Wednesday, November 25, 2009

E-books?


With the emergence of e-books and e-material, we are entering a new capitalist heaven. E-books are electronic books that can be purchased or downloaded from the web. There are also e-book reader devices which are directly linked to some publishing company such as Barnes and Nobles for example. These devices offer easy download-able books from any choice of Barnes and Nobles' collection for a fee. One can also store 1500 books on that device. It is basically a computer for reading; which is another great marketing strategy for selling those things. But we are coming to an age where we must pay for the pure electronic information which costs virtually nothing to produce. It is like air. So the question is not how everybody can profit from it, but how fast can few capitalists gain control of this resource and abuse it. A lot of e-stuff that is sold has an expiration date built into it. It means that after a certain date it deletes itself. It is a great method for making money because the file cannot be passed on onto friends or students studying the same subject in the following semester. But the profits are just crazy: 100% pure profit over and over again. Will there be e-book libraries? I mean that is absurd of course, because that would totally destroy the business of huge companies. Going "E" I think is great. It saves so much of the world resources and waste, especially trees. In the beginning it will be tough and absurd with paying money for virtually self destructive information, but if helps the planet a little bit, then let's go for it. And try to get into the driver's seat while you can, that way at least you will be making money.

3 comments:

  1. Nice post.

    @Rad: I don't think books are dead anytime soon. There is something about a book, a certain presense that cannot be replaced by digital library. Now newspapers on the other hand... yah they'r dead.

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  2. haha, yea, newspapers are a daily thing, people throw them out or leave them on the floor of the subway car when they arrive at the destination, it's not as bad...thank you for the hope! I love the feel and smell of books which can never be replaced by words written on sheets of plastic and metal.

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