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Even cooler, you can download quite a few of these books for free at Baen's website. I would particularly recommend the Belisarius series and the stuff by David Weber.

While I can't recommend authors (I generally don't notice until about the fifth book or so) my sources for new reading material these days are mostly online. I would recomend checking out Baen Books (including of course the famous Baen Free Library) and Fictionwise. Both have extensive SciFi collections, and while I won't say that the quality is all good, they both also have at least decent samples. (Baen's, of course, are better than decent.) You may not want to read they way I do (I do a lot of reading on my Clie), but both also offer several formats, including at least defacto standards.

While I can't recommend authors (I generally don't notice until about the fifth book or so) my sources for new reading material these days are mostly online. I would recomend checking out Baen Books (including of course the famous Baen Free Library) and Fictionwise. Both have extensive SciFi collections, and while I won't say that the quality is all good, they both also have at least decent samples. (Baen's, of course, are better than decent.) You may not want to read they way I do (I do a lot of reading on my Clie), but both also offer several formats, including at least defacto standards.

The biggest threat to any artist is not copyright theft. Not by a longshot.

The biggest threat to any artist is obscurity.

If someone said they'd get your music played on the radio, but they wouldn't pay you anything for it (you get to keep your copyright though) I'm betting you'd jump at the chance because it would get your name out there and defeat obscurity for a little while.

I would expect that shoplifting physical media from stores costs artists more money than IP theft, because it simultaneously deprives you of royalties for the copies stolen AND it prevents other people from buying your work. If my local bookstore thinks it has two copies of a book on the shelf, they won't reorder it. If both copies were stolen, then not only is the author out for those two copies, but also loses because nobody else will see the books.

I'm basically rehashing a lot of Eric Flint's ideas, which can be read in an essay at his publisher's website, here.

Melancholy Elephants.

Here's one opinion from Spider Robinson: Melancholy Elephants.

So you restrict the rights of a whole to provide monetary benefit for the few?
Nothing says being an artist or author is suppose to be profitable.

The Baen Free Library is an example of a professional business that has realized that giving people the right to copy doesn't hurt their sales; in fact, it helps them.

There are more people out there that have seen the light.

Oh FYI, unsecure is not a word perhaps you meant insecure and bigtime should either be hyphenated or spelled as two words eg. big time.

This will be bad for consumers. Currently, AOL has control over TW. But if the TW side grows more powerful, and Warner gains control over the Internet access of 30 Million Worldwide Members(tm), then Warner can use them as pawns in the battle for DMCA II and Bono Act II in the USA and EU legislatures.

Yes, the Movie and Music folks would like to mandate security with government intervention, wacky-doodle encryption schemes, and other such nonsense, but that doesn't mean that those of us fighting to maintain our rights should shed tears for crackers and pirates that get caught and prosecuted.

Personally I think that there is a world of difference between the guy in Norway that wrote DeCSS so that he could view legally purchased DVDs on his Linux box and the masses of folks pirating copyrighted works via KaZaa and the like. I am perfectly willing to pay for content, but I am not willing to give up my fair use rights.

The irony of the situation is that there are publishers, musicians, and probably even movie producers that are willing to meet us halfway. I have bought quite a few ebooks from Baen and Fictionwise that were available in several unencrypted formats, and there are plenty of musicians that are willing to let you download samples of their music for free, and are also happy to produce CDs that will play on your computer.

The real trick is to force the market in the direction you prefer by supporting the efforts of those that respect your fair use rights. People that copy copyrighted material illegaly are simply strengthening the argument of the people that say that government intervention and strong cryptography is required.

Oh, and make sure you vote, and also make sure to check the voting record of your elected officials. You might be surprised.

Future warfighters may spend substantial amounts of time encapsulated in protective garments ...with limited access to normal meals.
Foolish Army...Everyone knows the answer to this is alien-tech suits filled with multi-purpose gelatin.

Of course, what is really needed is a third choice, a totally Free Software media codec solution that's competitive with both Windows Media and MPEG 4

That isn't to say that I am the biggest Ogg users, but then again, I am not the biggest MP3 user either. However, I will not buy DRM enabled equipment, more out of principle than anything. I use my CD-R to burn art that I have created and Open Source software for the most part. On the same token, I will tend to shy away from DRM enabled software and formats.

As far as the ownership idea goes. I fully believe in property rights. But I also believe in the benefits of good will. Most everything that I write semi-professionally is released under an "open content" type boilerplate license (for lack of a better term). The Baen Free Library's experiences seem to back up the economic power of this type of good will as well.

Baen has experienced a mysterious 50% increase in gross dollar sales in the previous year. Also, our "sellthrough" (percentage of books placed in the market that sell to end-point customers) has improved from the rather startling 63% to the truly stunning 74%. I'm tentatively blamiing this on my wacko e-net proclivities. (Insert a Crazy Eddie ad pastiche here)

Baen has experienced a mysterious 50% increase in gross dollar sales in the previous year. Also, our "sellthrough" (percentage of books placed in the market that sell to end-point customers) has improved from the rather startling 63% to the truly stunning 74%. I'm tentatively blamiing this on my wacko e-net proclivities. (Insert a Crazy Eddie ad pastiche here)

"why would i go buy the book, when i just downloaded the pdf for free?"

Well to start with, at the moment I cannot afford to buy books as I'm on a benifit due to a break down: but reading is one of my greatest loves, and hence is therapeutic for me, so I need books to read, so what do I do. The loverly folks at Baen books let people download stuff free, so I get to read lots of loverly scifi & fantasy (my favorite's), so how do I feel about them, well would you believe it Grateful, so what will I do when I'm back in the work force, you've got it buy those awsesome books.

Other reasons for buying those books,

• A physical book is just nicer than one on my box.
• I'm not a stingy bugger like some of you.
• I believe in rewarding people for doing good.
  (same as I intend to reward my open source brothers/sisters by writting OSS, [all true open sourcers should contribute some how, some time.])

M$ cannot buy the company, cannot undercut it's pricing, cannot cut off its air supply.

IP laws are a bit funny. There is a fair argument to scrap Patents and move it into copyright law. I have links in an old post of mine, here The Baen free library has some links to a copule of great speaches in England a hundred years ago about the extension of copyrights. Very well done.

Skipping the various examples of Bain , inform it , and etc, Legit e-books have been available for free, or nearly so for quite some time. My favorite being the King County, Wa library system.Mostly tech books, but then it's mostly geeks who will look for and use them at this point.

What you need to do is put the electronic version online before or concurrently with the print version. See the Baen Free Library...

I love the Baen Free Library (BFL), but I think you're misrepresenting the results. By and large the books in the BFL were placed online after the print version. In most cases, significantly after, long after the print version is selling only handfuls of copies. In this case, yes, there is strong evidence that a free online version can boost print sales. The BFL doesn't publish stuff in new release specifically because of concerns of gutting sales. Mind you, the BFL's concern doesn't mean that the free release will gut sales, just that they're not willing to be the one to do the experiment at the risk of sales.

Relatedly, I encourage everyone to visit Baen Free Library, if only "Prime Palaver" articles in which the person manging the library discusses the plan and the actual results. It's very enlightening.

What you need to do is put the electronic version online before or concurrently with the print version. See the Baen Free Library...

I love the Baen Free Library (BFL), but I think you're misrepresenting the results. By and large the books in the BFL were placed online after the print version. In most cases, significantly after, long after the print version is selling only handfuls of copies. In this case, yes, there is strong evidence that a free online version can boost print sales. The BFL doesn't publish stuff in new release specifically because of concerns of gutting sales. Mind you, the BFL's concern doesn't mean that the free release will gut sales, just that they're not willing to be the one to do the experiment at the risk of sales.

Relatedly, I encourage everyone to visit Baen Free Library, if only "Prime Palaver" articles in which the person manging the library discusses the plan and the actual results. It's very enlightening.

Baen has experienced a mysterious 50% increase in gross dollar sales in the previous year. Also, our "sellthrough" (percentage of books placed in the market that sell to end-point customers) has improved from the rather startling 63% to the truly stunning 74%. I'm tentatively blamiing this on my wacko e-net proclivities. (Insert a Crazy Eddie ad pastiche here)

Copyright only protects the expression of an idea, not the idea itself.

Where does one become the other?

If you want to write original pieces for the cello you are more than welcome to.

When writing an original musical work, how do I make sure that I don't unconsciously copy an existing work? And what happens when humanity runs into the theoretical limit of the number of distinct original works?

Spider Robinson wrote a short story, called Melancholy Elephants that has an interesting take on the copyright issue. Do artists REALLY need a 95-year copyright? I can understand copyright for the life of the author, and possibly his family, but beyond that, it's a little ridiculous. I recommend reading the story .. Very good insight..

Tons.

The best:
- Baen free library
- Blackmask

Noteworthy because they've been busy with this the longest, and also because they have the worst quality (formatting) e-books: Project Gutenberg.

Tons.

The best:
- Baen free library
- Blackmask

Noteworthy because they've been busy with this the longest, and also because they have the worst quality (formatting) e-books: Project Gutenberg.

Linux folks can read eBooks right now. Heck, I have read over 60 of them in the past year alone, and I have a real problem with a program that unencrypts Microsoft's eBooks. The reason for this is simple. The last thing I want to do is increase sales of Microsoft eBooks. Right now the eBook industry is finally coming to the conclusion that encryption doesn't do anything but hurt its profits. There are plenty of places where I can get unencrypted eBooks, and I would just as soon send the publishers the message that the best way to sell their eBooks is to release them in a wide variety of unencrypted formats. If you don't believe me check out Baen, or most books at Fictionwise.

This software is the worst possible reflection on the eBook community. Not only does it make us all seem like thieves, but the pornographic element makes us look like degenerates as well.

Sure! Try Baen.com. Baen is a commercial site that has found the free distribution of e-books has improved it's bottom line in sales of its dead-tree versions.

They treat their (potential) customers like honest folk and deserve everyone's support IMO.

If you like science fiction try Baen Books and go to the free library.

Libraries are a wonderful institution that doubtlessly cut into the income of those who produce the books

Actually, there are good arguments that libraries help sell books. It's the try before you buy theory. Baen has demonstrated that offering ebooks for free, in an open format (Baen Free Library) improves sales of the physical version by a significant amount. It also increases the sales of the book series and the Author's other novels.

Baen has concluded that the reason that ebooks hasn't taken off very well is the very restrictions placed on them, as well as the fact that most of them cost as much as a hardcover.

Instead you can buy access to their published books (done by initial publishing month since 1999, with some variations). Five books for fifteen dollars is $3.00 per book, and you can get the whole book two weeks before the hardcover comes out in stores. You can read them online or download them in 5 easy formats (HTML,RTF,rocketbook,microsoft reader, palm/Psion), at any time. As I read fanfiction quite a bit, I'm used to reading from a computer screen (actually a bit easier than books with my vision).

Overall, much easier than my one experience with locked ebooks, when I downloaded the free book from Steven King to try it. I had to download a propriatary reader, (which caused all sorts of system faults on my computer) which wouldn't let me change the font or size of the text, and was otherwise such a pain in the butt, that I ended up deleting the book and uninstalling the software.

I find I prefer HTML (with jacket art and any internal art), or RTF (no art). And its really nice to be able to haul around 60 books on my laptop rather than try to physically lug 10-12 books around (along with my laptop).

So does "Melancholy Elephants" by Spider Robinson, which predicts the unavoidable consequence of perpetual copyright: eventually, every pleasing combination of n notes is owned by somebody. Copyrights become like land in that it's possible to own them but not create new ones.

This is why Americans do not need copyright term extensions such as the Bono Act.

You missed my point.

Yes, it's possible for an artist to be successful and make lots of money. Making money does not fundamentally taint your work. There are actors, musicians, and writers whose work I really enjoy, who appear to have the burning need to create, who are successful financially beyond my wildest dreams. I continue to respect them.

My point (and Tim O'Reilly's point), is that the vast majority of people who engage in creative work won't be financially successful. For whatever reason, the market can't or won't support them. They're doomed to playing small gigs in their home town, or having their web comic read by a few friends. They work "real" jobs to pay the bills. For these people having their work shared doesn't cost them anything, there is no real market to be attacked by the existance of free distribution. Instead, the free distribution can support word of mouth about the artist, increasing their fan base. Given that they have no real hope making money, most artists would rather have a larger fan base than a smaller one. (And the larger fan base may eventually reach critical mass to support a full time career at it.)

That leaves the most successful artists (that is, the minority). Will file sharing destroy them? Perhaps, but we don't know yet. Authors whose work is freely shared on the Baen Free Library actually see boosted in sales when a book is made freely available. Tim O'Reilly has noted that the free availability of his books on various sites has not significantly harmed his income. In fact, Safari, his online book site, has been increasing revenues by the insane 30% per month for books that are easily copied and shared (and he knows that are).

Contrary to what you may believe, artists do have a "make money or give away work" choice, and since most artists live in the real world, they have to make money based on their work.

For the vast majority of artists, the choice is not "make money", it's "quit my non-artistic job, work 120 hour weeks to try and sell my work and build up my fan base, tap out my savings in a few months, max out credit cards and tap friends for loans to survive a few more months, and finally move back in with parents who insist you get a 'real' job." Creating "art" is an insanely risky way to try and make a living. The vast majority of artists who try fail. The more sane artists instead get a "real" job to support themselves while they try to build up a large enough fan base to support themselves.

And it doesn't mean that, if they have the talent and the demand for their work, other people should feel free to go ahead and steal their works, since a "real artist" shouldn't care about money.

My point is not that you should go make illegal copies of works. I strongly support purchasing legal copies from artists to support them. My point multifold: 1) Filesharing is not as dangerous and its made out to be. The actual damages appear to be far smaller than threatened. 2) Artists (both big and small) should seriously consider freely distributing some or all of their works to build up fans.

Baen Publishing is trying to sell you stuff. And he's encouraging you to pirate his books.

Baen Publishing is trying to sell you stuff. And he's encouraging you to pirate his books.

Copyright simply elevates art on part with real goods

Actually, it elevates art on par with real estate. Like the space of land on this planet, the space of artistic expression is limited. There are only a finite number of words in the English language and a finite ways to combine them into a poem with three phrases of five, seven, and five syllables. There are also only a finite number of melodic hooks of a given length in the Western musical scale. When you stake your claim, you get a monopoly on the work you copyrighted, plus all the works that are substantially close to it. It's possible to get sued for a coincidence and lose. Once almost all the space has been claimed, there is no room to innovate, and all new works must be licensed by the owner of the particular space in which they fall. Spider Robinson wrote a short story about this situation.

Mr. Shatner,

Fans, and their sometimes obsessive love for fiction such as Star Trek, is possibly even more associated with the program than the actual shows, Gene Roddenberry, you, or the rest of the cast. Even to the point where documentaries and fiction are written in reaction to (or extension of) the original fiction. In that vein, did you see Galaxy Quest? What did you think?

music written by the band or singer themselves

How can the performer-songwriters make sure that they didn't unconsciously copy a previous song? George Harrison got in trouble for that. It can even happen by coincidence, leading to a hypothetical situation in which the Copyright Office rejects works as "unoriginal".

I've had a Palm V, then replaced it with a Vx when those arrived, and now I'm seriously considering moving to a Palm m515 for the extra storage space (8MB is no longer enough; 16MB plus a 128MB MultiMediaCard should do for a little while...).

1. Scheduling. My office uses one of those shared calendar systems (not Outlook), and it includes a Palm conduit. (Hey guys, ship the Palm Desktop 4.0 Mac version already!) I'm at the point in my career where meetings happen to me more often than they used to, so this matters a lot.
2. E-books. Between Peanut Press (now Palm Digital Media) and Baen Books (Webscriptions, the Baen Free Library, and the War of Honor CD-ROM), I've got plenty of books to cycle through.
3. Password vault. Strip is a great tool for sysadmins.
4. Other reference info. Lists of IPs, machine serial numbers (handy for making service calls without having to look behind machines), etc.

What I've found is that the white background of the color PDA makes for very nice reading. And the Mobipocket reader even does a touch of smoothing. In all, it's pretty much like reading a story in a magazine, with text running about the width of a standard magazine column

Another thing is that I've found it comes in quite handy of late when the kids wanted me to stay in their rooms a bit as they go to sleep. Just bring it on in and read while their lights are off and the drop into slumberland.

Oh, and since buying the hardcover book, I'm now up to the 5th Harrington book on it.

For writing, I still prefer Bujold. She carefully crafts each sentence, and it shows. For sweeping space opera with a cast of trillions, Honor Harrington is the series to bet on.

Don't start with War of Honor, however. Either buy War of Honor and read the CD, in order, or download On Basilisk Station and Honor of the Queen from David Weber's page at the Baen Free Library.

I ordered two copies from my local independent bookseller, and donated one to be sold at a charity auction. Once people found out about the CD, they paid $60 at the auction...

I'm impressed that it's a downloadable. Though I had already bought the paperback, it makes it easier to recommend to others as I don't have to worry about only sharing my copy. Incidentally, that 1 copy has turned into a hardcover of 1633, and 2 hardcovers of the anticipated 1634..

If you're an alternate-history fan, this is the book for you. I found 1633 a bit too heavy on the exposition (and some repetition, though I had just read 1632) but the characters are real and the story doesn't indulge in copouts..

1633 is a bit heavy on the exposition but there's a good reason for this. You see, when Flint & Weber were writing 1633 the original manuscript ended up being too long to be workable. It got split into 1633 and 1634: The Baltic War. Hopefully there will eventually be three books set in 1634. One in the Baltic, One in England and maybe one in Italy.

Patience ...

I purchased the hard back as soon as it came out. Not for the CD though which I didn't even know was included. When I saw the reference to the CD however I found that in my copy the CD, attached to the last page of the book, had been removed in the store... and not by the store clerks but rather stolen. Does the content justify buying the book twice (which was one of the weaker in the series) or can the CD be purchased seperately if I contact the publisher?

BTW, if you're interested in the newer stuff (which isn't out yet), you might drop by Baen's Bar or the snippet site for a look-see. Snippets for the next Honorverse anthology are up and a preliminary snippet for the next Honorverse novel (Crown of Slaves) appeared earlier this week.

Cheers!

I purchased the hard back as soon as it came out. Not for the CD though which I didn't even know was included. When I saw the reference to the CD however I found that in my copy the CD, attached to the last page of the book, had been removed in the store... and not by the store clerks but rather stolen. Does the content justify buying the book twice (which was one of the weaker in the series) or can the CD be purchased seperately if I contact the publisher?

BTW, if you're interested in the newer stuff (which isn't out yet), you might drop by Baen's Bar or the snippet site for a look-see. Snippets for the next Honorverse anthology are up and a preliminary snippet for the next Honorverse novel (Crown of Slaves) appeared earlier this week.

Cheers!

i can only recommend to read the introduction to the Baen Free Library. It's good to see, that not every one who depends on selling content wants to fleece the customers like sheep.

Living from content and a fair use policy are no contradictions. They explain why and how. And it works. I keep buying WebScriptions and the books ;-). That I love to read John Ringo (Gust Front), David Weber (Honor series) and Lois McMaster Bujold (The Vor game) may explain it.

Yours, Martin

P.S. Has anyone already written a simulator (Perl prefered) for the starships in the Honor-Universe? I would like to check some battles :-).

Some of the material on the CD-ROM is available online at the Baen Free Library.

I'm impressed that it's a downloadable. Though I had already bought the paperback, it makes it easier to recommend to others as I don't have to worry about only sharing my copy. Incidentally, that 1 copy has turned into a hardcover of 1633, and 2 hardcovers of the anticipated 1634..

If you're an alternate-history fan, this is the book for you. I found 1633 a bit too heavy on the exposition (and some repetition, though I had just read 1632) but the characters are real and the story doesn't indulge in copouts..

While I can't give you a good review of the plot (even though I have read it) you can check out the first part of the book (14 chapters or so) at Baen

Cheers

-s

It's worth checking out The Baen Free Library - it has some books that the WOH CD doesn't (but it also doesn't have all of the books that are on the CD).

It's worth checking out The Baen Free Library - it has some books that the WOH CD doesn't (but it also doesn't have all of the books that are on the CD).

Go to www.baen.com/library/, download some books (most of these are 200 or so pages, so smaller than an average paperback.)

Unzip them, take out the pictures, take a look at the file sizes. You'll find that they average around 900K, which is pretty damn close to a meg, no?

And more news (blatant ad for a company that looks at digital distribution differently): buy Baen Books' newest, War of Honor (David Weber), in hardcover, and find a CD-ROM with the full text of all 10 volumes of the Honor series plus 28 other Baen books inside. All full length novels, and each book in several open (html, rtf, ...) and non-open (lit, pdb, ...) formats.

Look at it this way: that's $0.45 per e-book title, with a free hardcover thrown in.

Baen can make a profit selling their books as e-books without any form of copy protection at $4 and $5 individually, or $15 for a 4, 5 or 6 book pack. Can't the recording industry do the same with music?

Yeah, except as the author explicitly pointed out in Hammer's Slammers, lasers have no place on the battle field. I believe he said something along the lines of "a machine gun with one bullet in it is just as effective once, but a laser with anything less than a full power pack is nothing more than a glorified pointing device."

Hammer's Slammers didn't use lasers, they used projected plasma weapons that fired at close to the speed of light and as straight as a laser.

It's still a kick ass series of books. Tank Lords is available for free from the Baen Free Library.

Here is a free book on Programming Ruby available for download. This free electronic version is actually very good.
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/ruby/downloads/ index.html

Here is a free Japanese comic book, Hikaru No Go, also available for download. It's about Go, the game, but nevertheless it's a pretty addictive comic book.
http://www.toriyamaworld.com/hikago/index.html