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Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early

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Re: Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early

#41

Post by linuxhansl »

Is it just me or are DRM controlled ebooks a complete scam?!

Consider:

1. Ebooks go through great length to make the information behave like a physical book.

2. Libraries have to buy as many licenses as they can plan to lend our concurrently

3. Licenses will even expire after a bit, because that's what real book do, they wear of.

So far so good (if your goal is to simulate real books). But now:

1. Wanna give your ebook to a friend? nada

2. Wanna lend your ebook to a friend? nada

3. Wanna use the book after companies decide to disable their license servers? nada

4. Imagine a few hundred years from now. We can still look at old books because they exist and their content is not controlled. That would not be possible.

Of course it is always possible to remove the DRM protection, but that is illegal.

We've been duped.

Edit: Layout.

Re: Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early

#42

Post by mlyle »

chipotle_coyote wrote: post #26
hopfscotch7 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren’t?

Better yet, nobody should be paid for any work whatsoever. We should all love what we do, and if we won't do what we do for free, we clearly don't love it enough. We should all put our lack of money where our mouths are.

If we could only find enough people who love cleaning toilets...

Re: Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early

#44

Post by JumpCrisscross »

different-guy wrote: post #19
jawns wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you propose that the authors of creative works be paid for their efforts, outside of copyright?

I propose that they do it out of love, and not for money. There will be less trash on the market and more high quality work.

> There will be less trash on the market and more high quality work

Actually, only those with lots of disposable time, or who can purchase others’ time, will produce content.

Re: Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early

#45

Post by jancsika »

geofft wrote: post #30
hopfscotch6 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The publishers do not have a legitimate business and deserve to go out of existence. Copyright is nonsense.

I don't disagree with you in principle, but it's the system we have. So, 1) What's a good way to ensure that authors continue to author books while not dying of exposure (or, more practically, that authors continue to author books instead of deciding to go work at a tech company or something)? 2) How do we implement that system?

> (or, more practically, that authors continue to author books instead of deciding to go work at a tech company or something)

Have you done or read research to suggest this is something to worry about?

There are other concerns certainly. But I have trouble understanding how someone who has ever visited Wikipedia or visited github could even ask this question. It sure sounds like a conceptual anachronism to me. (Though not nearly as bad as the person who wanted to shift from discussing copying data to holding up a bank the last time this topic came up.)

Re: Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early

#47

Post by m4rtink »

linuxhansl wrote: post #41

Is it just me or are DRM controlled ebooks a complete scam?! Consider: 1. Ebooks go through great length to make the information behave like a physical book. 2. Libraries have to buy as many licenses as they can plan to lend our concurrently 3. Licenses will even expire after a bit, because that's what real book do, they wear of. So far so good (if your goal is to simulate real books). But now: 1. Wanna give your ebo…

Yeah, the idea of enforcing such artificial limitations on an digital book are disgusting not to mention dangerous, as these can very easuly be missused to surpress undesired works.

Re: Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early

#48

Post by userbinator »

jMyles wrote: post #3

Figuring out how to move projects like IA to a configuration where they are beyond the reach of the state, but still universally accessible, is one of the most important open issues of the internet today.

SciHub/LibGen might be a good start.

(...which, if this announcement is any indication, should probably be mirroring the IA if they haven't already done so. I believe they used to avoid that, under the assumption that the IA would always be accessible, but maybe not now.)

Re: Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early

#49

Post by jefftk »

jancsika wrote: post #45
geofft wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't disagree with you in principle, but it's the system we have. So, 1) What's a good way to ensure that authors continue to author books while not dying of exposure (or, more practically, that authors continue to author books instead of deciding to go work at a tech company or something)? 2) How do we implement that system?

> (or, more practically, that authors continue to author books instead of deciding to go work at a tech company or something) Have you done or read research to suggest this is something to worry about? There are other concerns certainly. But I have trouble understanding how someone who has ever visited Wikipedia or visited github could even ask this question. It sure sounds like a conceptual anachronism to me. (Thoug…

I think if you talked to most authors and asked "would you still do this if it were unpaid" you'd get almost entirely "no"s. Do you expect otherwise?

Re: Temporary National Emergency Library to close 2 weeks early

#50

Post by geofft »

generationP wrote: post #36
geofft wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since we'd be moving from legal protection to technical protection, would we also figure out some technical means whereby this would be accessible by Internet Archive only? Or would all of us be given a way to publish anything we want in a way that makes it accessible to the whole world but no government can impede? Would that then include sealed court records, intimate photos, performance reviews, credit card number…

We have such havens already, and if the choice is between the Internet Archive plus everyone's naked pics or none of the two, I'd still vote for the former.

And I'd vote for the latter - but since we're talking about moving things beyond the reach of any government, it's not like I'm actually able to vote on it, am I?
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