One of the largest complaints from the public (or those who think) about books, music, video and the way the old media companies is the way they’ve failed to really grasp to the internet and the whole host of new ways in which content is being delivered and the way people want it.
One of our regular ‘car conversations’ when travelling a long distance and I’m not the only one awake as been what book publishers could do for those of us who want paper, we like paper, but also want the ability to read the book while travelling without lugging around a crate full of paperbacks (yes she can read that many in a week). So the thought is that with each book a code is provided to download a copy of the book in an e-format of choice, one time use or locked to a person, exact mechanism is implementation stuff. However the core idea is that the incremental cost of providing the e-version is minimal, everything is built up on computers to start with now.
So moving on, as one of the father’s day presents from the short (well, not so short) one, was Wolverine on DVD, random SF / fantasy fare, the brain will be left on the hook and the film will be taken for what it is. The extra here is a code provided with the DVD, shove the DVD in the drive, watch iTunes fire up, enter the code and a few minutes later I have a copy which plays on the PC and on the iDevice.
Ok, there are discussions about DRM and locking to specific devices etc etc but I think on balance the industry is starting to get creative.