The reason why I'll never go digital

I just read an article about a company printing books with disappearing ink.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/book-printed-disappearing-ink-eventually-goes-blank-155955712.html

I had long thought that with digital copies of books or comic books or movies or music that companies might try to limit the number of times that people could read or watch or listen to them.

I'm sure businesses would love to make money every single time someone reads a book or watches a movie.

Right now people can buy a DVD and watch a movis as many times as they want after that without paying the movies companies any more money than the original purchase price.

These companies have been profitable for decades and don't need to desperately squeeze every penny they can out of customers.

I don't appreciate what these companies are trying to do and I won't play their little games.

I don't like to buy anything digital. You can't lend friends your dvds, games or books/comics. I also like having the book in front of me and I enjoy the art and going to my LCS and talking to people is great too.

I love reading my comics digitally. I have them all easily accessible no matter where I am. I can read them on my computer or phone in the airport, easily flip through any of them regardless of where i am, and I don't have any clutter. I only get my absolute favorite comics in print or ones that could potentially appreciate in value.

I don't think comics would ever go with the disappearing ink. How long have they made huge releases of "collectable" issues? How long have they known their buyers like having huge collections of their favorite books?

I just don't see this ever happening to comics on a philosophical level. On a more direct level: disappearing ink would likely be more expensive than traditional ink, they would have to have it for CMY and K (and it seems like they just have black right now... three more to go), and it supposes that people would actually buy the book with vanishing ink in the first place. That's a great way to drive customers to your competition.

Interesting concept, but I can't see it effecting comics in the least.

Edit: Same thing for digital. There's resistance to the digital rights management already. While there may be the ability to "rent" digital copies for comics (which would be great! Pay $1 instead of $3 for a book you might not otherwise read/archive), I can't see them doing it only as rentals. Too many people like to save their comics. If they do that, they're pushing people back to the less profitable paper comics (much high cost of production). Not good for them.

I don't read my comics digitally, the only times I buy digital comics are when something that I am not quite sure I want to buy in print is on sale. That is the only way I use digital comics. Holding the book in my hands as opposed to reading it on a tablet makes me feel more into the book. When I read something digitally and I have to scroll left to right to change panels or zoom in to read text, I feel more like I'm speeding thorough the book and less like I'm enjoying the artwork and the story.

Onto the disappearing ink thing, its an interesting idea, but when I pay 3-4$ for a 30 page book, I expect for it not to disappear in a few days. It just wouldn't seem fair to the consumers, and like someone said above, would more likely push people away for the product.

It's... different. I might go digital for SOME things, but I still like the feel and smell of reading a real book.

@cellot: I definitely agree with you there. The idea of making books with disappearing ink is, perhaps, the dumbest idea I've ever heard.

What you posted about makes me think of how things are going on with first sale doctrine. This is wordy, but kind of interesting if you can sift through it.