For several years, it seemed as though the book industry was getting a reprieve. As the music industry was ravaged by file sharing, and the film and TV industry were increasingly targeted by downloaders, book piracy was but a quaint cul de sac in the vast file sharing ecology. The tide, however, may be changing. Ereaders have become mainstream, making reading ebooks palatable to many more readers. Meanwhile, technology for scanning physical books and breaking the DRM on ebooks has continued to advance.
Nonetheless, the study, which monitored 913 titles on several popular file hosting sites, did point to a level of activity that suggested illegal downloading of books was becoming more than just a niche pastime. Even if the various extrapolations that led to the $3-billion figure are easy to poke holes in, Attributor still directly counted 3.2 million downloaded books.
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I do not pretend that uploading or downloading unpurchased electronic books is morally correct, but I do think it is more of a grey area than some of your readers may. Perhaps this will change as the Kindle and other e-ink readers make electronic books more convenient, but the Baen Free Library is an interesting experiment that proves that at least in that case, their business was actually enhanced by giving away their product free. That is probably not a business model that will work for everyone, but what is shows is that as a company they have their ear to the ground and are willing to think in new directions and take chances instead of putting their fingers in their ears, closing their eyes, and railing against their customers, as themusic industry is doing. The world is changing and business models have to change with it.
Since books are generally very small files, they can be downloaded in minutes. You can then convert the file using one of many applications, for instance Mobipocket Creator, to PRC or another format that works with your reader. You can then plug your Kindle into your computer and copy the file over. The entire process typically takes 5-10 minutes.
We put these devices into a section of their own, because they represent a new type of electronic reading device that came onto the market in 2008. The Amazon Kindle, from amazon.com, and the Sony E Reader, from Sony, are portable book-sized units that display electronic books in what is being called electronic paper or e-ink, a visual experience that is designed to give the reader an experience similar to reading a print book. The Amazon Kindle is a wireless device that allows you to search for, purchase, and quickly download books, newspapers, music, blogs, and podcasts anywhere that has cellular service. The E Reader has similar functionality except that it does not have wireless capabilities. Instead, you have to download your materials with your computer and then connect the E Reader to your computer to transfer the materials. The books and other materials are presented visually only, but you can also play Audible.com books and MP3 music on these devices.
The bottom line is that the mainstream market has not paid a great deal of attention to the accessibility of portable media players. Even though the Zen Stone, iPod Shuffle, and Olympus voice recorders are good devices, they don't have all the cool advanced functionality that many other mainstream devices have, like playing videos and organizing music by genre, artist or composer. None of the mainstream players has the ability to speak file names, which is a major shortcoming in providing people who are visually impaired with the ability to organize, find, and play the songs and books that we want. Also, none of the mainstream players has a speech synthesizer that we need to play books in plain text format or books and magazines from Bookshare.org, and none has the ability to play the downloadable books from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. 2ff7e9595c
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