Kindle MatchBook alternatives: Are there other ways to digitize your physical books?

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Last week, Amazon announced Kindle MatchBook, a program that allows users to purchase a digital copy of a physical book they purchased through Amazon. This applies to the purchase of new books, as well as the entire history of orders until the dawn of Amazon. Kindle versions will cost as little as $1-$3 or free, depending on deals with publishers. This is a feature that e-book fans have wanted for years, even though many didn’t think it would ever happen. This is proof of the importance and influence that Amazon has in the world of books, and it could lead to something similar at Barnes & Noble. However, don’t get your confetti out just yet – there’s a fly in the ointment.

The MatchBook program will only apply to books for which the publisher has opted in. Depending on how many books you’ve purchased and who published them, your entire purchase history may not be available. And then there’s the sadness that it only applies to Amazon books. If you have shelves and shelves of paper books that you bought from other bookstores, bookstores, or borrowed from friends, you won’t be able to get legal digital copies on the cheap. What’s a book lover to do?

1DollarScan

While there are no other services that allow you to purchase a cheap electronic version of a book if you prove you own the paper version, there are book scanning services. They’re quite popular in Japan (well, among readers. Not so much among authors and publishers) and at least one Japanese company has brought the idea to America. At 1DollarScan, you can send books for digitization for about $1. The downside is that the scanning process destroys the book – they cut off the spine to send the pages through the automatic feeder. Paper is recycled, so that’s it.

Book owners can purchase add-ons such as higher quality scans and OCR (image to text) embedded in the final file. 1DollarScan sends a PDF that is readable on most e-readers. And it’s easy to convert it to EPUB format. Scans are checked for accuracy, and the service may retain physical book pages for several weeks just in case you need to rescan.

Illegal download of their copies

If the mere thought of destroying a book gives you a rash, the only other solution right now is the technically illegal one: find an electronic version of the book you own on a torrent/piracy site and download it. While many authors and publishers would oppose this, Randy Cohen, who runs The Ethicist blog at the New York Times, thinks it’s fine, legalities aside.

“Illegal downloading is — to use an ugly word — illegal,” she writes. “But in this case it is not unethical. The author and publisher have the right to compensation for their work, and by purchasing a hardcover you have achieved this. Your subsequent download is similar to buying a CD, then ripping it to your iPod.”

When he gave this advice three years ago, Cohen got yelled at from almost everywhere… except people who like e-books. Back then, content distributors thought the very idea of ​​giving people free digital copies just because they bought the physical version was absurd. Now Blu-rays and DVDs regularly come with legal digital copies attached.

The book industry faces the same pressures as the music, TV and film industries. And, as we’ve already seen, it may take the realization that they can’t stop pirating to force change. Most people would rather not go through the hassle of searching pirate sites or sending their books to be destroyed, but they will if they have no other options.

The first step…

MatchBook is the first step towards making physical with digital copy the norm for books. It wouldn’t be surprising if Amazon figured out a way for people to send in physical books in exchange for a free or cheap digital copy that doesn’t destroy the book. Wouldn’t it be nice if books were donated to schools and libraries? Not that we’re holding our breath for something like that. It would be too much of a right.

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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn

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