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Amazon shuts down Lendle

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Re: Amazon shuts down Lendle

#51

Post by mryall »

danilocampos wrote: post #20
jswinghammer wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it superior to the Kindle app?

When I tried it awhile ago, the Kindle app had a page turning experience that can only be described as maddening. Tap in the wrong spot, boom, page has turned. The iBooks app, for all its over-done skeuomorphism, makes interacting with the book pretty easy. Simple things like page edges make clear what will happen when you tap in a particular place. iBooks just feels really nice. More than that, the Kindle app is jus…

That's interesting. The initial feedback I read on iBooks vs Kindle back when both apps were first available was very heavily skewed the other way: people seemed to prefer the Kindle app.

Perhaps it was just a case of familiarity and the majority of the reports at that time being by existing Kindle users. Apple has also pushed out a few good updates since (including proper hyphenation!) so that has probably helped too.

Re: Amazon shuts down Lendle

#52

Post by tsuraan »

rickmb wrote: post #21
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #6

It amazes me that the e-book providers think they can head down the same road as the music industry and not end up in the same spot. I'm a serious Kindle user -- I have dozens of books. I've thought about using DRM-cracking software to free up my books, not because of any desire to share or lend but just because it's not right having a book in my possession locked away under a secret key some other bunch of people co…

> I'm a serious Kindle user -- I have dozens of books. As you've pretty much concluded yourself: no you don't. Which isn't just semantics, it's pretty much the essence of DRM'ed content.

DRM isn't black and white though. Blu-Ray DRM is (last I checked) pretty good; thus I don't buy Blu-Ray. DVD-CSS is such a joke that it might as well not exist, so I buy DVDs without any problem, and I keep my DVD collection on my file server for easy access through Boxee. Kindle's DRM is in the joke category of DRM. It supposedly exists, but I have a tiny python program that strips the DRM off my kindle purchases, so I can keep backups on my file server in case Amazon decides to pull a PlaysForSure. DRM is definitely evil, but when it's trivially circumvented it doesn't bother me so much.

Re: Amazon shuts down Lendle

#53

Post by alanh »

notahacker wrote: post #43
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #6

It amazes me that the e-book providers think they can head down the same road as the music industry and not end up in the same spot. I'm a serious Kindle user -- I have dozens of books. I've thought about using DRM-cracking software to free up my books, not because of any desire to share or lend but just because it's not right having a book in my possession locked away under a secret key some other bunch of people co…

"Heading down the same road as the music industry" seems a bit strong. They haven't sent out armies of lawyers to extort kids in project downloading picture books, or asked Homeland Security to seize URLs They've simply decided that a site probably shouldn't be using Amazon's own resources via the API to make it easy to find a particular Kindle title they might have been considering buying for free. If Amazon perceiv…

I’m not disputing your comment per se, but:

1) Heading down the same road ≠ already at the same destination (pedantry, sorry).

2) I would argue they are in the same boat as entertainment industries (and newspaper industries) in that they are selling artificially (via laws & DRM) scarce “goods.”

Re: Amazon shuts down Lendle

#54

Post by forkrulassail »

Very, very bad style. 2 weeks is mostly not enough time between work and life to finish the thicker books. So one ends up buying loaned books you otherwise wouldn't have considered.

This is a really stupid move and I implore others to make it known via the Helpdesk.

Re: Amazon shuts down Lendle

#55

Post by Dylanlacey »

mryall wrote: post #50
mbrubeck wrote: post #28

Time to trot out the Jeff Bezos quote again, from when authors were complaining about Amazon allowing used book sales: "When someone buys a book, they are also buying the right to resell that book, to loan it out, or to even give it away if they want. Everyone understands this." http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/1291

It's pretty clear that he was talking about physical books. E-books that have no limits on distribution are affected by different economic forces. In this situation, what rights the purchaser has or should have are far less clear.

Stop mryall, he's being a rational adult!

I completely agree, the 'old' model doesn't apply 100% but I don't think that publishers are trying for a new model that's fair. I can give thousands copies for free, yes... But they can SELL thousands at almost no cost. So the whole "You can't just GIVE it away" argument gets significantly weaker.

I think, however, that the end result will be to ignore the pirates. It makes the most sense. People will always want to get their book "NOW", at launch, from the store, not from hunting around for it.

Re: Amazon shuts down Lendle

#56

Post by Dylanlacey »

aditya wrote: post #15

This seems to be happening over and over again. Two years ago, everyone wanted to be a platform, now all that embracing open API stuff has turned to shit. Basically, the idea seems to be that once you've used your API ecosystem to grow to a certain size, you can fuck over the developers that allowed you to get to that point by building on top of your platform and by attracting users to it or keeping them engaged. The…

I don't think it's deliberate evil, rather it's the old "Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely" mixed with arrogance and less-then-steller thinking through of the effects.

You open your platform, and people use it. Then LOTS of people use it. And suddenly you're more powerful because of it. And then something threatens your business. And the executive team go "What? They're using OUR OWN TOOLS to weaken our business? That can't be allowed to happen, cut them off!"

The idea that someone could abuse their business through their API originally didn't occur. Then, once it did, there's a backlash because "They" are supposed to be building "Our" business, not their own at our expense.

Re: Amazon shuts down Lendle

#57

Post by forkrulassail »

awj wrote: post #34
jjcm wrote: post #23

It's a shame that they did this. I think Neil Gaiman summarized the wonderful benefits of using the web as a lending tool for books. He has a fantastic interview clip regarding his outlooks on piracy of his books that you can view here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qkyt1wXNlI Here's the transcript, emphasis mine: When the web started I used to get really grumpy with people, because they put my poems up. They put m…

So far as my personal experience can be extrapolated, it's not just advertising. Sometimes it is lost sales. That said, so far as my personal experience can be extrapolated, the lost sales are an almost insignificant slice of the new sales.

Well said.

Re: Amazon shuts down Lendle

#58

Post by CaptainZapp »

burgerbrain wrote: post #41
rickmb wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm a serious Kindle user -- I have dozens of books. As you've pretty much concluded yourself: no you don't. Which isn't just semantics, it's pretty much the essence of DRM'ed content.

He currently does have them, he just doesn't own them. In the future, he may no longer have them, but currently he apparently does.

  He currently does have them
Well, at least until Amazon pulls another George Orwell :

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10289983-56.html

Re: Amazon shuts down Lendle

#59

Post by chadaustin »

aditya wrote: post #15

This seems to be happening over and over again. Two years ago, everyone wanted to be a platform, now all that embracing open API stuff has turned to shit. Basically, the idea seems to be that once you've used your API ecosystem to grow to a certain size, you can fuck over the developers that allowed you to get to that point by building on top of your platform and by attracting users to it or keeping them engaged. The…

Danc, at GDC, gave a great presentation on this topic: http://www.lostgarden.com/2011/03/gdc-2011-game-of-platform-...

Re: Amazon shuts down Lendle

#60

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

danilocampos wrote: post #8
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #6

It amazes me that the e-book providers think they can head down the same road as the music industry and not end up in the same spot. I'm a serious Kindle user -- I have dozens of books. I've thought about using DRM-cracking software to free up my books, not because of any desire to share or lend but just because it's not right having a book in my possession locked away under a secret key some other bunch of people co…

I crack the hell out of my Kindle purchases. Not for piracy, but so I can read them on Apple's superior iBooks app. It's pretty simple to do. Funny part is, I didn't start buying Amazon eBooks until I was certain I could defeat their DRM. The Kindle iPad app is anus.

I also crack my Kindle books, again not for piracy, but as an insurance policy against the sort of behaviour that people are worried that Amazon could indulge in.

I'm happy to play fair so long as they do...

That said, if I think a book is something I'm likely to want to keep long term, I still tend to buy the paper version. My Kindle is for convenience.

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