Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:20:19 -0500
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: RBoP Yahoo <rbop at yahoogroups.com>,
 WSFA Official List <wsfa-forum at yahoogroups.com>,
 WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>, bsfsgeneral at bsfs.org
Subject: [WSFA] Go feds! E-books are way overpriced
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

I've never looked at the ebook readers - I don't want to pay hundreds of
dollars for on. And I admit to liking the look and feel of a real book.
I've also really found *no* reason for proprietary formats that were
hooked into the readers themselves (can you say, 8-track tapes, boyos
and grllls?)

I didn't know that they ranged in price from 1.25% of a paperback to
nearly 2/3rds the cost of a hardback... FOR WHAT? There's ZERO printing
costs. They didn't even type it up, the author did that; they just
reformat it.

And there's the 2-ton elephant in the room: how much are the *authors*
getting per book?

Screw 'em all. I may start reading electronically... as soon as I burn
(and contribute) to Project Gutenberg.

Excerpt:
So Apple was conniving with the nation's big book publishers? At first
blush, this probably sounded like the oddest coupling since Felix took
up residence with Oscar. But strange bedfellows notwithstanding, that's
the story out of Washington, where word is that the two sides colluded
on a scheme to raise the price of electronic books.

Now it's payback time and book lovers -- e-book buyers, in particular --
ought to be cheering on the trustbusters.

Far be it for me to root for anything the government does, but in this
instance I'll make a big exception.
--- end excerpt ---

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57393834-93/go-feds-e-books-are-way-overpriced/>

         mark