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This Book Will Self-Destruct In 10 Hours

Posted by timothy on from the and-then-there-were-none dept.

extrarice writes: "See here The "rent-a-book" concept is here. Pay a buck, and you're allowed to read for a cumulative total of 10 hours. After that, the text is inaccessible (unless you somehow access the content you purchased...)"

11 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Promotional tie-ins with Evelyn Wood by acceleriter · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, Evelyn Wood will be picked up by the FBI for teaching people to circumvent access controls, enabling them to rent their books for shorter time periods.

    --

    CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.

  2. Rent-a-fuck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I have a better idea: pay a woman a certain amount and you can have sexual intercourse with her. I thik I will patent this concept!

    1. Re:Rent-a-fuck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      I wish to use her beyond the terms of the agreement. I've created some equipment in my basement that would allow me to keep her for longer than the alloted time. I would not have paid for her 24/7 services, so you aren't losing business anyway. Supplies of human females are essentially infinite and it doesn't cost anything to create another one, so it's not "theft", it's just "copulating".

      I hope you understand.

  3. hmmm by *xpenguin* · · Score: 2, Funny

    looks like another thing dmitry sklyarov needs to hack.

  4. What a deal! by Blue+Neon+Head · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why pay $5 for a convenient, low-tech copy that may be read by you and others at will when you can pay $1 for every 10 hours of reading on a headache-inducing CRT?

    Yep, sign me up.

  5. Hmmm... by InigoMontoya(tm) · · Score: 2, Funny
    Gives me a good excuse not to lug so many books to class...

    "I would have brought my book, Professor, but it expired last night."

    InigoMontoya(tm)

    --
    This signature is self-referential.
  6. OMG!!! by 3-State+Bit · · Score: 5, Funny
    Watch this gem:
    Arthur Klebanoff, CEO of RosettaBooks, said, "We are delighted to take our marketing relationship with Adobe and our distribution services relationship with Reciprocal to the next level. RosettaBooks prides itself on being ePublishing leader for quality content, innovative marketing, and critically-acclaimed titles. This first of its kind offering of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is just the beginning of a brave new world of literature and technology."

    Good God, I hope the man was joking, and not just Freudian Slipping us an advance warning.... link1 Link2.
  7. Technical Support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    T.S.: Technical Support, how may we help you?

    You: Yeah, I'd like to rent that book again for another 10 hours, since I'm working on a project and missed a couple points in the book.

    T.S.: Sir, I hope you have a content useage license for that book...

    You: Wassat?

    T.S.: Sir, you do realize that the 10 hour license strictly forbids you to implement any information you obtained through our book, or keep archived versions in your brain.

    You: Um, whatever. I just want to finish my project. Can I rent the book?

    T.S.: I'm sorry but you are making it hard for me to ignore your blatant violation of copyright law! A project based on our book would be considered a dirivative of our product, and the license agreement strictly forbids you to create dirivatives from our work!

    You: Well, then, what if I make exactly what is mentioned in the book?

    T.S.: That would be possible if you purchase an annual useage license. Would you like to include our automatic upgrade option?

    You: Oh, no thanks. The design in your books should be just fine until I buy a new computer in a few years.

    T.S.: SIR! If you do not purchase upgrades annually, you must destroy your project at the end of the license cycle! If you insist on violating our copyrights, we will need to call the FBI on you!

    You: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

  8. Re:It depends on your priorities by Rain · · Score: 3, Funny

    Not to mention that I still haven't figured out how to use grep on my dead-tree literature. I don't think any *IX variants (well, maybe NetBSD, I haven't checked) have been ported to tree pulp yet, not to mention that those evil publishers seem to be using some kind of proprietary I/O interface that still hasn't been reverse-engineered. Is anyone working on any OS ports to wood pulp?

  9. And Blockbuster can't... by Wesley+Everest · · Score: 5, Funny
    And Blockbuster can't have you arrested for linking to a website that explains how to return a video a day late.

    Warning: the following is an illegal device!

    When you rent a video for one day, if you want access to it for an extra day, drive it back to Blockbuster on Thursday instead of Wednesday.
  10. MS WORD by Roadmaster · · Score: 2, Funny

    yet, if you were to save your bible in MS word format, it would probably take up 2 or 3 CDs.
    Ah, the wonders of word :)