Is Kindle the new Napster?

Napster killed the records industry. When customers discovered that they could listen to unlimited music online without being forced to buy bundled tracks on vinyl CDs, they defected en-masse to P2P sources of pirated digital music. Though the records company legally fought back and got Napster shut, it was clear that digital music was an idea whose time had come. Hence when the Apple Store decided to sell most songs for 99 cents, music companies reluctantly joined the party because they realized that the customers had now tasted blood, and would not return to the old system. But despite the 99 cents thing, I can say from empirical evidence of both Indian and foreign friends, that the quantum of pirated music is mindboggling. Students already cash strapped with high tution, rent, mess and other expenses, are most willing to cut their spend(not consumption!) of music/films. Also, going online does make our ethics a bit more elastic. The person who would never dream of stealing 5cents from a blind beggar on a desolated street, has no compunctions downloading media content worth thousands of dollars. Whether it be rock music, Hollywood films(or even Bollywood for that matter), torrent sites and DC networks on college campuses/apartment complexes lead to large scale revenue linkage.

The books industry is quite similar. It also depends on backlists(old content that sells as classics like Enid Blyton, old classics etc) and on blockbusters(Harry Potter, fiction franchises). And given the higher entry barrier for books(literacy, time investment), people saw it worthwhile to spend on physical copies, given that they could use it during the downtime of commuting, breaks etc,. But the disruptive innovation of ebook readers like the Kindle, ensured that now ebooks could be as convinient as books. In metros, the factor of not having to endure traffic jams/long distances for buying books, is a factor. And though online shopping and free delivery of physical books is now a global phenomenon, ebook downloads allow for instant gratification,at prices often lower than physical books. Given that adults are likely to read books at best once(research shows that upto 40% of books go unread!!), ebooks are value for money, and save the space crunch which results from having huge collections of physical books.Not so long ago, children's books were the most expensive because publishers felt that children would prefer the paper and ink version of books. That assumption may no longer be valid. Kids used to their screens(TV, mobiles, PS3) may readily accept a fourth screen. And the Kindle costs just $79(around INR 3900). Infibeam's version of the Kindle costs Rs 9999-but they give 10 vouchers of Rs 1000 each, which are redeemable against purchases of books/ebooks within 6 months. So cost is no longer an excuse to avoid buying an ebook reader. And the high battery life(upto 1 month) and ease of handling makes the ebook readers suited to Indian conditions. And publishers(especially niche books) find that ebooks leapfrog the poor and often expensive distribution chain for physical books.

But as the music publishers found, the costless distribution of digital content is a two edged sword. Any level of digital rights management pioneered so far, has been unlocked by pirates. The publishers have been losing the cat and mouse battle with pirates. Cloud computing may hand the technological victory to the publishers, because they can control and revoke access at any time, and have on the clock information on WHO is reading their content. Still, given the vast ebook piracy which Kindle allows for, it can be said to be the new Napster, for more reasons than one.