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Well I guess this site is completely illegal then. It publishes copyrighted works on the net and makes it freely downloadable.

http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm

Some people realize that there is more to art than making money. True artists only care that their art is appreciated. The people that are worried about the "lost money" are the corporate exec's who have nothing to contribute but their money gathering skills. http://www.baen.com/library/

[P]iracy occurs when artificial restrictions in the market jack up prices beyond what people think are reasonable. The "regulation-enforcement-more regulation" strategy is a bottomless pit which continually recreates (on a larger scale) the problem it supposedly solves. And that commercial effect is often compounded by the more general damage done to social and political freedom.

To me, spending a few hundred dollars/euro's on such a thing is only worth consideration if there is a possibility to buy plenty of content for a price that's much lower that I'd pay for paper versions of the same stuff.

Supposedly, the device will be able to display unrestricted PDFs. If that's so, you can get quite a lot of content from Baen. Assuming you like the fiction they publish, anyway. I use a Gemstar e-Book right now for that purpose, and for manuals. It's great, but gradually dying, hard to replace and a bit bulkier and heavier than this Sony device (because the Gemstar is LCD based).

I actually don't care what sort of DRM Sony chooses to implement... I won't buy the DRM'd content anyway. If the device can display unprotected content and do it conveniently, I'll may buy it for that. We'll see what availability and pricing look like when my Gemstar finally dies.

I want one too, but only if it can read HTML.

If it can't access Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/ or the Baen free library (and subscriptions) http://www.baen.com/library/, well, what use is it?

But wouldn't RSS imply the ability to display HTML as well?

What's interesting is that baen books has found that piracy isn't an issue unless you're Terry Pratchett or Stephen King. And even then, it's uncertain.

See: http://www.baen.com/library/palaver6.htm

As a writer, I'd like to be paid for my work. I'd rather not make it easy for people to redistribute my work without compensating me.

As a writer, I'd like to be paid for my work. I'd rather not make it easy for people to redistribute my work without compensating me.

Here's another writer's view on the issue. The whole essay is worth reading, but his second-to-last paragraph sums it up pretty well:

The future can't be foretold. But, whatever happens, so long as writers are essential to the process of producing fiction -- along with editors, publishers, proofreaders (if you think a computer can proofread, you're nuts) and all the other people whose work is needed for it -- they will get paid. Because they have, as a class if not as individuals, a monopoly on the product. Far easier to figure out new ways of generating income -- as we hope to do with the Baen Free Library -- than to tie ourselves and society as a whole into knots. Which are likely to be Gordian Knots, to boot.

And Eric Flint and other authors are putting their money where their mouth is: The Baen Free Library offers full, unabridged novels for free download, in multiple formats, with no DRM. Once they've gotten you hooked with that, the Baen Webscription site offers books for sale, for low prices, also in multiple formats and with no DRM.

Baen has also put CDs in the backs of several recent hardcover releases, containing other books from the same author, books from other authors that readers may like to try, plus high-resolution copies of cover artwork (without the book title or other text -- just the art). The CDs not only include no DRM, but they also have a statement printed on the label that *encourages* the sharing of the content with friends and family. Baen does ask that you don't distribute the content to the whole world, but has never sued anyone over it. There was one fan of David Weber's Honor Harrington series who put the full text of all of the Harrington books on his web site. Jim Baen found out about it, but rather than threatening a lawsuit, he simply sent the fan an e-mail and explained how the fan's actions were counterproductive and damaging. The fan promptly took the material off-line.

Baen has also recently started doing something new, too. They're now offering "Advance Reader Copies" of new books. These are unproofed versions of books that are going to be released in coming months. Serious fans buy them both because they don't want to wait for the release and also because there's something cool about reading their favorite authors' work in it's "raw, unpolished" form -- it's basically straight from the author's word processor. The advance copies start out at $15 and decline in steps as the publication date approaches. After release, of course, you can buy the final version for about $4.

Oh, and everything is in multiple formats, with absolutely no DRM.

This is innovation in publishing, and this is the sort of thing that can build a sufficiently large and loyal fanbase so that piracy is simply irrelevant.

According to Jim Baen, the experiment has been extremely successful and profitable. Not only has it increased the sales of their current top authors, it has also allowed them to publish -- and profit from -- lots of their back catalog that would otherwise be impossible to publish.

I know that I, personally, have spent *way* too much money on Baen books over the last two or three years. If there are others like me, and I'm sure there are, it's no wonder Baen is doing well.

As a writer, I'd like to be paid for my work. I'd rather not make it easy for people to redistribute my work without compensating me.

Here's another writer's view on the issue. The whole essay is worth reading, but his second-to-last paragraph sums it up pretty well:

The future can't be foretold. But, whatever happens, so long as writers are essential to the process of producing fiction -- along with editors, publishers, proofreaders (if you think a computer can proofread, you're nuts) and all the other people whose work is needed for it -- they will get paid. Because they have, as a class if not as individuals, a monopoly on the product. Far easier to figure out new ways of generating income -- as we hope to do with the Baen Free Library -- than to tie ourselves and society as a whole into knots. Which are likely to be Gordian Knots, to boot.

And Eric Flint and other authors are putting their money where their mouth is: The Baen Free Library offers full, unabridged novels for free download, in multiple formats, with no DRM. Once they've gotten you hooked with that, the Baen Webscription site offers books for sale, for low prices, also in multiple formats and with no DRM.

Baen has also put CDs in the backs of several recent hardcover releases, containing other books from the same author, books from other authors that readers may like to try, plus high-resolution copies of cover artwork (without the book title or other text -- just the art). The CDs not only include no DRM, but they also have a statement printed on the label that *encourages* the sharing of the content with friends and family. Baen does ask that you don't distribute the content to the whole world, but has never sued anyone over it. There was one fan of David Weber's Honor Harrington series who put the full text of all of the Harrington books on his web site. Jim Baen found out about it, but rather than threatening a lawsuit, he simply sent the fan an e-mail and explained how the fan's actions were counterproductive and damaging. The fan promptly took the material off-line.

Baen has also recently started doing something new, too. They're now offering "Advance Reader Copies" of new books. These are unproofed versions of books that are going to be released in coming months. Serious fans buy them both because they don't want to wait for the release and also because there's something cool about reading their favorite authors' work in it's "raw, unpolished" form -- it's basically straight from the author's word processor. The advance copies start out at $15 and decline in steps as the publication date approaches. After release, of course, you can buy the final version for about $4.

Oh, and everything is in multiple formats, with absolutely no DRM.

This is innovation in publishing, and this is the sort of thing that can build a sufficiently large and loyal fanbase so that piracy is simply irrelevant.

According to Jim Baen, the experiment has been extremely successful and profitable. Not only has it increased the sales of their current top authors, it has also allowed them to publish -- and profit from -- lots of their back catalog that would otherwise be impossible to publish.

I know that I, personally, have spent *way* too much money on Baen books over the last two or three years. If there are others like me, and I'm sure there are, it's no wonder Baen is doing well.

If you're an author, put up some catchy story portions with cliff hangers and sell the rest of the book direct to users interested

It's already been done. Baen Books( http://www.baen.com/) started this about 5 years ago. They have a free library section, and a "read an excerpt (a couple of chapters) and buy" section." The idea is pretty much what you suggested.

I don't think that copyrights should disappear - the rights to be able to enjoy the fruits of your work, or at least control it for a time is a good one. You seem to be coming from the music side, but on most others, the funds come from the sales of the material. An author does not get paid for book signings, they get their money from the increased sales of their books because of book signings. What you're complaining about really seems to be abuses of the system by both industries and extensions they've lobbied legislatures to make.

Not all ebooks have DRM. Someone else already mentioned Baen Publishing's Free Library. Great source of science fiction and fantasy. There's always Project Gutenberg, the http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/>University of Pennsylvania's Online Books Page, and just about anything with a Creative Commons License.

Granted, that doesn't cover all subjects. Nor is there much out there that is current. However, I think that you'll find that at least a few smaller publishers are following Baen's lead and opening up their back catalogs. It's a great way for authors to get exposure, after all.

I read ebooks all the time and unless this thing allows me to read any ebook like my PDA, it's not worth spit. The $300-$400 price tag is also extremely high for a single purpose device like this anyway.

BTW, Baen also sells non-DRM ebooks and also has a great library of FREE ebooks that come in multiple formats.

I read ebooks all the time and unless this thing allows me to read any ebook like my PDA, it's not worth spit. The $300-$400 price tag is also extremely high for a single purpose device like this anyway.

BTW, Baen also sells non-DRM ebooks and also has a great library of FREE ebooks that come in multiple formats.

... if I can put what I want on it. I don't have a problem with them providing a DRM-ed format, as long as I can also put other, non-DRM'd content on it. I had a few Rocket eBooks, and now own a Gemstar eBook, and I think it's the best way to read. I can carry dozens of books in one compact package, I never lose my place (no, I am not capable of using a paper bookmark. I do reasonably well at simply remembering the page number where I stopped reading, but the eBook is much better), I can read one-handed, or even zero-handed, by putting the eBook in a plastic baggie I can read in places I wouldn't take a paper book, I can read in the dark... the list goes on. eBooks rock.

And I already have a good source of reading material to use with this eBook. Baen sells all of their books in various non-DRM'd formats, including the RocketBook format (which is usable by Gemstar also). Further, Baen's prices on their ebooks are low enough to partially offset the price of the reader device (assuming you read a lot, which I do).

I'm quite happy at the moment with my Gemstar reader, but I know it will eventually die, and no more are available, except secondhand at exorbitant prices (they generally cost more to buy used than they did when they were new). Price aside, the secondhand supply is problematic because all of the existing devices contain batteries which are not easy to replace and are gradually deteriorating.

In addition, this Sony reader is lighter and thinner, which makes it even more attractive. The fact that it doesn't draw any power except when pages are changed should make it more airplane-acceptable as well (though in practice it probably won't).

Since it supports PDF, I should be able to convert other formats for use on this device easily enough. I'll wait and see what people say, and probably wait for the price to drop down to the ~$200 range, but I see a Sony Reader in my future.

Unfortunately with most ebook sellers pricing themselves higher than equivalent paperbacks it's going to take more than this to really liven up the market. I favour SF&F so Baen ( http://www.baen.com/library/ ) are a welcome exception. They offer DRM-free downloads and subscriptions AND offer a load of books for free download.

The March Upcountry series is actually quite good. It reads like more of Ringo's work than Weber's, for what that's worth. The series works out to be a pretty good coming of age tale, and the paeans to the martial virtues are not overblown. I caught the first two books when they were in the free library and then bought the last two.

Ahh Starfire. The original pocket edition is one of the best games of its generation. It hasn't stood up well - although I prefer the 2d6 weapon rolls to the 1d10 just because I love the feel of the 2d6 bell curve- so I'm playing Full Thrust these days, predominantly online with FTJava - multiplayer, transport over email so not realtime, fog of war, and fighters coming this week in the 1.0 release. Starfire was cursed with mediocre expansions and overcomplex campaign games. Weber came along for the 2nd edition and rewrote the game to be more complex to handle the large battles he wanted (yes, that's what happened). And he wrote novels. They degenerated into one massive assault through a warp point after another. There's no ftl travel, you go through warp poitns and come out in another system. And they're easily defended with vast minefields and ginormous fortresses. Ungameably ugly in my opinion, you're forced into brute force up-the-middle attacks. This forces fleet sizes upwards to sustain the horrific casualty rates (90% attrition in fighter units in battle after battle, 90% percent people. Add in an even more extreme version of the technological one-upmanship in the Honor Harrington books and you get a really flashy strategic situation that's utterly boring to play.

On the other hand, the game for the Honor Harrington series is based on the excellent Attack Vector, which manages to put 3d Newtonian space combat on the tabletop. They're calling it the Saganami Island Tactical Simulator and yes, I do have a (small, non-financial) interest in the company. It's on my Christmas list for myself, just ordered it now (yes, I've been good).

It's actually possible for a publisher to make money by giving stuff away. Take a look at a publisher who is giving stuff away and seeing an increase in sales. The basic gimmick is to give away the first couple of books in a series away online. This solves the problem of selling sequels to people who haven't read the first books and in royalty figures listed on the site it also boosts sales in the author's other series. They've gone so far as to put upwards of 20 books on a disk bound into some recent novels. The latest Honor Harrington novel is something like the 14th in the series, and comes with all of the earlier books.

The free ebooks come in a variety of formats; nicely framed html, text, and a couple of popular (and free) ebook readers for mobile devices. But they've found that enough people prefer to read actual books and buy them that they come out ahead on the deal.

Incidentally, Baen publishes mainly military science fiction.

It's actually possible for a publisher to make money by giving stuff away. Take a look at a publisher who is giving stuff away and seeing an increase in sales. The basic gimmick is to give away the first couple of books in a series away online. This solves the problem of selling sequels to people who haven't read the first books and in royalty figures listed on the site it also boosts sales in the author's other series. They've gone so far as to put upwards of 20 books on a disk bound into some recent novels. The latest Honor Harrington novel is something like the 14th in the series, and comes with all of the earlier books.

The free ebooks come in a variety of formats; nicely framed html, text, and a couple of popular (and free) ebook readers for mobile devices. But they've found that enough people prefer to read actual books and buy them that they come out ahead on the deal.

Incidentally, Baen publishes mainly military science fiction.

If I write a book, I very definitely want my stuff online and searchable.

If my book is any good, the more people who see it, the more are going to buy it. Making the book good is my problem, and to a smaller extent, that of my editors. Make the book invisible and nobody will buy it.

Isn't making money off IP content what publishing is supposed to be about? Not making content invisible or putting it on sale after locking it into a digital toilet.

BTW, the only real success I know with respect to digital-age publishing is Baen Books.

They make their backlist free and downloadable with no DRM and no brain-dead e-reader software, open in your word processsor or browser. They do the same with their current books, only you have to pay for those.

The first hit is always free is a time honored and sound marketing principle. Once you're read the first several books in a series, the buying decision on the next few is a very easy one to make, especially since the content doesn't have DRM-crapware on it that makes it harder to read where I feel like reading it. They're also cheaper since they don't have to pay print costs, just bandwidth. This isn't hypothetical, I've already bought several of their books and plan on buying 2 or 3 more as soon as I get my next article check.

The French publishers simply want government protection for an industrial-age business model, just like the crapheads at the *AA member labels and studios do... fuck 'em.

Note sometimes the fantasy and science fiction overlap
For fantasy

Marion Zimmer Bradley, sword and sorceress series, and her darkover series.
MZB taught Mercedes Lackey (who I recommend too - though she can get a bit too much into child abuse issues for my taste)

Anne McAffrey - does they like dragons, and mental telepathy?

For Science fiction
I second:
Lois McMaster Bujold - especially Cordelia's Honour and the Warrior's Apprentice series - a lot of these have been "omnibussed" ie two novels in one, so check what you are buying so you don't overlap.

Elizabeth Moon - lots of stuff except the Blood Trillium stuff sucked big time. I like her Heris Serrano series (start with "Hunting Party") - though the last books get a bit gruesome. And I like "the speed of dark".

and add

John Wyndham - his stuff is part of the cultural understanding of the world
Neil Stephenson - Snow Crash, Diamond Age (how much does your tribe like Maths and Computers?)

David Brin - Sundiver series (six books in total) or his other books stand alone. David Brin is one of the only authors in the genre that write single book stories. For girls I highly recommend "Glory Season", but my favourite is "Earth".

Julian May - how can she be left off. Her many coloured land is a hybrid sci-fi fantasy and I loved them.

RA MacAvoy for a bit of the celtic fantasy/sci fi

Isobelle Carmody, Philip Pullman, Sara Douglass - all a bit derivative (like you've read something just like it before) but readable anyway. Important - do not read Philip Pullman after Isobelle Carmody and do not read her stuff (or his stuff) after 16 or so Mercedes Lackey books. You will be really disappointed.

Harry Harrison
Stainless Steel rat series - great fun
And his West of Eden series - more serious but also fun, Jurassic Park should have pinched this to improve their plot.

And in order to be able to understand older geeks
Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy series.

also check out http://www.baen.com/ which has a free library, often contains the first hard to get novels of long running series by popular authors. http://www.baen.com/library/
And they have a "young adults" list too. The list is a little incomplete but it gives you author names you can feed to Amazon.

Note sometimes the fantasy and science fiction overlap
For fantasy

Marion Zimmer Bradley, sword and sorceress series, and her darkover series.
MZB taught Mercedes Lackey (who I recommend too - though she can get a bit too much into child abuse issues for my taste)

Anne McAffrey - does they like dragons, and mental telepathy?

For Science fiction
I second:
Lois McMaster Bujold - especially Cordelia's Honour and the Warrior's Apprentice series - a lot of these have been "omnibussed" ie two novels in one, so check what you are buying so you don't overlap.

Elizabeth Moon - lots of stuff except the Blood Trillium stuff sucked big time. I like her Heris Serrano series (start with "Hunting Party") - though the last books get a bit gruesome. And I like "the speed of dark".

and add

John Wyndham - his stuff is part of the cultural understanding of the world
Neil Stephenson - Snow Crash, Diamond Age (how much does your tribe like Maths and Computers?)

David Brin - Sundiver series (six books in total) or his other books stand alone. David Brin is one of the only authors in the genre that write single book stories. For girls I highly recommend "Glory Season", but my favourite is "Earth".

Julian May - how can she be left off. Her many coloured land is a hybrid sci-fi fantasy and I loved them.

RA MacAvoy for a bit of the celtic fantasy/sci fi

Isobelle Carmody, Philip Pullman, Sara Douglass - all a bit derivative (like you've read something just like it before) but readable anyway. Important - do not read Philip Pullman after Isobelle Carmody and do not read her stuff (or his stuff) after 16 or so Mercedes Lackey books. You will be really disappointed.

Harry Harrison
Stainless Steel rat series - great fun
And his West of Eden series - more serious but also fun, Jurassic Park should have pinched this to improve their plot.

And in order to be able to understand older geeks
Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy series.

also check out http://www.baen.com/ which has a free library, often contains the first hard to get novels of long running series by popular authors. http://www.baen.com/library/
And they have a "young adults" list too. The list is a little incomplete but it gives you author names you can feed to Amazon.

All sci-fi geeks should read it. Considering it's around 60 years old, you have to forgive a bit of old technology, but the story holds up really well.

It's a very interesting "what if" story about first contact.

For great science fiction novels online, Baen Free Library has a nice selection of stories.

He's talking about the many cases where no amount of selection pressure will get from organism A to organism B (or from squat to Organism A), just as two or more small hops won't get you across a chasm.

There are two effects at work here.

Natural selection needs something distinct to select between and since mutation inevitably degrades the organism, natural selection becomes an agent of homeostasis, not change. No, don't bother raising sickle-cell anaemia, once the mossies are gone, it will be selected against as well.

The other effect is... well, Stephen Hawking stated outright that literally anything could pop out of a black hole occasionally, leading to drawings of physicists and pianos escaping the Roche Limit of a nearby singularity. Yet if a fully functional space cruiser (say for example one of David Weber's mighty machines [complete novel on line]) were to pop out of a black hole, nobody (well, except a few excitable people in places with soft walls) is going to claim that it was an accident. Aliens will have dunnit (using black holes as a transport system somehow), or a wormhole sucked it from somewhere else. Yet the simplest cell is far more complex than even the latest pod-laying Apollo-equipped Invictus superdreadnought [see At All Costs for details], and we're prepared to accept that as an accident. The odds of accidentally forming a living, replicating cell of any kind, given all of the time and resources in the universe, are essentially zero -- well beyond mathematical values routinely labelled "impossible".

Intelligent Design concerns itself not with origins per se, but with those aspects of existing life-forms which are, for Naturalism, unbridgeable gaps, far too wide for any conceivable combination of mutation and selection to have bridged, absent the gentle caress of a holy noodle or whatever.

You only have to look at the pathetic "scaffolding" theories fabricated out of whole cloth as alternatives to ID to understand that this is a genuine problem (well, set of problems) for Naturalistic Evolution.

He's talking about the many cases where no amount of selection pressure will get from organism A to organism B (or from squat to Organism A), just as two or more small hops won't get you across a chasm.

There are two effects at work here.

Natural selection needs something distinct to select between and since mutation inevitably degrades the organism, natural selection becomes an agent of homeostasis, not change. No, don't bother raising sickle-cell anaemia, once the mossies are gone, it will be selected against as well.

The other effect is... well, Stephen Hawking stated outright that literally anything could pop out of a black hole occasionally, leading to drawings of physicists and pianos escaping the Roche Limit of a nearby singularity. Yet if a fully functional space cruiser (say for example one of David Weber's mighty machines [complete novel on line]) were to pop out of a black hole, nobody (well, except a few excitable people in places with soft walls) is going to claim that it was an accident. Aliens will have dunnit (using black holes as a transport system somehow), or a wormhole sucked it from somewhere else. Yet the simplest cell is far more complex than even the latest pod-laying Apollo-equipped Invictus superdreadnought [see At All Costs for details], and we're prepared to accept that as an accident. The odds of accidentally forming a living, replicating cell of any kind, given all of the time and resources in the universe, are essentially zero -- well beyond mathematical values routinely labelled "impossible".

Intelligent Design concerns itself not with origins per se, but with those aspects of existing life-forms which are, for Naturalism, unbridgeable gaps, far too wide for any conceivable combination of mutation and selection to have bridged, absent the gentle caress of a holy noodle or whatever.

You only have to look at the pathetic "scaffolding" theories fabricated out of whole cloth as alternatives to ID to understand that this is a genuine problem (well, set of problems) for Naturalistic Evolution.

Spider Robinson figured out where this ends long ago in this story. Worth a read.

You think this is bad, just wait until someone patents "hero fights villian." That's pretty much on par with some of the things other kinds of pattents are issued for.

Here we have a case of art anticipating life.

Doing anything like, oh... buying the book?

While O'Reilly Books are seriously cool people, they aren't publishing just for the fun of it. They're out to make some money (although they're not completely averse to having fun while doing it). They're also, judging by bookshelves in local geek circles and by the cover prices I've been paying, doing a decent job of it.

So why does O'Reilly Books have the entire (conventional) index of a HELL of a lot of their books available on the web? Free. No charge. Google searchable even. Why? Well, they might be trying to drum up interest in the Safari on-line library, but I don't think that's it. I think that, like Baen's Free Library, they "expect this to make us money by selling books".

I would also suggest you (and Schroeder and Barr) play with Google Scholar before sounding off. Google is already indexing copyrighted materials, many of which are in journals that cost a couple hundred bucks a year to subscribe to. However, they don't show the full text of the article in many cases (unless the publisher wants to). You will see the usual two lines worth of context, and there's usually a link to an abstract. If you search from a .edu IP address, your school may have a electronic subscription that Google will link to. Otherwise... get up off your lazy backside and get thee to a library. When Schroeder and Barr are wondering what Google may mean by "Snippets", this ought to give them a clue about what Google plans to do. Google's lawyers are not stupid; I'd be suprised if even full paragraphs show up on material not yet lasped to the public domain.

I'll also note that Google Scholar has a distinct lack of ads on it. The Google Library might not be ad-free, but it will probably be limited to ads trying to sell books or related materials. Gee, what might that do for the publishing industry?

Check out the Baen Free Library. Read Eric Flint's cover article carefully. THEN tell me what the writers and publishers have to worry about.

"I like reading books free on the web but it doesn't mean that it is right and legal."

ummm... Baen Free Library, Project Gutenberg?

This is an excellent point. There are already several places online to get free books, but how many people take advantage of them? Without some exceptional change in the technology, people, it seems, will continue to read books in their current form rather than electronically.

Books are a bit like software, and the try before you buy model works well. I have a hard time imagining most people deciding to read the entirety of a long book on their computer, even if it's available for free. I can imagine quite a few people looking at a new book online and using that as the basis for choosing to buy the book if they're going to read it though.

Fortunately, at least a few companies display a bit of understanding. The people initiating these lawsuits should read the introduction Here, and then check Baen's profits, and note that they're still in business and doing reasonably well, thank you very much.

Of course, everybody else should go there simply to check out some books for free, and (perhaps) to support Baen Books for being decent people and doing good things.

--
The universe is a figment of its own imagination.

Also, a computer screen may have 96 dpi[,] but it "fools" my eyes into having more than that by antialiasing text with subpixel rendering

This is true, but only to a certain extent. Sub-pixel rendering improves readability, but that doesn't prevent readable fonts from being produced. For example, a Palm Pilot may only have 72 DPI, but it can still produce highly readble text on a 4 shade greyscale screen. Also, I would remind you that PostScript was designed around the 72 DPI printers that were common when it was invented.

(17 inch LCD, thanks for asking)

You're welcome.

I doubt that would happen with a 4-shades-of-gray epaper, and THAT is why a printed fax looks so awful.

A printed fax can look just fine with the right equipment. The fax equipment I use at our office produces very crisp results. The reason for the poor faxes have more to do with earlier models of Fax Machines that could only distinguish white and black, with nothing in between. This made any sort of color variation come across as if it were "smudged". More modern fax machines attempt to produce a better greyscale result.

Ever heard of eye strain or Computer Vision Syndrome?

Sure, I have the issue myself. There's no denying that computers use a piss poor resolution. However, it *is* highly readable, which is in direct opposition to your point.

everybody reads books and newspapers in a computer screen.

I can't speak for "everybody", but I do. I read quite a few books on my Palm Pilot, thank you very much. Feel free to visit the Baen Free Library some time for some modern books that may suit your fancy. And, of course, there's alway Gutenberg.

There's been lots of mp3 Audiobooks.

Fictionwise has been selling mp3 audiobooks for at least a year, maybe two.

Baen has been selling mp3 audiobooks and including them for free on CDs included in some volumes for about as long.

Not huge yet, but let's face it... as far as security is concerned, If you can get the cd, you can rip to mp3. I do that all the time to get books to listen to while I'm running. Angela's Ashes will be playing for me during a marathon this weekend.

(For you national socialists at RIAA, no, I am not posting the mp3's. This is for my own fair use)

Spider Robinson's short story Melancholy Elephants, in which he discusses the mathematics of unlimited copyright terms.

We could bring up the issue that strong DRM provides protection long past the current legal limit of copyright. We could argue that providing tools now for DRM circumvention is necessary for a guarantee that digital works will be accesible when the copyright expires. We could argue that region-coding prevents legal viewing of DVDs when individuals move their home from one country (region) to another. In short, we could argue for the legal benefits of unencumbered digital media.

We could also condemn illegal filesharing as an abuse of the unprotected nature of digtal media, not as the purpose of our resistance to DRM.

I have to add a link to a speech by Lawrence Lessig (audio) and a link to the Baen Free Library's copy of a speech (text) made during copyright debates in Parliment in 1841. Both of these have recently affected my thinking on the legitimate purpose of copyright and the consequences of extending them.

1) Is the Google Library Project a Good Thing(tm) for an author?

2) Is it legal for Google to scan books without the owner's express permission?

The answer to question 1 is a guarded yes. What research has been done suggests that the more your stuff is on the net, the more you sell. Check the notes on the 'Baen Free Library' http://www.baen.com/library/ for more details.

The answer to question 2 is a resounding 'No'. Google does NOT have the right to digitize and make available portions of books, chapters of books or even pages of books without the owner's permission.

Those two questions don't really have a lot to do with each other. Please make sure that when the question is "Is It Legal?" you're not answering "Is It Beneficial?"

Thank You.

Tell that to Jim Baen, David Weber, David Drake, Eric Flint and rest of the folks at Baen Book The Honor Harrington series is still printing hard covers. Besides the Free Library, these fools give away CDs with hardcovers, 6 at last count, containing the complete text of multiple novels. With no copy protection. Multiple formats. They're laughing all the way to bank. Besides staying in print and getting great PR, every particpant gets his name out there. When a new book comes out, it has an audience.

The first hit's free, take a dozen and share with your friends. But you'll be back for more, and you'll want the paper copies too. See how much shelf space Baen staked out in the science fiction section has at your local mega-bookstore-plex.

"There's no better way to kill a book than to make it available for anyone to read for free."

If that is true, then why is Baen still in business?

Files here

Permission here

There was a bunch written by Laumer, and then he died on 22 January 1993. Since then, Baen Books has the rights, and bunches more authors have written Bolo stories.

My first Bolo story, as a kid, was wen I read The Last Command. Riveting, frightening (to a pre-teen), very emotion-laden. Great story. Unit LNE of the line really grabbed me. I read every Bolo story I found after that.

Any of the stories by Laumer will be good, guaranteed. Baen has them all, I think. The new stories are generally ok. Try anything by Ringo, or Weber, they both write great military sf stories.

However, I'm also a reader, and I am deeply saddened that we have yet to come up with a viable model for publishing un-crippled novels on the Web.

There is one mainstream publisher (ok, mainstream SF) that has a LARGE catalog of e-books: Baen. In multiple formats: HTML, RTF, Mobipocket, MS Reader (and you can download in all formats or just read it online). And it has no DRM whatsoever. I probably have purchased about 20 books in this way. Books are about $6US for new titles to $4US for old/out-of-print titles. They have started making pre-release editions for those who "just can't wait" (the last in the Belasarius series and the latest Honor Harrington) for about $10US. I actually ordered the Belasarius "Advance Reader Copy" along with the previous books in the series and it cost me $15US for a total of 6 novels (it was a bundled offer). Another thing, they also have a Free Library that has older books available in all the formats of the paid-for ebooks.

Baen doesn't seem to have a problem with non-DRM'd e-books. It must be somewhat successful for them; Bean keeps making new titles available every month. I know they keep getting my business - it's cheaper than Borders. If there is a book/author I really like, then I will purchase the hard-cover/paper-back so Baen will be more likely to continue publishing that author.

Baen books sell lots of ebooks, through the Webscription web site. The e-books they sell are available in multiple different, unencrypted formats. Oh, and they also make a fair number of their books available for free download in the Baen Free Library - usually the first book or two in a series, so you can get properly hooked and then start buying the rest, of course.

They also, on occasion, ship CDs filled with e-books with hardback editions of certain of their books - and these CDs are explicitly OK to distribute and copy and share (as long as you don't yourself try to make anymoney off them). There are even web sites that offer CD images for download.

I usually read Baen's e-books on my Palm Tungsten T3 with the MobiPocket Reader, but the books are also available in HTML, RTF, and Rocket Ebook format, so you should be able to read them in one of the available formats.

And just to say it again: they're not encrypted, DRM:ed, or anything else.

That is how e-books can become mainstream.

Baen books sell lots of ebooks, through the Webscription web site. The e-books they sell are available in multiple different, unencrypted formats. Oh, and they also make a fair number of their books available for free download in the Baen Free Library - usually the first book or two in a series, so you can get properly hooked and then start buying the rest, of course.

They also, on occasion, ship CDs filled with e-books with hardback editions of certain of their books - and these CDs are explicitly OK to distribute and copy and share (as long as you don't yourself try to make anymoney off them). There are even web sites that offer CD images for download.

I usually read Baen's e-books on my Palm Tungsten T3 with the MobiPocket Reader, but the books are also available in HTML, RTF, and Rocket Ebook format, so you should be able to read them in one of the available formats.

And just to say it again: they're not encrypted, DRM:ed, or anything else.

That is how e-books can become mainstream.

I had thought that being on an IBM site, it would actually have some insightful commentary and discussion on the issues facing ebooks.

Instead, it reiterated the same tired old points pro and con, totally missed the point of the Baen Free Library (and also didn't recognize that Webscriptions, its commercial counterpart, has been doing quite well for itself in e-sales alone), and went on to snark at the very notion of commercially-viable ebooks and talk about various things that don't have a darned thing to do with ebooks, like RFID tagging library books. Um, what?

And the discussion is the Standard Slashdot Ebook Advocacy Debate, whereupon people mostly or totally ignore the content of the article and instead argue about how ebooks suxx0r or r0xx0r.

And here I'd hoped I'd read something interesting. Oh well. Maybe next time.

This is the type of screen resolution for my Digital Reader, the resolution that made me send it back the day I got it. There's nothing paper-like about reading dot-matrix like resolutions. The eye doesn't adapt but instead becomes increasingly fatigued.

This technology may have some application for computer-like applications. I was hoping for e-books. This screen resolution won't cut that....

It all depends on the specifics of the device. I'ved used a Handspring Prism with a resolution of only 160x160 for years for an ebook reader, and it's great. I've gone through quite a few, especially from Baen

It ends up with a column width around that of an article in a newspaper or magazine, and is quite readable. Even when only using a limited number of colors (default fonts are only 1-bit) ti works well. I think much of it is due to having a white background. So the reflective properties and contrast of the display itself could make a huge difference.

Your post was right on. Government would benefit from a unified format. I had thought that PDF was that format. PDF is the format of all IRS publication downloads.

Microsoft calls the competition communists to make the competition angry. Microsoft doesn't mean real communists, they mean dirty dirty shizno communists.

Your last line was dumb. For future reference please inspect this short essay on the political spectrum. It is brilliant.

http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm
ALL ENDS OF THE SPECTRUM by Jerry Pournelle

The why of the Baen Free Library
Baen Free Library

And that is a publisher.

*I buy their books, because they are good, and in a financial tight spot, Baen wins out on other publishers because they offer the library.

The why of the Baen Free Library
Baen Free Library

And that is a publisher.

*I buy their books, because they are good, and in a financial tight spot, Baen wins out on other publishers because they offer the library.