What is new?
Electronic books are replacing books printed on paper. Is it good? Is it bad?There was a time when we had to go to the book shop and buy what was on offer or place an order.
The next step was to be able to but physical books on line from many providers.
The good news is that there seems to be no regional restrictions on copyrights for physical books.
It's easy to order on line from a supplier in a different country from where you live.
Digital books are very popular for their convenience, but they carry copyright regional/geographical restrictions.
How does it affect you?
The good thing is that you can now buy many books and store them on your reader. You can even get free offers. No need to carry those in your case when you travel. Some book readers work well in the sun. Some work well in the dark, having their own illuminated screen.Access to electronic world on the cloud is now open to all.
We can write a novel, an essay or anything and get it published in the cloud, making it accessible to a vast public. We can write private or communal blog. We can post on social media and twitter to our hearts' content. And boy, does the whole world and its brother have a go!
What should we think?
It means that if you live in the UK, buy your e-reader in the U.K., buy books from a provider in the U.K. and pay with a U.K. credit card, all is fine.
It gets difficult or impossible if you you live in a specific country, try and buy an e-reader in a different country and want to pay with a credit card from a third country. The world is not an open place for copyright on digital media. Same problem for music and videos. The technology is fantastic. The service is medieval.
Whether we read on parchment, on paper, on plastic or on a slab with a screen on a digital device, we just want to understand the words written by the author and enjoy the experience.
And we might need reading glasses.
For the author, it does not matter whether his/her thoughts a re written on paper with pencil, an old manual typewriter or the latest word processor. The originals will have to be processed and formatted in some way. Either for printing presses or for a format ready for distribution.
Paper or digital, the tools are different; the process is the same.
