Derek is so right! Here’s his reasoning:
If I buy a book in one format, it doesn’t seem fair to pay full price to get it in another format. That would be paying twice for the same content.
Let’s separate these two things:
- Contents: the words in a book
- Delivery: the ways to get the words into your brain: paper, audio, PDF, HTML, etc.
What we really want is to buy the contents, not delivery.
With so many different devices now, it seems fair that if you buy the contents of a book, it should include all formats of delivery. EPUB, MP3, Kindle, M4B, PDF, HTML, or whatever new formats may come in the future.
Today you want to read silently by the fire. Tomorrow you want to listen while you drive. In ten years, you want to read it again on your new device. This should all be included when you buy a book.
That gave me an idea: what if device manufacturers were doing the same? Say you buy a phone but instead of getting a new one in 18 months through your carrier, you just get lifetime support. That is, the manufacturer does everything it can to make the device last. Changing parts one by one if/when they wear out, for a small fee.
Imagine how much savings we would be doing. Imagine phones that last at least five years. Imagine the staggering amount of rare minerals, toxic sludge, sweat and blood that we would save from spilling all over this planet.
We NEED to consume less. Smarter. Let’s go.