Free E-Books, With a Catch — Advertising 194
Velcroman1 writes "Barnes & Noble may kick off a fresh price war today for digital book readers, with its new Nook news. But the real news in digital publishing is a novel approach to the e-books themselves: Free books — with advertising. The basic idea is to offer publishers another way to reach readers and to give readers the chance to try more books — books that perhaps they wouldn't normally peruse if they had to pay more for them. Initially, Wowio specialized in offering digital versions of comic books and graphic novels, usually formatted as Adobe PDFs. So it was a natural step for the company to offer graphic ads that are inserted in e-books. 'We think we're creating a broader audience for some of these titles,' Wowio's CEO Brian Altounian told me. 'I think folks are going to download more books because they're saving the costs' of having to drive to the store or pay more for them. Would ads stop you from reading?" The new color Nook goes for $249, and comes with a browser, games, Quickoffice, streaming music via Pandora, and an SDK; reader itwbennett links to an analysis of how well it stacks up as a tablet.
Re:Ewwww, imagine "can't skip" technology? (Score:4, Informative)
I suppose now is a good time as any to mention Project Gutenber [gutenberg.org].
Wowio? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ewwww, imagine "can't skip" technology? (Score:3, Informative)
FWIW, personally I abhor ads and would seek to locate an ad-free copy of a given book before purchasing an ad-embedded copy.
Inventing some new concepts (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ewwww, imagine "can't skip" technology? (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/26/libraries-ebook-restrictions [guardian.co.uk]
Only works on some devices, like the Sony readers.
To me, this is the killer app and I'd buy an eReader that allowed easy borrowing (i.e. time-expired downloads ) of current fiction in a heartbeat...
Re:Ewwww, imagine "can't skip" technology? (Score:3, Informative)
This is possible in many places in the US. I can "borrow" ebooks from multiple libraries in the area, some of them expiring on a certain date, not sure if there's any other scheme. This works with my nook, as well as the Sony readers, and others like those Borders sells. I don't believe they work with the Kindle, but the Kindle 3 might change that from what I read.
I don't know how it works in the UK, of course.
Re:20 != The Answer (Score:2, Informative)
I wouldn't make it retroactive (ex post facto), but at least stop the extensions.
It's not ex post facto or retroactive. Congress has the power to change the duration of copyright, whenever it wants, and already did increase the term for existing works and take works out of the public domain.
Congress has the power (but not the obligation) to secure for authors rights for limited times. They can change what type of rights and who/when they are securing them for at any time. There is no contract with congress; they can grant additional rights, or take away existing ones at any time.
Retroactive, would be passing a law requiring users to pay royalties for a copyright work, and demanding people who used the work when the law was not in force, pay the royalties.
Retroactive, would be passing a law extending the term, bringing a public domain work back into copyright, and declaring anyone who distributed the previously public domain works as criminals to be fined or jailed for their acts of distribution, before the law came into force.
This was not ex post facto, because people who were distributing works that had been taken from the public domain back into copyright were not made guilty of infringement, for their actions that were taken when the works were in the public domain.
I am not suggesting congress retroactively forgive the copyright infringement of anyone who pirated a work, when the longer term was in force.
Terminology issue (Score:1, Informative)
We have a term that describes something that is "free but with advertising." People (especially the media) should learn to use it. The word is SPONSORED. It isn't free.
Re:Great. (Score:3, Informative)