[shrinkermd]

I have bought and read two e-books in the last several weeks. Seemingly, e-books would be the wave of the future: especially so if they could get the price down and means of recovery speeded up. Why Napster should be a money-loser indefinitely is puzzling as well. Someone is thinking very short-term.

[IncPen]

Why Napster should be a money-loser indefinitely is puzzling as well. Someone is thinking very short-term.

It's possible that they think they'll be able to use things like DMCA to legislate the Napsters away, and go back to the old days.

It does seem short sighted to get completely out of the business.

[gramho12]

I used to work for Random House, which Bertlesmann bought. They ruined the company - they are a backward, cold company and lack good management. I think they have overextended themselves and are now looking at ways to cut back.

[Timesink]

I have bought and read two e-books in the last several weeks. Seemingly, e-books would be the wave of the future: especially so if they could get the price down and means of recovery speeded up.

True. Most people simply will not pay anywhere near full price when they're only getting the words instead of an actual physical object. Also, I think not enough people have PDAs. Reading books on a laptop is tolerable, but on a desktop it just feels like you're spending more time at work.

Why Napster should be a money-loser indefinitely is puzzling as well. Someone is thinking very short-term.

Well, to be fair to them, they've been shut down for almost two years now, while Bertelsmann has been sitting on their hands trying to figure out what to do with it. And I think some of the lawsuits against them are still in court. Of course, the Napster P2P protocol is still out there and thriving via open servers.

[zeugma]

If you are into science fiction at all, you should head to Baen books. This is one publisher who has really figured out online books. They have a bunch of books that are available for free at their site. I'm not talking about excerpts or copy-protected pdf files. These are free for download in several convienient formats. I highly reccommend them (disclaimer:I have no interest in the company whatsoever).

The owner of Baen has figured out that posting books on the net increase sales of the dead-tree editions far beyond what you might expect. This is a publisher that doesn't believe its customers are nothing but thieves looking for a free lunch. They get it big time, and have managed to create at least one loyal customer who looks for their books whenever I'm in a bookstore.