The iPad and eBook piracy

All I want to be able to do is check an ebook out of the library and read it on my iPad. I don't mind returning it in 21 days if it is due back. But I can't do this because the library ebooks are tied to Adobe Digital Editions and I have not found an app yet that will allow this and since Apple has had a "falling out" with Adobe I don't think I will be able to do this.

Does anyone know of an app that will allow me to read an epub with digital editions restrictions on it?

I find it interesting that The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is not available in the Apple iBook store.

This is the same ol' story.

Why would I legitimately buy an ebook for the same cost as a regular book, but with less than half the freedom and functionality?

I have a book that I just purchased, Carl Sagan: Demon Haunted World. It cost me $20 in the bookstore. About a quarter of the way in, I decided I wanted to get it for my iPad. Of course, it's not available in the iBookstore. So, what was my next option?

I checked around the web and it turns out that I can buy an ebook version for the same price I paid for the physical book, or I can pirate it for free.

When I am done with the physical book, I can lend it out, give it away, sell it, or put it on the shelf knowing I can read years from now.

So, where is the incentive for me to take the moral high ground? How, as a consumer am I benefiting from doing the right thing?

I personally think that ebooks should have the following to be considered worthy of purchase:

- Cheaper than physical copy
- Ability to sell the book after I'm done
- Ability to temporarily, or permanently transfer the license to someone else.
- Be able to read it on any device I own that supports that format until the end of time.

The main problem with pirated ebooks is that unlike pirated music or movies there is a huge loss in quality. Books converted from one ebook format to another often have formatting issues and strange breaks in both lines and pages. And books that have been scanned are even worse. I have had a love/hate relationship with PDF's since I first experienced them and currently they are at one of the lowest points they have ever reached on my list of formats I most hate (right near the bottom with doc, docx, 7zip, flac, and the worst file type ever ppt).

Take off the DRM and I'll stop torrenting my ebooks. I hate after buying a book not having the ability to copy/paste.

I think you will find that the theft of ebooks in direct proportion to the theft of music; i.e., only stupid people and self-entitled students think its OK to steal music; only the students (of life, inclusive) have a need to steal books.

Jobs said it a few years ago: "People don't read anymore."; thus, I assert, the market for stolen books is vastly lower than that of music; but proportionally may appear larger on its face.

I'd be willing to bet the most pirated books are technical in nature, stolen by those, well, technical in nature.

I've had to stop being friends with a man who now makes a staggering amount of money, in the high six figures per year, but still justifies stealing gigabytes of music and movies, and, apropos, technical manuals and journals -- the very things which enable him to earn his grand living. He sees absolutely no debt or obligation to the authors who've provided him the tools to exploit for his gain,, without whom he would have failed. Right bloody bastard.

And, predictably, he gets pissed off when someone pirates the software he writes. Karma has a special fate in store for such hypocrites.

Not sure if anything I've said is relevant to the post anymore, I'm just in a shitty mood because I have to actually go to an unknown number of used bookstores in the next week to find some items out of print that aren't in ePub format for my convenience.

I spent a couple hours at B&N last night... Didn't buy anyhing, but I kept thinking in relative terms just how insanely inexpensive books are as a item fornentertainment or education, relative to movies or college classes for example. The point has been made before ao I won't rehash the $/hour argument.

I do think eBooks and eMags should be less expensive then thier paper breathern, but video should be WAY cheaper in both it's traditional distribution channel as well as it's digital one.

Funny though I'm MOST likely to shell out money for things I could pirate in this order:
1) software written and supported by small developer (ie. Transmit 4, Coda, 1password), but $20-40 is the range I'm willing to pay.
2) books I want to reference repeatedly

What is the point of discussing increased piracy without considering the number of legal purchases? For all we know legal purchases are increasing faster than piracy. Or not.

The ebooks are way too expensive. They should cost less than a paperback considering there are no materials involved, no employees needed to make the books. They can virtually go straight from the authors computer to you.

I also will not purchase ebooks with DRM. I have done that in the past and now can't read them.

While we have a business model for eBooks so different than the model for paper books there will be piracy.

I can go to a library check out a book and read it for free. Not with eBooks.

I can buy a book and share it with my family. Not with eBooks.

I can resell a book I just read. Not with eBooks.

Plus with eBooks I'm tied to a particular device/software. If I buy a book from Kindle I have to read it with the Kindle app. I can't use Stanza as far as I know, much less iBooks.

We're going to see with the publishing industry a similar movement to what happened with the music industry. They will realize that more restrictions = more pirazy, less restrictions = more purchases. It will take a while to get there, but it requires people to push this to happen.

Until then I choose FREEDOM to read my books/eBooks how, when and where I want it.