When you buy a book you are buying more than a stack of paper the value is the information found on the pages. What you have really purchased is the license to access that information in a form that is permanent and transferrable.
There is a natural tendency to equate the medium with the content. The VHS tape is "Jaws". The bound volume is "War and Peace". This causes a problem when you separate the content from a physical form. Turn the compact disc into a set of mp3 files and people feel disconnected because there is nothing tangible left.
Maybe this is why people who would never shoplift a DVD from a store don't see a problem with downloading the same movie from the net.
It is the content that has value, not the medium. There is hesitance with buying content when the medium changes, but is it a valid concern? Is something lost?
The most recent emergence of this shift in medium is in the publishing industry. Books traditionally had only two forms - hardcover or softcover. That changes a number of years ago with audio-books. The book was now available on tape, CD, or electronic audio formats. That took a number of years to become mainstream but is fairly established now. The next step is the ebook. The ebook gives you nothing significant over a paper book it doesn't let you hear the voice of the author, or drive while reading. Instead it offers a lightweight, searchable form of book that you can more easily tote around than it's heavier paper counterpart.
What remains to be seen is whether the public is ready to let go of the physical and truly value the pure information. There are a number of competitors in the apace so surely the book industry feels the time is now.
Consumers are choosing between Kobo, iBooks, Kindle and others when they dip their toes in the water of paperless books. Most come with samples or free books to try out. Whether that will translate into purchasing a desired new book in this form instead of the paper form remains to be seen.
The newspaper industry sure hopes people renew their interest in reading. If people get used to carrying around their readers and can wirelessly get today's newspaper they may find new life in the industry.
It hinges on our ability to emotionally let go of the medium and grab hold of the content.
With a paper book there is no worry that you won't be able to read it in 20 years. With a DVD nobody knows if we'll be a le to find a working player - just ask anyone with a collection of Beta video tapes.
With music it's even more restrictive when the music is properly licensed. The purchaser can only use it with registered devices and can't loan it to a friend.
Books are facing similar worries. If I buy a new book for a Kindle today, what can I do with it in 20 years? If the Kindle servers don't exist any more I won't be able to download it even if there are compatible readers available. It's that sense of risk that sellers will have to find a way to cope with if they want the public to buy intangible products.
And when our nations are long gone, like those of the ancients, what will archaeologists do to discover history. To this day, ancient manuscripts are still being discovered that ultimately shed more light on the cultures who produced them. If servers are obsolete, or the digitized formats no longer readable, is it possible that the future of history will be unwritten, non-existent? Don't get me wrong, I'm an avid digital reader, and audio book listener, but I'm just sayin'...
ReplyDeletePerhaps the classic sci-fi novel by Ray Bradbury, "Fahrenheit 451", posits a new relevance. The oral cultures of the past transmitted their histories down through the generations long before their myths and folklore became secularized by the written word. The analogy is not quite the same. The dominant culture of "Fahrenheit 451" had imposed a ban on books, so, while the new media is not a political strategy to dispose of the written word, the long-term effect of the digital revolution could quite possibly have the same outcome in the long-term.
In any case, these are interesting times to be alive.