Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!weretis.net!feeder1.news.weretis.net!news.imp.ch!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "Rod Speed" Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,comp.misc Subject: Re: ebooks Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 07:28:47 +1100 Lines: 128 Message-ID: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="Windows-1252"; reply-type=original Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net pR1WXYHcye8rHm3GT2eOPguDuW7TIqQQEmHOftQ77AMseabog= Cancel-Lock: sha1:z7d8iPi4eTEDfZ3+8ZNyXpJmpcg= In-Reply-To: X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Importance: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Windows Live Mail 14.0.8117.416 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V14.0.8117.416 Xref: csiph.com comp.misc:1954 Whiskers wrote > Lewis wrote >> Whiskers wrote >>> The biggest problem with ebooks is navigation; you can't slide a >>> finger-nail between pages at roughly the right distance between >>> front and back and then flick pages to find what you want, >> I can. Not PHYSICAL pages, but yes, I slide my finger along the bottom >> until I'm say, half way in, then tap right/left to flip pages to the >> right page. >>> If I'm going to pay for a book, I want a hard copy; a proper >>> paperback at least. I am repelled by the idea of paying money for a >>> licence to possess one digital copy which is not transferable to >>> anyone else, and possibly not even to another device owned by me, and >>> which can be withdrawn at any time the provider sees fit. Books are >>> for sharing and passing on and going back to; that's perfectly >>> possible with ebooks, but not while the publishers try to impose >>> 'digital rights management' and 'licenses' and other nonsense making >>> such activities 'shady' or 'illegal'. >> Fortunately, stripping the DRM from ebooks is trivial. > But doing so contravenes the 'licence' or 'end user licensing agreement' > to which you have to agree before you can access the original file. I don’t care. I believe that I have the same rights with an ebook as I have with a physical book and that there is no licence at all involved legally or morally. And I have never agreed to anything whatever they claim. > The publishers will compare this with a thief getting > into a money-box by picking a simple lock; I don’t care what they compare it with. > what matters is that it was done, not how easy it might have been. > If the licence to read an ebook is found to be enforceable in law It won't be in my country. > then the publishers will start going after people > who they believe have breached that licence But they will have no way of working out if I have done that. > - just as the recorded music industry have been chasing people > who make unencrypted copies of CDs and MPEGs available. So I won't make the ebooks available, I will just remove the DRM so I can do what I believe I have the legal and moral right to do, put it on anything I choose to put it on, give it to anyone I choose to give it to when I have no further use for it myself etc, sell it at a garage/yard sale if I choose to do that too. > With printed books and pressed gramophone records, it's > easy for the industry to enforce the idea that if you want > another copy, you have to get it from them and pay for it. It isnt actually, its trivially easy to copy a book or gramophone records. > They can't control what you do with that copy, > but they can be reasonably certain that any copies > in circulation have been made by them and paid for. > Digital media have fundamentally changed those facts. That's their problem, not mine. > If I want to share a book that I'm reading on my tablet, without > sharing the device and all its other content, I can transmit it to my > friend's device by cable or wifi or bluetooth or infrared or some > other means - but that creates a duplicate of the original. Even > if publishers try to include a program that will erase the original > if it detects a copy being made, any code that can be invented > can be countered by other code so such attempts at 'protection' > are ultimately futile. Again, that's their problem, not mine. > This is fine for end users, at least in the short term, > but is very bad news for the content providers whose > income depends on getting paid per copy created. Again, that's their problem, not mine. > It's bad enough for it to make some businesses unsustainable; > as already noted in this thread, actual bricks and mortar > book shops (and record shops too) are becoming rarer. And ebook distribution much better. We have even seen some choose to hand out free legal copys to anyone who wants them for a while. That isnt as practical with dead tree books. > Publishers too face a real threat to their long term survival, I doubt it with ebooks. The detail with change, just like it did when we started to be able to record music if we wanted to, but that did not see the demise of music. > and that in turn means that writers will > lose that avenue of support and payment. But we will still see some who are prepared to pay for what they decide they want to have. > Creative types are adaptable and will eventually > find new ways of earning from their work, And some have in fact found that offering free copys of at least some of their work for a limited time does see some decide that they like the work and are prepared to pay for more of their work. Something that is much more practical with ebooks than with dead tree books. > but the intermediaries who depend on both the creators > and the consumers co-operating with them, will have to > work out some new way to survive, otherwise they will vanish. Yes, quite a few newspapers have vanished. > We can expect them to fight very hard, and > possibly 'dirty', to preserve themselves. And we are able to strip the DRM when we choose to do that.