Comments on: Do lawyers dream of electr[on]ic books?

By: jasnwilsn

jasnwilsn — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:01:37 +0000

Ed,

Thanks for the comment and suggestion. Honestly, I think there are a lot of shortcomings of the Kindle, typing on it for example isn't great. It's simply not a great platform for marking up electronic content, at least in any meaningful way. But it does a number of things well, and I love having the ability to buy books without resorting to the web. From a legal publishing standpoint though, I think Peter's comment above reflects where the industry will wind up; namely, we'll all be software designers and not publishers.

By: Ed Schipul

Ed Schipul — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:11:22 +0000

While not in the law business, I am a huge fan of books. When the kindle came out I found I had no desire to own one. I enjoy marking up my books so much with underlines and scribbles and notes. Doing this on a kindle is painful at best and doesn’t replicate the actual experience.

However, what you don’t mention is “search.” Having a Kindle that would search within my books would be a huge help to me. Particularly when writing on an airplane. Dunno if I’ll pay the $400 for it and the cost to repurchase all of my standard books, but for the first time I am at least considering it.

PS – great to see you blogging as you are never short of an opinion…

By: Jason Wilson

Jason Wilson — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:53:33 +0000

Peter,

Thank you for the correction. I’ve corrected the post. I’m sorry for missing the caveat. It’s an important one because I do agree with you that content (particularly analytical) will not be held hostage by physical print for too much longer; when it gives in is anybody’s guess though. As for Philip Dick, I too am a fan. I hope he wouldn’t be too offended by the license I’ve taken.

By: Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:44:07 +0000

I’m the biggest Philip Dick fan ever, so I appreciate the title of your article! In my blog post, which you reference above, I actually said “In the future, the book is no longer a product; it’s a service.” I prudently didn’t say when that future would be, and it isn’t going to happen right away. In the future, everything imagined by Philip Dick will probably be a reality, including talking refrigerators, board meetings assisted by cryogenics, and run-down colonies on Mars!