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“The books will stop working.”

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Re: “The books will stop working.”

#51

Post by OrgNet »

CodeTheInternet wrote: post #27
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…

My library has the option of "checking out" ebooks. They will "purchase" them and have a set "number of copies". I put all of these things in quotes as I'm not sure how its handled for essentially a digital file vs a physical paper book, or how the author/publisher/etc makes money in this deal.

I think mine also allows you to watch movies online, but I never tried it yet.

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#52

Post by jmiserez »

derefr wrote: post #36
adrianhon wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tiny Libraries are cool but they aren’t even a pale shadow of traditional public libraries that come with commitments to levels of service and access to people of all backgrounds and locations and incomes.

Sure, but in a community where there wasn't an actual public library, I do believe one would inevitably come into existence as the effort of the community, in the same way those tiny libraries do. "People have spare books; community centres exist; so why not put the spare books in the community centre?"

But you'll be constrained to the old spare books of that particular community. Public libraries have a much broader selection, and they also buy new books.

Also I'm not sure they'd actually come into existence everywhere, even if the internet is a poor substitute for a library it is cheaper and may be enough for many.

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#54

Post by tpush »

hyperman1 wrote: post #4

I wonder how this can even be legal in Europe. If someone sold you something, its yours. AFAIK, There is enough consumer protection to stop most EULA bullshit. So it seems it only needs someone to sue and some proof microsoft used the word 'sold' when you bought it.

You probably only obtain a license to read a book and don't actually own it, similar to streaming movies & music.

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#55

Post by squaresmile »

EdwardCoffin wrote: post #29
squaresmile wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this the version you have been searching for? It is "A Fire Upon the Deep" and it looks annotated. [0] https://i.imgur.com/260sH2V.png

That might be it. The annotations look like the kind of thing I remember.

I got it from a private tracker but it looks like you can find it on libgen fiction too [0]. The 1.7Mb epub one is the one I got.

[0] http://gen.lib.rus.ec/fiction/?q=A+Fire+Upon+the+Deep

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#56

Post by uryga »

otakucode wrote: post #9

There will be a time, I'm not sure when, that the whole "its a license!" nonsense will die a hard death. It would be unwise for any company to rely too heavily upon it. This is not a new tactic at all. It works only temporarily, but has been used in a multitude of different industries through history - and the end is always the same. Eventually some company will push it too far. They will rip the wrong people off, an…

> If you're being offered a licensing opportunity, it should have to be marketed as such. Yes, this would confuse consumers.

idk, spotify et al seem to be doing alright...

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#58

Post by aaron695 »

OUYA stopped working this week.

Games lost (hacks available to get around it do exist though, like you could hack the Microsoft books) even 100% free apps stopped working correctly.

For all OUYAs extreme self-righteous about open source they became the worst.

Perhaps a middle ground is needed

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#59

Post by rahimiali »

docker_up wrote: post #13

I have a close friend who published an engineering text book. He worked a couple of years on it and it was well received in his particular field. The book was pirated within months and is freely available on PDF. It's unfair that his hard work is being used globally for free. So yes, having books shut off sucks but so does piracy.

Does your friend get royalty for each copy of the book? Could your friend have negotiated an upfront fee from the publisher and no royalty? This way, only the publisher would be exposed to piracy risk, a risk it can manage much better than an author ever could.

Re: “The books will stop working.”

#60

Post by knd775 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #14
hyperman1 wrote: post #4

I wonder how this can even be legal in Europe. If someone sold you something, its yours. AFAIK, There is enough consumer protection to stop most EULA bullshit. So it seems it only needs someone to sue and some proof microsoft used the word 'sold' when you bought it.

The UK Consumer Rights Act (CRA) appears to anticipate this as it has no absolute date beyond which goods should remain suitable for purpose. Digital goods should last infinitely, so a digital good that 'expires' should be fixed or the cost fully refunded (fully as there are still an infinite number of years of use left available; and that should be accounting for inflation too).

They are fully refunding all purchases, though.
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