MSE News: Amazon urges drop in ebook prices

Butti

I can't believe paper books are vat free and paper sanitary goods are 5%. Books are essential but female dignity isn't. Maybe I'm using the wrong thing for my monthly requirements!

B

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

* I was wondering about the whole Amazon pricing thing and whether to take my trade elsewhere and or make 'em work for my trade as a good would be MSE wannabe.*

poppy10_2

I'd love the convenience of an ebook reader, but the pricing really puts me off. I appreciate that the printing costs are only a fraction of the overall costs to produce a book, and don't expect the ebooks to be pennies, but there's really no excuse for them to cost MORE than the hardback version. Plus there's no resale rights, I can sell my paper books on ebay or give them to charity shops when I am done, which you can't do with ebooks.

Enterprise_1701C

That's what I thought - until I joined 4 e-libraries. I have never paid for an ebook in the 8 months or so that I have had my Sony e-reader.

redpola

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver wrote: »

* I was wondering about the whole Amazon pricing thing and whether to take my trade elsewhere and or make 'em work for my trade as a good would be MSE wannabe.*

Amazon don't want their customers to suffer the cartel's ripoff prices either. They've been quite vocal in their anger at being effectively blackmailed by a bunch of publishers.

Amazon are the good guys in this instance.

Neil.

Money_Saving_Dude

MSE_Guy wrote: »

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Some books that can be read on gadgets such as Amazon's Kindle or Apple's iPad cost more than hard copies ..."

Doh -- no brainer! Just buy the paper copies. If the PDF comes with DRM then steer clear. They say you are only buying the right to view. I disagree. When I give them my money what they give me I OWN, to do with as I please. That's what buying something means.

If, when I get an ebook, I expect to be able to use it in any way I please, on any device I choose, with no conditions from the publisher, then I may consider it. After all when I buy a table I'm not told what I can do with it, nor how often. And a table or a book are just products. The idea of intellectual copyright is an artificial creation to protect a group of people, by restricting my rights of ownership.

When I buy something it is mine.

As to price again it is simple -- they must be cheap. This is not another excuse to charge high prices. And the answer is not to pay the prices. As I say it's simple -- if you think they are too expensive don't pay. The world is full of people trying to rip you off. If you have a smart phone or a laptop why would you need a Kindle? A laptop/netbook will view PDFs and much more. So why pay to limit your choices.

IMHO if you buy into this ebook malarkie you're daft.

redpola

Money_Saving_Dude wrote: »

If, when I get an ebook, I expect to be able to use it in any way I please, on any device I choose, with no conditions from the publisher, then I may consider it. After all when I buy a table I'm not told what I can do with it, nor how often. And a table or a book are just products. The idea of intellectual copyright is an artificial creation to protect a group of people, by restricting my rights of ownership.
......
IMHO if you buy into this ebook malarkie you're daft.

While I largely agree with you, this discussion is about price fixing and not DRM. Also, since it's very much trivial to remove Kindle DRM much of what you said is moot (but as I said I pretty much agree!).

As for eBooks being good or bad, I guess it's down to individual taste. For me the Kindle is the first substitute for a real book that I've got on with. I love it and am definitely a convert. However, I want to take advantage of the now-reduced production and distribution cost to get an intellectual property onto my Kindle and onward into my brain to make books cheaper for everyone, not to make lazy publishers a larger profit.

Neil.

jamesd

There is some link, though. The DRM is used to support the ability to fix the price, making it somewhat harder for those who are producing no cost (but often unlawful) versions to work. As you mention, today for the Kindle those who are buying are either ignorant or are choosing to tip the publisher, author and distribution chain, or pay for convenience or availability of something.

It's also somewhat harder to import electronic books than physical books.

Reaper

It's sad to see ebooks have learnt nothing from music.

First off those books you buy from Amazon - you haven't bought them, only leased them and have no rights of ownership. A phsical book I can sell, an ebook I can't.

In my opinion the DRM should legally always allow 1 copy to exist. If I want to sell/give it to somebody else I ought to be able to revoke my license and in doing so allow somebody else to use it.

Instead what happens is I am expected to pay the same as a physical book for something I don't own and can't sell.

If I can't do that I don't see why I should pay more than half price at most.

Money_Saving_Dude

Reaper wrote: »

It's sad to see ebooks have learnt nothing from music.

First off those books you buy from Amazon - you haven't bought them, only leased them and have no rights of ownership. A phsical book I can sell, an ebook I can't.

In my opinion the DRM should legally always allow 1 copy to exist. If I want to sell/give it to somebody else I ought to be able to revoke my license and in doing so allow somebody else to use it.

Instead what happens is I am expected to pay the same as a physical book for something I don't own and can't sell.

If I can't do that I don't see why I should pay more than half price at most.

And this is part of the basis of why I will continue to take a hard line with ebooks. The old business model *has* changed, and content providers/publishers need to grasp this. Google has found a model that works -- use high quality content to attract advertising, which they then use to generate income (please, not monetise).

I won't get involved with ebooks unless there is no DRM, then I can do what I like with them -- copy them, take extracts of content and paste that elsewhere, etc). Indeed I believe strongly that the intellectual property rights arguments are now really quite dead in the water. I believe that those who try to enforce these for monetary gains are Luddites, who are unwilling to adjust to the new model.

ebooks are a new market, but based on the pre-Internet world. The short answer is that once content is available online, it *will* be made available for free to others. That is a absolute in this new, brave world in which we live. So, as I say, the price of ebooks is too high, because their only value is to attract people to see the associated advertising.

I buy many (my wife says too many) books. But I won't buy them electronically. I resent the fact that they are making so much money out of them. I wouldn't mind if I got a copy free when I bought a book. But there is no way I'm going to pay for them.

The Internet is brilliant in the way it is changing so many things. I will not roll over and let big business con me into thinking this is the future. It may be, but only at zero (or *very* cheap) cost.