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from the some-things-are-just-fine-the-way-they-are dept.
Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
New data suggest that the reading public is ditching e-books and returning to the old fashioned printed word.
Sales of consumer e-books plunged 17% in the U.K. in 2016, according to the Publishers Association. Sales of physical books and journals went up by 7% over the same period, while children's books surged 16%.
The same trend is on display in the U.S., where e-book sales declined 18.7% over the first nine months of 2016, according to the Association of American Publishers. Paperback sales were up 7.5% over the same period, and hardback sales increased 4.1%.
"The print format is appealing to many and publishers are finding that some genres lend themselves more to print than others and are using them to drive sales of print books," said Phil Stokes, head of PwC's entertainment and media division in the U.K.
Stokes said that children's book have always been more popular in print, for example, and that many people prefer recipe books in hardback format.
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/27/media/ebooks-sales-real-books/index.html
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday May 03 2017, @10:51AM (1 child)
C) I'll never buy anything with DRM around it.
That alone is the biggest drawback as to why I never owned a ebook player.
I've owned several and loved them. Never had any DRM, only read public domain books - despite Steamboat Willie's worst efforts, PD's still here. Start at Project Gutenberg and work your way out.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by gidds on Wednesday May 03 2017, @04:18PM
That's one very valid approach. There are some wonderful books in the public domain, and the good people at Project Gutenberg and elsewhere deserve all our praise. There are also some legitimate non-PD books available (e.g. from Baen Books) which are free of both charge and restrictions.
A second is to buy unprotected books (e.g. from Baen Books). This is completely legal and shows support for the DRM-free side of the industry.
A third is to buy DRM-protected books, but immediately strip the DRM. (I'm sure I don't need to mention some of the tools which make that trivially easy.) Once you have an unrestricted format, there's no risk; and you gain the ability to use it on any devices and in any ways you want. If you've paid for the book (and don't give people copies) then you arguably have the moral right to do this — though the legality may vary depending on your jurisdiction.
And a fourth is to get books from more questionable free sources on the web. (They can be fairly easy to find, especially if you know a distinctive phrase or sentence from within the book.) I couldn't condone this, of course, but it's certainly possible.
In any case, it's important to realise that a DRM-protected book isn't something you own; it's something you're temporarily allowed to use in certain restricted ways, and which can be withdrawn at any time. If you care about it, set it free :-)
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