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“The books will stop working.”

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Re: “The books will stop working.”

#211

Post by filoleg »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #185
filoleg wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found that for certain types of books, digital works fine, while for others it is a disaster. For novels, poems, and other non-textbook books without tons of graphics, ebooks are great. For textbooks or other materials where you are expected to flip back and forth through pages trying to digest the material, as well as for books with tons of graphs and diagrams, ebooks are indeed suboptimal. My personal rule is tha…

> For novels, poems, and other non-textbook books without tons of graphics, ebooks are great. E-readers suck for poetry. They are often incapable of maintaining the same graphic layout that the poet had in mind when creating the poems. Even when the poet is not one of those poets who intentionally makes the visual formatting a part of his work, e-readers cannot display the text according to the conventions for breaki…

Agreed generally, but this one is on the publisher or whoever is in charge of making a digital copy. I was recently reading some of Bukowski poems on kindle, and the "weird" formatting intended by the author was relayed just as well in digital as it was in paper.

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#212

Post by jforberg »

la_barba wrote: post #201
ajuc wrote: post #7

This is why DRM isn't just anti-consumer, it's also morally evil using the same logic that says libraries are a good thing. This is also why I buy games on gog.com instead of steam if they both have them.

Have you found a solution to piracy that doesn't involve DRM? What was its success rate? I'm sure the publishers would love to switch to a better system if it exists.

Are you implying that DRM is a solution to piracy? If anything, DRM is a big driver for piracy, and its success rate is near zero. Virtually all major DRM-"protected" works are available on thepiratebay shortly after release. Sometimes before release.

The "better solution" is to treat your customers with respect and let them own their bought goods. Gog.com is a good example here, in my opinion.

What definitely doesn't work is to burden your paying customers with digital locks and hurdles to enjoyment, that the pirates will shortly find a way to remove for the non-paying audience.

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#214

Post by filoleg »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #146
fooblitzky wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DRM has a long history of failing to stop piracy.

Works pretty well for Steam. I bet most people here don't even know that they can't play their Steam games if they don't connect it to the internet every 30(?) days. Yet people boast about their massive Steam libraries. :)

Because Steam is DRM done right (in terms of ease of use). With Steam, you just press a button, and the game is yours to play. Zero friction.

99% of the time DRM is used, it makes the product less convenient to use by people who bought it legally, as opposed to those who pirated it. An example that comes to mind, all those blu-rays with bajillion of warnings and ads before the movie starts vs. just watching the movie right off the bat without any ads or wasted time if pirated. Don't even get me started on Denuvo or any other video-game DRMs, those are creatures straight out of UX nightmares.

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#215

Post by dheera »

yorwba wrote: post #187
brewdad wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PG has the advantage of being legal.

Except in countries where copyright terms are longer than in the US: https://cand.pglaf.org/germany/index.html

Meh, as long as their servers aren't in those countries, they can't do anything except censor the website. And most countries with long copyright terms don't censor websites.

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#216

Post by jacobwilliamroy »

This book DRM thing also means that the online courses at my local college are more expensive than the normal ones. Because they use copy protected materials that self destruct at the end of the semester, there is no way to avoid paying full price by borrowing, buying used, reselling or stealing.

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#217

Post by m463 »

JudgeWapner wrote: post #116
blakesterz wrote: post #15

Can you imagine someone trying to start public libraries if they didn't already exist now? I think it's safe to say it would never ever happen, at least in the US. Between lobbying and the general disdain for most things run by any type of government here, they'd never have a chance. Luckily we still have places that still purchase printed books (along with ebooks) and you can go borrow them any time and they never s…

the only reason they exist now is because they're grandfathered in. We could have the exact same thing, just digitally, but due to copyright that will never happen. The state I'm from has its libraries funded by the county (not sure if that's true elsewhere in the US). the more people in a county, the greater property tax base, and thus the greater (potential) for public library funding. So theoretically there's no r…

There are a lot of things that wouldn't exist if they weren't grandfathered in.

I think (relatively) inexpensive private planes wouldn't exist without grandfathered componements like say lycoming engines.

And it's been said many times cars that people can drive wouldn't exist if they were invented today.

And then there are guns.

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#218

Post by ciscoriordan »

kbenson wrote: post #205
GlenTheMachine wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, it’s not like DC doesn’t have public libraries. Also, the original DC Carnegie building sits on some of the most expensive real estate in the country.

What better way to signal the importance of libraries than to have one on that expensive real estate? Or what better way to signal a change in values than to stop having one on that same real estate.

They moved due to overcrowding:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Library_of_Washington....

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#220

Post by ohithereyou »

secabeen wrote: post #189
dsr_ wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having seen some of the contracts -- there are publishers which sell them with a lifetime measured in reads, and others with a lifetime measured in years (and you buy N copies), and a very very few who don't impose a lifetime. In all cases the author gets paid through whatever royalty arrangements they made with the publisher -- but that might contain a lower or zero payment for library and/or educational purchases.

The idea is that a physical book has a lifetime before it has to be discarded due to wear, so they want the e-book to be the same. I think that's dumb, and don't feel we need to be tied to the durability of paper books, but that's their justification.

By that logic we could have made every maker happy by selling a buggywhip with every automobile.
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