) to be sold.
One would like to think that since they're spending less to produce it, some of the savings would be passed on to the consumer. But I guess people are largely willing to pay the same price, so it just ends up being extra profits. The customer can't do much about the fact that a huge chunk of the price goes to inflated "delivery fees."
Just as how hard-cover books carry a significant premium, and higher profit margin, than the paperbacks that eventually replace them, e-book titles should be discounted at a certain point, encouraging more sales. After a few years, the sunk costs to produce a best-selling title are completely paid off. Why not let people have a legal copy for $5 at that point?
Publishers seem to be adhering to a "one price, one format, forever" model.
Is that "less than a dollar per physical book" or "less than a dollar regardless of the number of physical books" ?
Even for ebooks priced exactly at their physical counterpart prices (and ignoring that the total costs may actually be approximately identical), people aren't complaining that ebooks should be 80 cents cheaper, they are complaining that they should be significantly cheaper, which the economics of producing an ebook does not allow.
They are not the same. They aren't written the same, they aren't used the same (usually), and they aren't sold the same (usually).
This is like saying that gun control laws should apply to lighters. I mean, they both are made of metal, they are both manufactured by humans, and they both make fire right? Same thing!
Clearly my application is not just a collection of html and js. But at what point do you stop calling something an application and call it an ebook? Is a binary wrapper around the ebook enough to make it an application?
"An app is a program that does stuff with input."
What? Says who? What input does my NYT app take, and how is it different than a table of contents?
software is like an ebook because it's copyrighted material written by authors trying to make a living. I write in c instead of English.
If it benefits the people, then that's the true answer.