Well, my recent interest in e-books (usually PDF) is rooted in my renewed interest in RPGs and my interest in DRM. I remember my first exposure to “Trusted Computing” at a local meeting of WilhelmTux. I remember being skeptical and not caring at all – I felt it was a Windows only problem. I’ve changed my mind since then and consider DRM a serious threat to our freedom of expression as we rely more and more on existing works and electronic tools to produce new works.
As my interest shifted away from copyright and licensing to the book publishing business itself, I’ve started reading the O'Reilly Radar, a blog somewhere between book publishing, free software, and web 2.0. ;)
Today I read a report on TOC Day 2 by Sarah Milstein, where she reports on a presentation given by Bob Pritchett, President and CEO of Logos Bible Software. He described two ways of connecting his book publishing with his customers:
1. Pre-publication subscription. Early sign-ups get a lower price. If the book is printed, those who decide to buy later pay more. In a way the early sign-ups help spread the publisher’s risk.
2. Community pricing. As people start signing up with a particular amount of money they’re willing to pay, the price of the book goes down. Interesting interrelation.
Reminds me of the roleplaying games author WolfgangBaur and his OpenDesign project, where “patrons” pay him money to write something. The first models made the product exclusively for the patrons; later models seem to allow late joiners to buy the product at a much higher price. Interesting developments. Also reminds me of the StreetPerformerProtocol.
And the guy who convinced me that CodeIsLaw, LawrenceLessig, is moving on to greener pastures: Away from network stuff and Intellectual Property, to fighting the influence of money in the political process – “corruption” is what he calls it, but one of the comments in his blog points to Capture.
A worthy target.
#Books #Copyright