Would you buy a used e-book?

[texas_ex2000]

Apple, Amazon get patents to offer ‘used’ digital goods

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[Roger]

In reply to:

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[2003TexasGrad]

Isnt this what we do when we burn a DVD and give it to our friends?

But seriously, whats the point? If I buy an MP3 for 99 cents and I decide I dont like it, its just software right? Its not real. I downloaded it. Whats the cost to to have a million people download the same exact thing?

If Amazon buys it back from me, why would they do that? They already have the master copy they can have downloaded a billion times. Im not a techie, so what am I missing? Server costs? Electricity usage? Overhead?

 

[Roger]

what you are missing is that an e-book cost say $10 new. I buy it. I then read it and decide to sell it for $8 (of which I would assume Amazon would take a cut). The next person after reading sales it for $8 or maybe $7 so on and so on.

Amazon makes say $1 off each transaction whether new or used no big deal. However the author of the book only gets paid for the new book. You might say no big deal as this is what happens with paper. The difference is that people put a premium on a new paper book compared to an old paper book. However an e-book there would be no noticeable difference thus why would anyone ever buy a new e-book if the used is available?

All that being said maybe there is some way that the authors and the publishers can get there cut on each transaction if so I really don't see the difference in new vs old.

 

[2003TexasGrad]

What's "used" about it? Allowing it to be "resold" at a cheaper price just cons people into a needless transaction. I guess Im not on the cutting edge yet to understand this fully.

 

[Mr. Deez]

Something should be done. There's no reason not to buy a used digital book. It would be totally indistinguishable from a new one. However, there is a reason not to buy a used paper book. It's going to look used. Personally, I don't buy them because you don't know where they've been. I don't want to handle a book some dude has been reading while he's been taking a crap.

 

[pasotex]

The "discount" on e-books is included at the outset. I do not think the resale model works for them unless you increase the initial price or give the publisher and author a cut of the resale.

 

[n64ra]

Buying something digitally means I have a license to legally download it. If I'm tired of the item, I should be able to sell the license which involves me losing the ability to use the item any longer.

 

[Bayerithe]

everytime you read an e-book, a byte of data dies. please ... think of the bytes