During the two day ebook track in at Internet Librarian there were a lot of references to articles, reports and books, by myself, and others so I thought I would put together a link round up.
Content by Cory Docotrow Seriously read this. It’s free to download in the format of your choice and it will help you understand DRM better than anything else.
E-book piracy may have unexpected benefits for publishers
O’Leary makes the distinction between the instances of e-book piracy (the number of pirated e-book files available for download) and the impact of e-book piracy (the actual effect on the business of publishing). For O’Leary, the two are related, but different. He says that one way to measure impact is to pick a book, wait for it to be pirated, and then compare sales before and after.
E-reader ownership doubles in six months
The percent of U.S. adults with an e-book reader doubled from 6% to 12% between November 2010 and May 2011
Across the digital divide. Let’s talk about poverty.
…every time a discussion of ebooks turns, seemingly inevitably, to “Print is dead, traditional publishing is dead, all smart authors should be bailing to the brave new electronic frontier,” what I hear, however unintentionally, is “Poor people don’t deserve to read.”
Book piracy: Less DRM, more data
Q: What’s the current impact of piracy on the book publishing industry?
A: Brian O’Leary: We don’t know. Some people will tell you that it’s the biggest problem facing publishing or that ebook piracy will kill publishing. None of those perspectives are informed by solid data
Heavy illegal downloaders buy more music
A new British independent poll conducted by Ipsos Mori concluded that the people who do the most illegal downloading also buy the most music. This is in line with many other studies elsewhere and is easy to understand: people who are music superfans do more of everything to do with music: they see more live shows, listen to more radio, buy more CDs, buy more botlegs of live shows, buy more t-shirts, talk about music more, do more downloading — all of it.
Mindset over matter: Timo Boezeman on the digital transition of a centuries-old analog industry.
Q: What is the largest hurdle publishers must overcome in the transition to digital?
A: Timo Boezeman: The largest hurdle in the transition is the mindset. Publishing is one of the oldest industries around and now has to deal with a transition from analog to digital at a speed that is at least twice as fast as the music industry faced.
Digital Underclass: What Happens When the Libraries Die?
Libraries will need to be replaced with digital equivalents as publishing moves towards eBooks. As a result, will a new “Digital Underclass” be created from the base of technology have-nots?
eBooks, Privacy, and the Library – Gary Price’s thought-provoking post from a couple of weeks ago.
IFLA Committee on Copyright and other Legal Matters (CLM)
If you’re looking for write ups of the sessions you can find them over at the LibConf blog
There were so many I have no doubt I missed something so let me know!
Librarian by Day 
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