Category Archives: News

May 4, 2011 is Day Against DRM

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May 4th has been designated as the International Day Against DRM for 2011. DRM or Digital Rights Management, is the software that prevents copying of ebooks. It also prevents consumers from reading legitimately purchased ebooks on any device of their choosing.

If you are interested in getting involved, you can sign up for the 2011 Day Against DRM Mailing list.   There is also a 2011 Wiki page where you can learn more and take part in making plans for the day.

Reactions to Amazon Lending Announcement

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Wednesday’s announcement by Amazon that they will finally allow library lending for the Kindle has caused quite a stir on many of the various ereader discussion boards.

Reactions to the news was both mixed and interesting.  Here’s a sampling from some of the forums:

The shock and disbelief crowd: “………..runs off to check the thermometer in HELL!!!!!!”
The cynical crowd:  “Welcome to the 21st century, Amazon!”
“Great in 20 years when my library finally gets ebooks I will be all set. I wonder if my kindle will last that long….”
“Good. Now maybe those folks will stop complaining about it.”
“You need to sticky post this over in the Q & A forum as well where the “Why can’t I get library books while every other eReader can?!?!” complaint gets posted just about daily.”
The grateful crowd:  “I am SUPER excited… THANK YOU AMAZON for listening your consumers!”
“Inability to check out library books is the ONLY thing I dislike about my Kindle.”
“This is awesome news! Guess I will finally have to get a library card again.”
“Now my kindle will be perfect!”
“The now I’ll buy a Kindle” crowd:   Now I will buy a Kindle.”
 “I’ve been waiting for Amazon to do this before I’d buy a kindle. Guess I’ll probably be getting one now!”
The too late crowd:  “Oh, finally!!! If only I had known two months ago before I bought a Nook so I could borrow library books!”
The “I was going to buy a ____ so I could read library books” crowd:  Fill in the blank with Nook, Sony, Kobo, etc.
The wanting more and can’t make ’em happy crowds:
“Now if there was only a color version of the Kindle…”
“This is terrific!! Thank you so much 🙂 Please let there be text-to-speech on the library books too, please!”
“Great news. Hopefully the ability to lend your own books to friends more than once will follow.”
“Unfortunately this won’t help the fact that my library has a really poor collection of ebooks and that many major publishers won’t release their ebooks for libraries or severely limit them. But it is definitely a step forward.”
 
The altruistic crowd:
“Fantastic! Hey Mr. Bezos, one more idea from your customers: when I buy a book from you, after I’m done reading it can you work with Overdrive to figure out a way I can relinquish the e-book and donate it to a library of my choice? Library budgets are tight, and that would be a great way for you, and your customers, to help libraries keep up with technology.”
 
Concerned for other readers and the libraries crowd:
“Definitely not good news for the other readers – their one big advantage was library books.”
“I do hope it won’t add too much to library expenses. And it will take awhile before many libraries offer this. As it its my local library is not set up for lending to e-readers (I do know about other lending libraries). But I foresee Kindle getting the lion share of business (in the USA) once it happens. I know more people with Kindles than other e-readers.”
Librarians’ reactions to the news show more concern than excitement, as this article from the LibraryJournal.com website  shows. You can follow the ongoing discussion on Twitter under the hashtag #AZOD.
So, what about you? How do you feel about the news?
This blog entry composed while listening to The 99 Darkest Pieces Of Classical Music.

RIP, Spring Design Alex

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According to an piece in Engadget, the Spring Design Alex reader is no more. The reader looks very similar to Nook and the design similarities between the two formed the basis for a lawsuit between Spring Design and Barnes and Noble.

Since the success of the Kindle and the Nook triggered a spate of companies coming out with eReaders, I will not be surprised to see more companies abandoning product that cannot successfully capture an acceptable share of the eReader market.

 

Read an eBook Week is coming: March 6-12, 2011

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Read an eBook Week will be starting March 6, 2011. The purpose of the week is to draw attention to and promote the reading of ebooks. This event has been an ongoing project since 2004. You can get more information by visiting the event’s website.

Here at the eBook Evangelist, I have been working on a series of articles to celebrate eBook week, including overviews of different readers, formats, software and apps,  and where to find free ebooks. Stay tuned for more!