Intellectual Property Law

The Book vs. The Kindle

By hugh

San Francisco bookstore Green Apple Books has put together a series of humorous videos that point up the advantages of paper books over Amazon's Kindle e-book reader.

Round 1 takes a look at how the Kindle fares for buyers who might want to resell their book (the so-called first sale doctrine):

Round 2 compares the difference between buying a digital book and buying a paper book — it's all about the fine print:

It's great to see a bookstore remind us of the advantages that paper books still have over digital ones. That said, bookstores should not simply hope that digital books will go away any time soon. As we saw with the rise of online music, digital culture brings advantages that will attract customers and will likely disrupt existing business models. Hopefully bookstores will take the lead in ensuring that digital books give readers the same or better rights and freedoms that we enjoy with paper books.

Green Apple is planning to continue the series over the next few days with a series of 10 rounds. Check out their blog and YouTube channel for updates.

Full post as published by Electronic Freedom Foundation - Deep Links on July 30, 2009 (boomark / email).