David Pogue

The other day, I saw an interesting announcement from Tor Books UK, a publisher of science fiction and fantasy.

One year ago, the company tried a remarkable experiment: it dropped copy protection from its e-books.

Now, there are two batches of common wisdom. Most publishers, of course, think that strategy is insane. If you’re a publisher, copy protection is all that stops the pirates from freely circulating your goods. Your revenue will crash. Maybe you’ll go out of business.

 The reviews of the new Kindle Fire HD are in and many, including one from widely respected Consumer Reports, sound a similar theme: The tablet is quite good -- better than the original Kindle Fire -- but still no iPad.

Consumer Reports tested the 7-inch Fire HD, which is the same size as the current Kindle Fire and is scheduled to ship on Friday. They didn't get their hands on the bigger, 8.9-inch version that ships on November 20.

This stunt is already experiencing its blowing-up moment on various ebook and lit blogs, so I’ll keep it brief. And to be honest, I can’t quite decide if this story—by New York Times tech columnist David Pogue—is a truly important one, or if it’s little more than a cute trick. Tell will tell, I suppose. [...]

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