Ebooks

A section to discuss matters not related to Chess in particular.
soheil_hooshdaran
Posts: 3148
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 5:24 pm

Ebooks

Post by soheil_hooshdaran » Sat Apr 23, 2016 5:06 pm

Hi.
How can one be sure that Ebooks don't get published unautorizedly?


Thanks in advance

Ian Thompson
Posts: 3551
Joined: Wed Jul 02, 2008 4:31 pm
Location: Awbridge, Hampshire

Re: Ebooks

Post by Ian Thompson » Sat Apr 23, 2016 6:16 pm

soheil_hooshdaran wrote:Hi.
How can one be sure that Ebooks don't get published unautorizedly?
With great difficulty, unless you're going to put restrictions on their use in place which discourage people from buying them. A few years ago New in Chess published their yearbooks electronically, but discontinued this after saying that the level of piracy was too high.

Brian Towers
Posts: 1266
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2014 7:23 pm

Re: Ebooks

Post by Brian Towers » Sat Apr 23, 2016 11:00 pm

I don't think you can protect eBooks in any meaningful way which can't be got round by somebody prepared to spend an hour or two googling and downloading the appropriate software.
Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now.

soheil_hooshdaran
Posts: 3148
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 5:24 pm

Re: Ebooks

Post by soheil_hooshdaran » Sun Apr 24, 2016 3:08 am

Brian Towers wrote:I don't think you can protect eBooks in any meaningful way which can't be got round by somebody prepared to spend an hour or two googling and downloading the appropriate software.
So why Everyman Chess produce most books in PDF/Kindle format?
And does it not increase the number of sales

Brian Towers
Posts: 1266
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2014 7:23 pm

Re: Ebooks

Post by Brian Towers » Mon Apr 25, 2016 10:59 am

soheil_hooshdaran wrote:So why Everyman Chess produce most books in PDF/Kindle format?
For a definitive answer you would have to ask Everyman but I think there are a number of fairly obvious points which could be made.

First, I would hope the publishing industry has learned from the selfish brainless blunders of the music and film industries. If you generate demand for a product but decline to satisfy it then you invite pirates to copy your work and frustrated customers to consume the pirate versions thereby fostering a habit which previously existed in vestigial form at best (or worst, depending on your viewpoint). Personally I'm not that keen on chess eBooks. I think the format is great for trashy novels - on the tube nobody can see that it is Barbara Cartland's latest bodice ripper I'm reading on my Kindle - but bad for books with diagrams and pictures and utterly hopeless for coffee table books.

Nevertheless if I can't get the physical book because of where I live then I may want an eBook and if the publisher doesn't make it available to me at a sensible price I might do a Google search with the word "torrent" in it. I believe, perhaps naively, that the majority of consumers would rather pay a fair price for an eBook than download a pirated copy. If the book is a best seller then somebody will have photocopied / scanned the book and made a pdf available on the internet. A sensible publisher will make sure they also sell an electronic format at a sensible price to give honest customers a choice.
Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now.