MemeMachineGo!

For the first couple of pages, I was frustrated with this article on the past and future of e-books. It begins by complaining about consumers' failures of imaginations, and I kept thinking "Yeah, I've heard those attitudes expressed, but that's not the real issue." Then the author said something much like "while all these attitudes do exist, they're not the real issue," and I began agreeing with him wholeheartedly.

E-books' prices are too high, and seem motivated chiefly by publishers' desire to not cut into physical book sales. And, despite e-books' advantages in a couple of realms, I'm really disinterested in increasing the publishers' profit margins for a copy of a text I can do less with.

And the biggest reason I can do less with them is the publishers' continued commitment to DRM. I don't have a high expectation that the DRM-ed texts people are buying for their Kindles will be readable in twenty years.

Despite truly heroic stubbornness and denial for a decade, the music industry has finally taken some steps indicating they're getting that their behavior vis-a-vis DRM and intellectual property has been costing them more than it profits them. Publishers are continuing to stick their fingers in their ears and going "la la la la la."

When I can get a decent e-ink device for under $100, I'll get it just to read public domain and other freely available material. When publishers offer new e-books at a reasonable price without DRM, I'll buy my new books that way.

But, today, I'm sticking mostly with physical books, and the occasional free e-book read on my n800.