Harry Potter e-books go on sale
Downloadiarmus
Fans of JK Rowling's student sorcerer will be pleased to know the Pottermore Shop - the only place to buy Harry Potter e-books and audio books - is now open for business.
It may be behind times in terms of e-commerce - the last book was published nearly five years ago - but Rowling's seven novels have finally made it into the digital domain.
The e-books start at a fiver and come in the popular ePub format, compatible with most e-book readers and tablets. They're also available in Amazon's Kindle format.
We're hearing the titles are offered unencumbered by DRM. They're advertised as being compatible with Apple's iBooks app, even though iTunes is not a launch partner. That suggests to us that Apple hasn't licensed its Fairplay DRM tech, so the iBooks versions of the Potter series, at least, are unprotected.
That said, the Pottermore site itself is quiet on the matter.
It was also throwing up frequent web server errors, suggesting fans of the boy wizard - or maybe Death Eaters with a grudge - are hammering the site.
If you'd like to help expand the sales of an already multi-billion pound franchise, and make Ms Rowling yet richer still, then follow the Quaffle to the Pottermore Shop and cast your finance spells over the digital offerings. ®
COMMENTS
Re: Pricing oddities
The US paper edition had illustrations and so does the ebook edition. The UK paper edition had no illustrations and neither does the ebook. That's the size discrepancy, and maybe the price difference too.
The US edition doesn't need notes to explain the words; they already changed the words. If you live outside the UK and want to read the original UK version then you're stuffed. Beyond this stupid Geo-restriction, which didn't exist with the paper books, she did a much better job at this than most interested parties expected. Certainly better than the big publishing houses can do. Shame it took her so long. I expect when you have more money than god there are lots of other distractions to fill your time with.
Re: Thank goodness for that
EVERY book will exist in some dodgy scanned format if more than a handful of people want it. So what? I don't believe that most people would think it was fine to download such a version simply because a legit digital version doesn't exist.
Those who would get a free pirate version - especially those who would use DRM as some kind of moral justification - would do the same thing even if legit paid versions existed from the start, just as they do with film, music and software.
Re: how much?!?!
I suppose audio books do cost money to make, and have such a small audience that they need to get the money back [i]some[/i]how...
That said, what happened to these reader apps that automatically read e-books aloud? Last I remember, copyright owners were claiming this was illegal because it amounted to giving a public performance, which merely owning the book does not give you the right to do. Did that ever get resolved?
Re: Thank goodness for that
Even higher quality printed copies have been available from your local library, bookstore and supermarket for even longer, provided you don't mind nicking them. Clearly you don't, so go fill your boots.
I'm not sure about this
"... but Rowling's seven novels have finally made it into the digital domain."
A friend told me that all the books have been available for free in various digital domains for years.
