I haven't played with it yet, but I like the sound of it: it's the Monocle ebook reader. http://inventivelabs.com.au/weblog/post/announcing-monocle/
Monocle is a new - and in my opinion, overdue - development in ebookery. It could be revolutionary, for one reason: it works in browsers. Which is to say, you access your eBook content through the internet.
Fundamentally, there are two ways to access content using machines:
1. Content lives on the user's own device. This is a download-based model.
Example: iTunes.
2. Content lives on external servers which are accessed by the user's device. This is a web-based model.
Example: Spotfiy.
There's a user-facing difference between the two, and a difference in the deployment of IP. In both cases I think the no-download (like Monocle) model will eventually have the upper hand.
For content publishers, the download model is terrifying for a simple reason - once the file is downloaded, it's fate is entirely out of your hands. No matter how much DRM it's wrapped in, someone, someday, will crack it. It will always have the opportunity to go wild, and when it does, there go (some of) the profits.
Similarly, once a file is downloaded, you can't track the usage well. Is it popular? Do people actually use it after they've bought it? It's hard to say (unless the content is software dependant, like iTunes, and that's not much fun).
For content users, the download model is the more annoying option, because it's tethered to a device. We hear people grumble all the time about iTunes, but never about spoftify - spotify is a smoother experience, because there's no fiddling (or protecting) downloaded files to get in the way of accessing the music.
To (shamelessly) use my husband as an example: he works from home some days, from the office others, but he does the same job in both locations. He's an academic, so he uses professionally published academic book content a *lot*.
At work and at home, he uses different machines. They're powerful desktops, so physically lugging them about is not a good option. Because of this, Aadevice-tethered eBook is no use to him.
But he always has an internet connection. He can always log on to a website.
There's a developing trend of people using multiple machines to access their content, instead of the trusty old family PC. My household isn't unusual - it has two people, a desktop, two laptops, an ipad, and an iphone. Matching that trend on the other side, we can also see internet access growing exponentially - it's quite likely (if not inevitable) that ubiquity is just around the corner.
Which is more likely? A future where people use the same device all the time, or a future where people have internet access all the time?
In choosing between browser-based and download-based content models, these respective trends point to an access-it-through-the-internet model as being where the smart money is.
A browser-based service naturally has to rely on a logon. This for me is a double-bonus, because (unless I've misinterpreted) Monocle can support the standard university logon services such as Raven and Shibboleth. That's great for universities, because that opens up the ability for a university library to buy browser-based eBooks and make them accesssible to all staff and faculty using their own, normal logon - no mess, no fuss, all access.
Monocle is also (hooray!) completely open source. I hope it does really, really well.
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I really have to disagree on several counts:
ReplyDelete1) Evidence for most people wanting to rent their music rather than buy it is pretty thin. iTunes is wildly popular, for example, and so is Amazon MP3 — meanwhile, where's Rhapsody these days? If I remember, Rhapsody allowed you to listen to anything in their library; will Monocle users be able to do the same, or will they be restricted to the books they (haven't) bought?
2a) If I can read the ebook, it's on my computer. Let me assure you, pulling text out of a browser cache is far easier than cracking DRM. The only way you can completely protect any kind of media is to lock it in a vault and never let anyone look at it… and that sort of defeats the purpose. Forget about digging text out of the cache; Monocle is open-source. How long will it be before someone codes up an extractor using the algorithms provided by the original source?
2b) DRM, just like copy-protected software before it, is going the way of the dodo. Most iTunes tracks are unprotected nowadays, as are all Amazon MP3 tracks. Many of Amazon's ebooks are sold without copy protection, and some authors insist on it being that way. People have always been able to pass their books around, and B&N's Nook allows the same with ebooks. I'm posting first drafts of my novels on my blog.
3) Who has access to the Internet at every moment? I sure don't, and I have an iPhone. The resort I just came home from has wifi in the office, but the condos themselves were SOL — even cell service was spotty. A heavy thunderstorm would be a perfect time to unplug the DSL and read a book — oh crap, I can't read it because the DSL is off. I'm not 100% convinced that the future will have fewer Internet "dark spots," and I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Sometimes, you need to get away from it all.
The rent-a-book model will probably find a large minority of users, but I seriously doubt it will displace the current Kindle/ePub model.
Hi FARfetched, thanks for that! A couple of counter-points...
ReplyDelete1. I'm not talking about renting - I'm talking about buying. The difference is buying access rather than buying a copy (like buying gym membership as opposed to buying a stairmaster for your house).
2. You got me there - yes, there will always be a copy in the cache and yes, someone will write an extractor. As you say, there is no way to ever fully protect IP. Anyone with a pen and a piece of paper can break a book's IP. I'm not interested in making impregrable solutions, I'm interested in getting in the way - making it harder/more annoying to share the file out of copyright, while making it easier/less annoying to use it.
c) totally, absolutely agree. DRM makes it more annoying to use the content. (Actually I think all itunes songs are drm free now, aren't they? Because the DRM was so annoying?) Here's hoping for a speedy death.
d) We don't all have the internet all the time, my point is people tend to have internet access as a stable point than have a single device as a stable point. Both have downsides, I just think online has less. (Also @josephpearson tells me that monocle has read-offline options, I just haven't looked into them yet.)
Lastly - monocle is ePub based. And I heartily disapprove of the kindle vendor-lockin model. I hope online-access of ebooks is a step towards ending that business model for good.