Last
week Apple followed Amazon with a patent application to create a service which
many fear would wreck the digital booktrade – a used ebook market.
Some
will suggest that it will never happen and that the lack of a first sale
doctrine on digital files, be they, software, music or ebooks is covered by
law. Others will suggest that the law may bow to consumer pressure and the
arguments against resale of digital files are not in the interests of the
consumer. Whatever the point of view, the consumer awareness is now being
raised and the issue is being tested in the courts. We first wrote about Redigi
last year and still await the US court ruling, but we already have seen a the
software case brought by Oracle fail in the German court. Redigi has also stated
its intent to come to Europe and to not just sell music but also ebooks.
We
then had the patent granted in the US to Amazon and now an application by
Apple. The Apple application goes into great detail on how the process
will work and cites different scenarios. So are the two giants squaring up
to close the door to others even before it is even open?
Anybody
standing on the sidelines would probably suggest that the writing is already on
the wall and that it is less of a case of ‘if’ and more a case of when.
The
logic against resale would appear strong:
·
The file is pristine and not worn and
therefore it has not lost value
·
Resale of what are ‘new goods’ would
undermine first sales.
·
How do you authenticate genuine
ownership?
·
The resell would put nothing into the
copyright owner purse and in fact will reduce their earnings.
·
It is difficult to guarantee that the
original file has been deleted on resale.
However,
we would suggest that rather than looking at the glass half empty, the
potential to resell digital ebooks could be a great opportunity not only to
raise additional revenues, appeal to consumers but also address some of the black
holes in today’s digital environment.
The Honesty Box
A
controlled resale marketplace offers the opportunity to finally make the initial
first sale market transparent to all. If digital licences need to be
authenticated then that has to be auditable and transparent to owners. In other
words unless a licence can be authenticated it is a ‘rogue’ and as such can’t
be resold. Not only do we start to see all licences granted but also all
licences transferred.
Authentication
To
be able to resell authentication needs to be established which could be easily
achieved via watermarking technology. Some would suggest that watermarks could
be removed or amended. This is true but once removed or tampered with they
become rogue and clearly pirate copies. Being able to sell used copies may be a
bigger incentive to consumers than sharing free via pirate or unauthorised
sites.
DRM
Rather
than flipping from the current heavily restricted encrypted files which remain
locked for the life of the owner, we can move to a more social DRM environment
based on authentication of ownership and which rewards honesty.
Walled Gardens
Today
we have what is often referred to walled gardens . These are platforms which
lock customers and their content into one service and exclude or make it
difficult for others. They thrive on their own encrypted files and DRM and
Amazon and Apple’s parents would perpetuate this situation. However if a open
resale marketplace were to be established, it could change this situation in a
similar way to how MP3 broke the iTunes stronghold on digital files.
Revenue sharing
Fixing
the price of a second sale may sound easy but may prove impossible. However,
fixing the levy paid to the copyright owner on a second sale may prove easier
to enforce. If we presume a file may have more than a second life this would
mean that revenues would be generated on each resale which itself could prove a
sustainable revenue stream. Interestingly, it is easy to see how this promotes
reading for free where the buyer pays and recoups their investment on sale.
Would this destroy new book sales – no. It would certainly alter them but
unless there is a copy in of new titles produced but could also stabilise the
cannibalisation of print.
We
have to look at both the negatives and well as the positives and discuss these
with a view to moving forward. We could sit on our hands and expect nothing to
change but it will and by not exploring the positive we will just inherit
someone’s else’s rules.
The
glass can be half full but only if we look at it that way.
the
marketplace someone has to buy that first copy. This may skew the number.
Related posts:
No comments:
Post a Comment