5 ms·

I agree, this is the reason DRM should be relaxed to allow 20-30% of the book be readable without license. As it stands it's 100% readable when the DRM is strip

• Jach 16y ago
  This is only really worthwhile if I get to pick-and-choose the 20-30% myself (which implies I could get the full 100% if I wanted to make the effort). A table of contents, chapters 1 and maybe 2, possibly 3, and perhaps an epilogue and index may constitute 20% of a book but wouldn't be very useful in many situations. As a concrete example, many programming books devote their first 100 pages or so to introductory material, even if around page 500 they start going into 3D vector spaces or such. I'm interested in that later material, not the introductory stuff, and I'd feel cheated if a Google-indexed Index page led me to believe I could get some free info when I couldn't. Edit: I would concede that fiction titles can benefit from releasing chapters 1, 2, 3 as a further hook into getting people to buy it. But people and publishers do this already, have for a long time, it works pretty well for them.
  • angstrom 16y ago
    It's worked fairly well for music, but in the case of reference material I agree it's a poor substitute to skimming the actual book. Maybe something like a Zune Pass for books would be better. Flat fee, read as much as you want, keep rights to download some for keeps.