Epeus' epigone

Edifying exquisite equine entrapments

Tuesday, 20 November 2007

Do not fold, bend, mutilate or Kindle

I had some hopes for Amazon's e-book device - after all I buy paper books from Bezos via Amazon Prime weekly, I buy Subterranean Press's splendid editions, and I even end up susbcribing to the Folio Society's offers each year. I spend 8-12 hours a day reading screens and 1-4 reading paper books; I should be right in their target market. So I'm really sorry that KIndle is doomed.

I'll keep this short. Kindle requires DRM. DRM destroys value - it makes things do less and cost more, and means they will break suddenly without warning when the service inevitably goes bust.

If you have $400 to spend on a small gadget to read outdoors on, buy yourself an OLPC and give one away to a child elsewhere too. If you are still tempted by the Kindle swindle, read Mark Pilgrim's literary dismissal of it.

Posted by Kevin Marks at 01:04
Labels: amazon, books, DRM, DRM destroys value, Kindle, OLPC

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Admirably to the point.

Now the *only* thing about the OLPC that makes me angry is that the give-one-get-one offer is restricted to North Americans. Someone wasn't thinking.

November 20, 2007 3:54 pm
Dima said...

Great post! I keep on making the same point about the OLPC for a couple of days already too.

As to your comment Chris, it seems that this issue has been resolved.

November 23, 2007 6:06 pm

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