Skip to content

Read everything everywhere with 1 login. Book industry works on central ebook platform

It's still kind of a secret, but the website is already online. Without reference to the people behind it, but then again, we know that. So we can break the news: it CPNB (that book week club) collaborates with the booksellers and publishers on a revolutionary platform for ebooks. This project, titled 'Leesid' should put an end to the chaos of DRM-shit, lots of different readers and tablets and bizarre ownership rules the Dutch electronic book reader still has to live with.

According to a source at CPNB, it is about a digital bookcase that works on all possible platforms. So you no longer need a Book Globe needed for your books from bol.com, and no Kindle for your purchases at Amazon, and no Kobo for yet other ebooks. And you also don't risk one person's device eating the books you bought from the other. Or that you suddenly lose your books because the seller has decided at you don't handle them properly, or that you read them in the wrong country, as happens with Google's books.

[Tweet "Leesid will be an app where the books you download actually become your property"]

Leesid should be an app where the books you download actually become your property, and also remain available for you to read forever, for life. There are still some snags, of course. Because not all big foreign publishers and retailers are eager to join in. They still think you as a reader are an unreliable sujest, who for the price of a paper book only gets a kind of loan of the digital version. Thought the record industry used to get away with it too.

This will be different, it seems. After all, a big advantage of the Dutch market is that there is already a lot of cooperation, so the development of the app does not have to cost that much time and money. After all, you still pay the original seller. Now all we have to do is drop that price, because the diesel for the truck no longer needs to be paid.

Main question for us, as customers, is: can you now gift your ebook again, or even resell it second-hand, as you can with paper books? They haven't quite figured that out yet. At the CPNB.

 Surely, we see this as a very firm step in the right direction. What do you think? Is leesid the Egg of Columbus for the book industry? Comment in the comments.

3 thoughts on "Read everything everywhere with 1 login. Book industry works on central ebook platform"

  1. e-books cannot be resold, unfortunately. Is a European law. Has to do with the fact that e-books are formally classified as software, and that means you don't buy an e-book, you take out a licence - so officially, a bought e-book doesn't even really belong to the "buyer" - you buy the right to use it, not the ownership.

Comments are closed.

Wijbrand Schaap

Cultural journalist since 1996. Worked as theatre critic, columnist and reporter for Algemeen Dagblad, Utrechts Nieuwsblad, Rotterdams Dagblad, Parool and regional newspapers through Associated Press Services. Interviews for TheaterMaker, Theatererkrant Magazine, Ons Erfdeel, Boekman. Podcast maker, likes to experiment with new media. Culture Press is called the brainchild I gave birth to in 2009. Life partner of Suzanne Brink roommate of Edje, Fonzie and Rufus. Search and find me on Mastodon.View Author posts

Small Membership
175 / 12 Months
Especially for organisations with a turnover or grant of less than 250,000 per year.
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
5 trial newsletter subscriptions
All our podcasts
Have your say on our policies
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Posting press releases yourself
Own mastodon account on our instance
Cultural Membership
360 / Year
For cultural organisations
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
10 trial newsletter subscriptions
All our podcasts
Participate
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Posting press releases yourself
Own mastodon account on our instance
Collaboration
Private Membership
50 / Year
For natural persons and self-employed persons.
No annoying banners
A premium newsletter
All our podcasts
Have your say on our policies
Insight into finances
Exclusive archives
Own mastodon account on our instance
en_GBEnglish (UK)