Now you’ve hit on the reason why either paper or the photocopying machine will be outlawed.
More seriously, DRM is optional. There is a whole lot of information out there that has no DRM attached to it at all. Project Gutenberg and Manybooks.net are two examples of sources for this kind of reading material, and that’s just off the top of my head. It is also entirely possible to imagine a time when DRM as we now know it is effectively illegal, a time when fair use is as respected as the restrictions copyright law allows rightsholders to enforce.
As for tactile senses, JThunder you’d have to “scroll” and hold the device so they could be engaged. (True though, not the same as turning the pages of a book made of paper.)
Electronic dictionaries have already replaced paper dictionaries, IMHO. It won’t be too long before other books follow. But I agree DRM is the biggest problem.
I think the actual “display” is made by E Ink. I’ve seen it in stores and it really looks just like paper - no glare, no strain. First time i saw it, I thought it was a non-functional display item with a paper sticker on the screen. And IIRC, it only consumes power when changing the display contents.
People say paper is wasteful, but consider that it is harvested for the cost of gasoline, whereas we are discussing replacing it with electronic waste made from metals which have been mined and processed in very high-energy processes… I’d be interested in seeing some numbers, but I think you might as well print the book. It won’t put mercury in your drinking water, anyway.
Great idea-get rid of all the books and store all knowledge on electronic media.
Nothing like being a silly little EMP away from living like savages again.
I have already replaced non-reference works (i.e. novels) with electronic versions, but in audio-book format. Audiobooks are a far superior way to enjoy narrative works that don’t require the viewing of charts/diagrams or frequently refering back to previous pages. I can put in my noise cancelling headphones on a noisy, crowded train/bus/plane and enjoy books in peace, without the eyestrain and nausea of trying to read on a moving vehicle. If I’m stuck in a long line, out comes the ipod. On a long roadtrip? Put it into the car stereo. Can’t sleep? Put on an audiobook in itunes, turn off the monitor, turn off the lights, snuggle into bed and put the volume at a soft level (I split my audiobook files into manageble 1 hour segments). With an iPod, the weight/bulk is negligible and the battery issue is essentially non-existant. iTunes automatically keeps track of where I am in the book. I haven’t “read” a book in years, but have enjoyed far more works than I could if I had to actually sit down and read with my eyes. I watch fellow passengers on the train fumble around with bulky, unwieldy books, trying to read them in the poor lighting an inch from their nose and amidst all the rocking of the train and just laugh.
You have a point. However, paper burns, so why not switch to stone? On a less tongue-in-cheek note, couldn’t back up copies be made on some kind of storage medium that would not be wiped via magnetism? Are CDs wiped with EMP? Honest question, I dunno so I am asking. I doubt they are, but never thought to ask the question, much find the answer.
Assuming display technology does advance to the point it can rival the print resolution used in a decent book…how do bibliophiles get the equivalent of their CD collection onto this equivalent of an iPod? If they can’t, then that’s a major stumbling block in the ‘book is dead’ argument. Of the dozens of feet of shelves in my house, perhaps 20% hold books less than ten years old. People keep books and they stay in use for a long time, and unless the content can be successfully and painlessly transferred to this iThing, they’ll certainly stay in use.
Yeah, that’s another thing, out-of-print books. I certainly wouldn’t ask someone to give up their first editions, any more than I will give up the hardcover book my grandfather gave me. They will have to find a way to get the out-of-print books formatted. Maybe someone can make a kind of “Gingkos” that will make a copy of your paper book for your reader for a fee? But then we might have copyright issues.
I wasn’t think out-of-print, because this is no different to deleted albums or ones only ever release on vinyl. I’m thinking that if I want to read Dickens or Dostoevsky, I can just go next door and find it on the shelf.
And although DRM has mainly been mentioned in a tongue-and-cheek fashion, there’s both the fact that I can lend those copies to anyone who wants them, and a small matter or lending libraries.
Well, but if we do stop making paper books, then they will be “obselete” and won’t have much (if any) resale value. I was thinking that either companies would have to “reprint” most of their catalogues, (Hopefully they will be bright enough to let their customers have a say as to what is reprinted too!) so that people can purchase a new format version of their old favorites. Either that, or they won’t be put in the new format at all, and finding older books in any format will be nigh impossible.
Did I mention resale value? My point is that even if production stops, existing books still remain in use, because there’s no easy way to add them to an electronic device. Saying ‘they’ll go the way of vinyl’ ignores the necessary intervening presence of CDs. If we’d jumped straight from LPs to iPods as a format for mainstream music, it’d be much harder for people to rip a few hundred albums which they already own.
And if existing books remain in regular use, then this reader thing is hardly ubiquitous, is it?!
(Plus, these decades-old books don’t really fit in with the OP’s accusation of wastefullness)
I’ve done the reading for a few audiobook works. I record through my USB microphone right into my computer running Audacity, then I do my own edits and save the finished file to an MP3. From there, I upload the work over the Internet to the publisher. The publisher collects the chapters, and when it has all of them, publishes them by making them downloadable; and there’s another electronic version of an audiobook for you. As much technology as you could want in your book.
The irony is that I read the text from sheets of paper that I need to be able to mark up with a pencil.
The whole brouhaha about “formats” and files and so forth is giantly overrated. We already have a format and delivery mechanism for books, it’s called HTML and the internet. Always on internet combined with a decent sized PDA screen coughiPhonecough will mean books become just another webpage.
Will they completely eliminate paper books, probably not for a long time. But they will serve as a valuable niche product with a gradual but steadily increasing presence.
I like having a real book, I hate the idea of trying to read an ebook from a tiny screen and would be concerned about eye strain. Also, if the same format would be used to produce reference books, where am I going to do my highlighting and note-making in the margins?
I can see it working for novels, maybe. Textbooks, perhaps. But there are plenty of otherkinds of book that aren’t going to translate very well into electronic format.
Actually, I’d prefer to see newspapers going to ereaders. If anyone’s read Varley’s Steel Beach, then they’re acquainted with the idea of newspads. I’d like to have a subscription for newspapers that automatically downloads into a newspad, with options, something like general homepages are now. For instance, I wouldn’t be interested in the sports section, or the Entertainment/Society sections (I don’t need to keep up with what Paris Hilton is doing). I would like the Expanded Science section, which would cover more science news than is regularly covered in daily newspapers, but in greater depth. And I’d have my own personalized Comics section…finally, I wouldn’t be supporting the Family Circus, Marmaduke, and Dennis the Menace! I’d pay a fee to download my preferences, and if I want to save something, say an interesting article or a particularly funny comic, I could pay a small additional fee.
I tend to keep my books forever. Newspapers, though, I throw away every week, and I generally don’t even read more than a third of each paper, probably less than 10% on Sundays. I think that newspapers are far more likely to be replaced by ereader pads than books are.
On a less tongue-in-cheek note, couldn’t back up copies be made on some kind of storage medium that would not be wiped via magnetism? Are CDs wiped with EMP? Honest question, I dunno so I am asking. I doubt they are, but never thought to ask the question, much find the answer.
My point is that even if production stops, existing books still remain in use, because there’s no easy way to add them to an electronic device. Saying ‘they’ll go the way of vinyl’ ignores the necessary intervening presence of CDs. If we’d jumped straight from LPs to iPods as a format for mainstream music, it’d be much harder for people to rip a few hundred albums which they already own.