Any form of physical media for video, audio and games are also dead, VHS, DVD, BLU-RAY, rental video, all that stuff - dead. Digital Distribution is already here, it's only the old bastions of distributors that cling to it like a desperate shipwrecked to a floating plank.

Wall-E-futuretoday?

I am an artist that works on paper - drawing and painting media. Even though I have programs that will imitate various drawing and painting media, I still like the feel of working with traditional media on paper. I also enjoy collaging papers.

As for books, I treasure my art books.

There's only so much staring at an illuminated screen that I will tolerate in one day.

Have fun with your DRM-encumbered corporate-controlled information.

You will never be able to give or lend a book, movie, video game to a friend. Your kids won't have a bookshelf to peruse. Amazon can take away your ability to access a book that you rented at any time (see the 1984 debacle, as well as the recent thing with erotica).

I just came back from a long trip overseas, and while it would've been nice to not have to lug twenty pounds of books along with me, I would never trade my bookshelves for that convenience. If electronic versions of the books came with the hard copy, that'd be nice.

The satisfaction I get from retiring with a book (and a scotch) - away from the machines and devices I use for all of my other activities, including work - is something that would pain me to surrender. To be able to have entertainment and educational experiences that aren't digital in nature is enormously important.

Furthermore, content that is expressed digitally is less satisfying to engage with, to appreciate and experience, than physical items. My wife is an artist and illustrator, and does much of her painting digitally... but to compare her art between printed and digital copies is deeply striking. The way that the light interacts with the paper, the apparent depth of the thing, and the layers of inks that express the image make for something entirely more complex than what one would experience on a monitor. A similar case applies to pure literature, but in a more subjective sense.

I maintain that I value the experience of reading a physical book far more than its digital counterpart. Not just because the material is something you're physically interacting with, but because of all of the advantages inherent to the book... a single, individual item, manufactured purely for the singular purpose that you experience of it. No distractions, nothing beyond the moment... and the capacity to disconnect yourself from the frenzied commotion of vast, limitless data.

From a purely pragmatic position, your statement makes sense. From a human one, you couldn't be more wrong.

>> ^direpickle:

Have fun with your DRM-encumbered corporate-controlled information.
You will never be able to give or lend a book, movie, video game to a friend. Your kids won't have a bookshelf to peruse. Amazon can take away your ability to access a book that you rented at any time (see the 1984 debacle, as well as the recent thing with erotica).
I just came back from a long trip overseas, and while it would've been nice to not have to lug twenty pounds of books along with me, I would never trade my bookshelves for that convenience. If electronic versions of the books came with the hard copy, that'd be nice.


Circumventing DRM is easy. Also, it's legal to do it for certain fair-use purposes, since the copyright office published more exemptions to the DMCA.

But there's the rub. Alice wants Bob to buy Pirates of the
Caribbean from her. Bob will only buy Pirates of the Caribbean if
he can descramble the CSS-encrypted VOB -- video object -- on his
DVD player. Otherwise, the disc is only useful to Bob as a
drinks-coaster. So Alice has to provide Bob -- the attacker --
with the key, the cipher and the ciphertext.

Hilarity ensues.

Not ALL paper is obsolete. Good luck with your "downloads" when you need to wipe your heiney!