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Extending UCITA To Printed Books?
mapmaker asks: "I recently purchased an application 'how-to' book (Inside AutoCAD Map 2000, OnWord Press) that utilizes a disturbing method of publication: the final 100 pages of the text aren't printed - they're included on the companion CD-ROM as PDF files. I'm not talking about extras or bonus material - these are integral parts of the text. The last page of the printed text simply states, 'Book Continued on Companion CD-ROM'. Leaving aside the fact that this is a dirty and underhanded method of cutting publishing costs, this is particularly disturbing because of the sticker that seals the CD jacket. It states: 'CD Enclosed. If the disc package seal is broken, the purchaser forfeits all return rights and privileges to the seller.'" Now this just does not sound right at all. Looks like I'll be avoiding books from OnWord Press in the future.
"In other words, to examine the complete text of this 'book' that I've bought, I must first agree to forfeit my legal rights as a consumer?"
I live in Virginia, the only state to have the dubious honor of passing UCITA into law. My question is this: Because some of the text of this book is contained in electronic files bundled with the printed portion, does UCITA give the weight of law to this preposterous shrink wrap "agreement"? And how does this impact existing laws pertaining to copyright, fair use, and consumers' rights?"
Can this book be in a public library now ?
I believed no.
OverLord
If there are sections of the book which cannot be read without a computer with appropriate software, is it a book?
Did this thing have notices on the cover 'Computer required: You will not be able to read all of this book with a computer.'? If not, I'd say the product had been sold under false pretences, because I dont need a computer to read a book.
When i was in college, almost all of our books had some kind of CD in them with examples. And every one of them had some disclaimer saying that we couldn't return them if we actually opened the CD holder.
So we simply followed the laws of glue physics and heated the edges and pried the plastic off the back cover of the book with a pocketknife and slipped the CD out. Then when we returned it, we would slip the CD back in , put a little clear glue along the edges of the plastic and there you have it, an unremoved CD.
Now with the shrinkwrap issue, you have alightly more problems. if you carefully cut the wrap along the lining, you can theoritcally put it back together by heating it up again. Or else there is the option of being friends with a store clerk that has access to a shrinkwrapper and have the shrink wrap it up for you again.
No, but it is possible for a corporation to publish a book.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
"CD Enclosed. If the disc package seal is broken, the purchaser forfiets all return rights and privileges to the seller."
If it didnt also say `statutory rights not affected` (which basically points out that it is not attempting to over-rule the 1979 Sale Of Goods Act, which states that you can have a full refund it its crap, doesnt work, doesnt do what it said it would do etc) then its breaking u.k. law.
Some texts at my college come with supplemental CD-ROM's. If the seal of the CD-ROM sleeve has been opened, they will not refund your money. Your only option is to sell back the book later in the semester at the used rate.
I am convinced the publishers choose to include these discs understanding that they will receive less returns and make more money.
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He lives in a world where those who do not run the client software of the omnipresent meme are unacceptable.
That would be a fair comment for a work of fiction or similar, which is (usually) read from the beginning to the end, in order.
But it's not true for a technical or reference book : what if the very first section you want to look up is in that last 100 pages and turns out to be inadequate or wrong ?
hmmm... pavlov ... pavlov... I can't remember what he did but the name rings a bell.
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It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
I wonder how this would effect college books. My university gave you up to the second week or so of class to return text books. Would this void that?
Now, I'm not defending OnWord press. I think it's a very customer-unfriendly and stupid thing to do. If it's an issue (and it would be for me), by all means don't buy it. Check out return policies before you buy anything.
Example: I was recently having problems with my computer, and I thought--but I wasn't sure--it was the video card. The computer was no longer under warranty, and I decided to try to fix it myself. Now, I'm nowhere near as computer-saavy as most /.ers, and I had never so much as opened a computer before. Since I wasn't sure the problem was the video card, you can be sure I checked out the store's return policy before buying a card.
Good thing I did, too: Even though it turns out the problem was with the video card, I couldn't get the driver to install on the first card I bought. I went and bought a different brand of video card, which I got installed just fine, and returned the first one.
Never take moderation advice from sigs, including this one.
I wouldn't buy a book like that strictly for practical reasons. I don't like having to sit at my computer to read a book.
I do like the idea, as a lot of publishers are doing now, of putting the entire text of a book on a cd as a searchable PDF. It really makes it helpful if you're looking for something specific.
---Joe Merlino gnupg public key ID: 1E91EBAF
On the other hand I can see why this type of thing would be tested in the Computer section first. I could also imagine it happening with college textbooks. Who knows, you are essentially forced to buy those if the professor chooses them, maybe half books could catch on there.
Why can't publishers give us what we want? For tech books a complete printed copy AND and searchable CD would be sweet.
Icebox
I have to ask why the outrage? What legal or moral rights of yours is the author infringing on?
I don't know how large this book it, so I'll assume 400 pages. So you have read three quarters of the book without having to make a decision on opening the sealed CD. Now that decision looms over you. Your choices are a) accept the license and unseal the CD, b) return the book for a full refund, c) ignore the license, unseal the CD, violate the license, and go through the rest of life knowing that you have broken your word.
We all agree that an author has a right to keep his work totally to himself, unpublished. He also has the right to place it in the public domain or otherwise allow every other person free access to it. If these two extremes are not immoral, then why is the middle ground, of only allowing a subset of people access to it, an immoral act?
I will agree that having the last quarter of the book in a PDF file to be very inconvenient. I will also agree that having to enter into a contract to access this PDF goes beyond inconvenience to the realm of onerous. If I encountered the above situation I would certainly choose choice (b) and also send a nasty note to the author and publisher. But in a free society I have no moral right to compell the author to publish the book in the manner that I wish. In fact, to tell the author that he cannot enter into any private agreements with his readers is the antithesis of freedom.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
1. Steal book.
2. Take home, open CD envelope.
3. Burn 100 copies of the CD.
4. Print stickers that say "do not open the CD envelope, this copy of the CD in the envelope was provided so that you may retain your Constitutionally guaranteed right to return this book if you are unsatisfied with the contents, for a full refund"
5. Stick stickers to your CDs.
6. Sneak CDs into the bookstore, slip one CD into each copy of the book, maybe use a little edge of the sticker overlapping the CD to affix it to the inside of the cover.
7. Visit every bookstore in town, make sure every copy of the book you find has YOUR CD in it as well.
8. Sleep soundly, knowing that you are a SUPERHERO, and a Defender of Freedom and Justice in America.
9. Each time you drive past the offices of the publisher (if they're on your way to work or the grocery store or something), roll down your window, extend your fist, raise middle finger, scream "FUCK YOU! YOU FACSIST BITCHES!".
10. Spend hours reading Slasdot, posting more ideas on how to "fight the power".
Soylent Green is people!
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
It is a little more complicated than that. Under the Maryland version, Maryland law applies. However, the enforcebility of the choice of venue clause was punted to the courts. In other words, a Maryland resident may be able to sue under the MUCITA; but, he may have to go to Washington state to do it.
Another state, Indiana-I think, said that any UCITA provisions is not applicable to residents of their state.
So the question of enforcability depends on the actual terms of the EULA, where you bought it, and the state you reside in.
Certainly the intend of this is to strip you of your right of first sale and redistribution of the book.
Depends on the actual terms of the EULA. The article doesn't make that clear. It appears that the major effect is to limit the number of returns.
Of course, I wonder what is to stop even a physical book from having a taped "seal" with a EULA that must be broken to open and read it?
Has already been litigated and found wanting. I don't remember the exact cite. The facts were that a publisher did put a clause on the front page that a book could not be sold below a certain cost. I store ignored it and sold below the stated cost. This was the case that articulated the first sale principle: the right to control distribution is limited to the first sale. After that, the holder of the copyright has no more control over that particular copy.
This was a big issue when TNT started to colorize old movies. Many directors, producers, etc felt that this was 'defacing' the work of art. However, there was nothing they could do legally since Turner bought the copyright to the movies and had the right to do with them what he wanted. There was a bill introduced in Congress that would give the artist control over the art even after he sold the rights to that piece of art.
Expect more of this type of tomfoolory in the future. UCITA only applies to computer information transfers e.g. hardware is not explictly covered. However, there was a cluase in MUCITA that allowed sellers of hardware/software to opt to have the EULA also apply to the hardware. For example, a DVD disk with player software.
If more states pass some version of UCITA and the definition of "hardware" can be extended, everything will have some portion as software with a click-wrap license.
I feel like picking a fight with everyone who thinks they are right. - Rainmakers
Thank you for puchasing legal defense for dummies. By breaking the seal on this book and reading the contents, the consumer of information, forwith refered to as the customer, signifies consent to a non-disclosure agreement whereby they will not discuss the contents of this book. If the customer chooses to do so, they will recognize that they have purchased the right to rent the ideas contained whithin the book, and will forwith pay the authors $500 remuneration for said rental. Failure to do so may result in confiscation of all media, biological or otherwise, within which this information is stored....
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It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
I'm both a professional programmer and a fairly accomplished writer. Although I wholeheartedly agree with your statement that writers deserve fair compensation, I must take issue with your position on programming. Software design is anything BUT "mindless robotic number crunching." Apparently, you haven't taken the time to open your eyes to the mass of highly creative software projects surrounding you. I find it disturbing that you have tossed two completely unrelated topics into the same bucket, while taking crack shots at the programming community. Get a clue or get left behind. And try sticking to the topic when Slashdotting. Incidentally, I'm sure I don't have to mention the manner in which Charles Dickens was paid...
If it ain't broke, improve it.
Tell me if anyone else has noticed this trend;
You; I don't think that this particular business practice is right or ethical and may not buy this company's products.
Them; (totally out of the blue) Business people/artists/software programmers have a right to be compensated!
This isn't the first time where I've heard someone launch into a rant about a creators need for compensation when that wasn't even what the conversation was _about_. The fact that so many people make this mistake so often makes me wonder how this particular response became so conditioned .
Incidentaly, I know that authors wrote to be compensated. I think much of Dicken's writing would have been a blessed bit more breif if he wasn't being paid by the word.
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It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
You might want to have your publisher include something like this in the shrink-wrap license for the CD-ROM:
I'm sure your publisher's lawyers can come up with something similar that will make both your publisher and your readers happy.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
First off I would be interested to know the publisher's slant on the issue.
Next, like most people I would be annoyed if I picked up a book that was partly there and partly not. If it is really a cost issue then the publisher should do like O'Reilly and offer a choice of a printed version or a CD version of the text. Another way that can be used to reduce the cost of a book is to use cheaper paper - like that used in paper-back novels. If using this sort of paper meant reduced costs along the line, then I would certainly consider buying the book - books tends to go out of date so fast that the bleached white paper is almost a waste of resources and cost so much. There was Unix guide that used this cheaper paper and for a 1000 pages cost on $25 (canadian) and that is cheap for a computer book here in Canada, most cost around $60 (Canadian).
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Yep, and they hold copyrights for a rather obscene stretch of time (far longer than most corporations are even in business, though between the average life expentancy of a person and the additional 70-odd years it takes for a copyright to expire). Personally, I'm more of the belief that it should extend to 50 years or the dissolution of the corporation, whichever comes first, though I know a lot of people will disagree with me on the time limit. By the way, currently the limit is 90 years, and the copyright extends even beyond the corporation's dissolution.
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You are 100% correct in cases that include software that is needed to run hardware. However, one requirement for the EULA to be valid is if that you must have clicked on "I Agree" to use the product. (They don't have to prove you actually clicked on it. Just that in the normal operation, you would have had to click on it.)
This would be a tough sell on a piece of furnature since you can use the furnature without ever reading or opening the software.
I feel like picking a fight with everyone who thinks they are right. - Rainmakers
I think the explanation that the book wasn't done before it went to press is most likely the closest to reality. Plus the fact that OnWord Press was purchased by Thomson Learning and folded into Delmar in June of 1999, may have thrown a wrench into the books production-- screwing up the schedule and passing it between production people who don't care about it. Also, a company in financial straights, such as OnWord for the last four years, will be looking to save every nickle it can on a book, just to stay solvent.
t .asp?FactsheetId=15
Working in publishing, I can tell you that the reason for the stupid seal and non-returnability clause for the CD is that publishers are afraid (as are software companies) that the consumer will simply copy the contents of the CD to their drive, and then return the book/CD for a refund. This is why ebooks will not be returnable, and why publishers are starting to LOVE the idea of ebooks...we've had great success with the non-returnability of amazon.com books (they get a steep discount, in exchange for having to eat the returns), and would love to lessen the hit we take when a bookstore orders 500 copies of a book, and then coughs them all back to us in two weeks when they don't sell.
Here's the contact info for the Delmar publisher if you want to complain directly: Greg.Burnell@delmar.com
http://www.thomsonlearning.com/press/showfactshee
See, if you'd read your English Lit text before returning it, you'd have known that Shakespeare was a playwright and poet, not a novelist, and that Longfellow was an American poet (Gitche Gumee was not in the Lake District).
And, of course, if you'd read any sci-fi you'd probably have known Heinlein's first name was "Robert" and that Verne lived in the 19th century. (See, that's why it's considered remarkable that he wrote about things like submarines, because he was "anticipating". Can you say "anticipating"? Try it now. I knew you could).
Maybe you need to exercise those intellectual muscles a bit before attempting the heavy thought bits, eh?
Or maybe you knew all this, because your post is starting to seem like one of those, "Find everything wrong in this picture" puzzles, like an IHOP placemat.
This next song is very sad. Please clap along. -- Robin Zander
explaining exactly why you are returning it (i.e. "Don't agree to licensing terms").
Sorry, but this is not exact. A more complete description would be "the last chapter is not printed." And that's what you actually pay for, that all the book's content is printed and not on a CD.
Just my .02 euro.
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
There are some things that I really like about living in Maryland. UCITA (along with gun control and 300+ murders a year in Baltimore) is not on that list.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
I'm surprised there aren't already a hundred posts in this thread containing THIS LINK TO THE RIGHT TO READ STORY
The 100 pages of PDFs include the final chapter of the text as well as 2 appendices.
This last chapter covers plotting methods and controls (very important in the creation of maps!) and there is no valid reason to exclude it from the printed material.
Also, the book weighs in at a not-very-hefty 550 pages, and the list price is over $50 US, so I don't think publishing expense is a valid argument for this tactic.
In the UK books are exempt from VAT (Value Added Tax) at 17.5%. However, this does not apply if the book has a CD-ROM inside the back cover. So for anybook including a CD you're paying 17.5% over the odds. Now that's unfair! How many people ever actually use the CD included anyway - as most code samples are usually available on the publishers web-site. Including the actual text of the book only on the CD is criminal!
... to the last 100 pages, doesn't the publisher have the right to have you KEEP the book? Shouldn't you know before then that it is not fot you?
Not everyone wants information to be free....
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain with all your metadata.
First, on your question of UCITA; it depends on which state the "contract" of the EULA is written to apply in, not what state you live. Hence, when it becomes law in Maryland (which will happen first), even though I may be in say New York, and the company selling me something is in say Colorodo, they can still construe their EULA to be under "Maryland law".
Incidently, since different states appearently are all modifying UCITA in slightly different ways, the fact that some states have chosen to add consumer protections does not mean you nessisarly have them, even though you may be living in such a state. One could still have the EULA construed under a less friendly state's version of the law.
Certainly the intend of this is to strip you of your right of first sale and redistribution of the book. This is fundimentally wrong for several reasons; first, even in article I of the constitution, "copyright" as stated is both a limited right that "expires", it is neither property nor "permenant", regardless of the illegal action of our congress in the Sony Bono copyright extensions.
Altering a seal is a permenant action, and to deny further distribution or rights forever based on it seems inconsistent. Similarly, the DMCA allows for "access controls" on "copyrighted works" which remain in effect even if the copyright on a given work being so protected expires as intended!
All these efforts are clearly unconstitutional in this country and against the very notion of basic human rights, the right to communicate ideas, the right to think, things that are most basic of all.
Of course, I wonder what is to stop even a physical book from having a taped "seal" with a EULA that must be broken to open and read it?
The article author here appears to have bought the book over the internet, so previewing the book was not lost on him, but there are easy step to fix this: return the item, explaining exactly why you are returning it (i.e. "Don't agree to licensing terms"). Write to the book's *author* (not the publisher; authors are generally easier to get a hold of particularly) and ask why he released his book as such, and explain that it is a bad practice... it might be that the author didn't have a choice by the publisher, or was unaware of the final distribution, etc. Since the book has a limited audience (AutoCad) make sure that you post negative reviews wherever you can about the book to prevent others from making the same mistake.
Having a license on the CD, assuming that the CD has programs, is understandable. But IM(IAMAL)O, you bought the text, you have every right to use the text (including the PDF) in a format that follows from fair use. This is definitely a scary trend, and there's no way I can see it being useful save in cases where one or two chapters of a book cover something that does need licensing agreements (say, a piece of software uniquely distributed on the CD that is explained and used throughout a given chapter). The only way to fight it, as it appears to only be useful to computer topics, would be to simply outright ban books that do such, and make sure other professionals do the same, writing the various book authors at length.
Thank goodness this doesn't sound like anything ORA would try to do...
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Maybe the book wasn't finished when it went to press? That disclaimer is pretty standard for enclosed software.
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GetSystemMetrics(SM_SECURE) == FALSE
This would be doubly annoying if the PDF files are raster images, rather than text. If it went into PDF as text, you can get Adobe's plug-in for the visually impaired, and export to a TXT or HTML file. You'll have wrap, edit, and do some formatting with an editor, but at least the file is now readable and portable.
The PDF raster images are a nightmare to convert. You have to print them and then scan them, and then start editing. And the files are so bloated that you can't easily move them around on the Net. It seems to me that the publishers are really being ugly if the PDF files are raster images, but only being cheap and lazy if the 100 pages went in as text and can be taken out as text. In the latter case, I think they'd end up losing any advantage they might think they have, due to illegal sharing of the material between interested parties, privately, over the Net.
The decision was made to put this text on the CD-ROM to reduce the overall price of the book and make it less "telephone directory" like (as it is, it will tip the scales at 1,200+ pages). These appendices were requested by people who felt that the first edition of the book assumed that the reader was able to program and understood Ohm's law. These appendices are not central to the theme of the book and are superfluous for many readers.
I feel that in this case, putting the appendices on CD-ROM was a good compromise. The information on them is not part of the overall book, but is important information for some readers. The same amount of work (and cost) was put into making the pdfs as if they were going to be pages.
The reason for going with the software copyright statement for the pdf appendices was due to feeling from the McGraw-Hill (who publishes my books) corporate lawyers that this was the most appropriate method of protecting the electronic text/files/format.
I've written eight books so far and in none of these cases, sending a partially completed manuscript is acceptable. I doubt McGraw-Hill is any different in this regard than any other publisher. Even with seasoned writers, not many publishers are willing to start the copyedit/layout process without a completed manuscript, there is just too much danger or later chapters requiring substantial changes in early chapters.
I suspect that the last 100 pages of Inside AutoCAD Map 2000 are appendices and site links that are actually very appropriate in pdf format. Anything else will get the book/author/publisher hammered on Amazon.com and other Internet resources (like /.).
The pdf of the last 100 pages was probably done for cost reasons, but before you judge the situation, let's get some facts on what is contained in the pdfs. If it is straight text, then the complaints are justified. If it is appendices with vendor/site links, then maybe consideration should be given as to whether or not this is an appropriate way for providing this information.
As the Human Torch used to say: "Flame On!"
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I have to second you on that. The Right To Read came off as alarmist when it was first published a few years ago. But as time goes on, I find myself saying, "Richard (Chicken Little) Stallman was right."
No country that I am aware of has directly stated in law that people have the right to freedom of thought. They come at it indirectly, protecting other freedoms that are the outward manifestations of it. The closest are references to freedom of conscience. I's starting to wonder if it is time to have a repository online for time-stamped, encrypted documents containing our personal thoughts on various technical topics, just to protect ourselves from having something too similar claimed as someone else's intellectual property tomorrow.
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
Bobbs-Merrill can in some ways be considered a "shrink-wrap" license case. In this case, the publisher Bobbs-Merrill had printed a novel, 'The Castaway' and had printed a notice in each book that it was not to be sold at retail for under $1. The Straus brothers, who owned and operated Macy's, sold the book at $0.89, despite the warning and were sued. The Supreme Court ruled that there was no contractual obligation between the 2 parties and copyright law did not grant the publisher control of the copies after they had been sold at wholesale. This finding is called the "first sale" doctrine.
Eventually, a modern "shrink-wrap"/UCITA vs. "first sale" case will reach the Supreme Court. Personally, I suspect "first sale" will win, though I'm not a lawyer...
The poster isn't asking them to release for free. He isn't even asking them to release electronically with the hidden motive of making free copies. He's asking them to make money the old-fashioned way: Print On Paper.
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Going back several years I've seen chapter xx in IT books, with just one page saying see included cd rom. At least its for computer based materials like IT books where they can assume you can read pdf files.
This is just a standard way to reduce the amount of dead trees they use and is all about profit margins no more no less
They don't put the shnrink wrap license on their to stop you reading the offending chapter before you buy, its just the standard legal droids guff they use...theres no intentional harm here I'm sure
After all don't all cd roms usually have those shrink wrap agreements ?
Too much post Napster paranoia is going down here, this is just standard business practices no conpiracy, no deal to screw the consumer its just plain old cost cutting
What Happens when the book is hit while still on the shelf by a CD thief. I don't know how many times I've been looking at books and their CD's have been "Liberated" from them.
How do you finish a 10 chapter book you can only get 8 chapters of, or how do you read a CD in the John. These are questions the publishers should have asked themselves.
Thanks for the heads up, I know I'll be checking the last chapter in the next books I get!
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This is how copyrights work. They were not made to reward authors for their works; that part is only a means to the real end. The real end is to eventually enrich the public domain (this is why copyrights expire, although for human authors they only expire long after the person has died). It does this by providing authors a financial incentive, but in return for that incentive the author gives up some rights (such as control over how something is used by people who legitimately pay for it).
Corporations don't like giving up that kind of control; the sad fact is that ethics are rarely as profitable as unethical means. That's why they've been backing UCITA and the DMCA; they want to take legitimate rights away from the people all in the pursuit of The Almighty Buck. It's also why they have to be stopped; the government is supposed to exist primarily for our benefit, not theirs.
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I was tempted to mail in the business reply card ("What do you think of our textbook?") with a story about not being able to buy baby formula because of the $20 price hike for the FREE CD ;)
The software that the book is about, is a Windows only application. So I'd say it's pretty irrelevant whether or not the CD is designed with other platforms in mind. I think it's a fairly safe bet that people that run a windows app, have access to a windows machine.
"whatta ya mean my RedHat CD doesn't have apache for windows bin's on it???"
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke