5 ms·
It is good that power is being transferred away from a small number of publishers, but that power is being transferred to an even smaller number of platform own
by themal 15y ago
It is good that power is being transferred away from a small number of publishers, but that power is being transferred to an even smaller number of platform owners like: Amazon, Google, Sony, Apple etc. To me, it just seems like a shift in power from old media entities to new media entities.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- icarus_drowning 15y agoThis is certainly a concern, but I think it is very encouraging that the major players- Amazon, B&N, Sony, etc.-- have done a fairly decent job of keeping the devices "open enough" that you don't need them to get your works onto Kindles, Nooks, etc. Amazon, for instance, might curate its bookstore and censor "offensive" books, but you can still always transfer books using USB (there's even software like Calibre that makes the process fairly painless). I don't have a Nook, but my previous Sony EReader had the same capability-- I actually buy quite a lot of the books for my Kindle from outlets like Smashwords, which cuts out even Amazon as the middleman. Still, I think its worth keeping in mind that it is Amazon's choice to allow us to transfer content to our Kindles. They could make that irritating or difficult-- and do it at any time. Given that, it is certainly worth being wary, if optimistic, about their policies. "Trust by verify".