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Cleveland Public Library Readies E-book Downloads
rtphokie writes "C|Net is reporting that the Cleveland Public Library is making ebooks available. Sounds like the 1000 books in the system initially will feature more than just public domain titles including 'the latest from authors such as Michael Crichton, Clive Barker and Joyce Carol Oates.'" The article also mentions that "only a limited number of each eBook will be available, and after a preset number of days, the eBook will lock out the current reader so another patron can check it out." A good time to re-read The Right to Read.
Ok first off, yah to Cleavland for at least trying this idea.
But major "why are you pulling this con?" to Overdrive for trying to convince ANYBODY that client side, err, well, heh, anything, is safe at all.
Listen, it has already been proven that without trusted hardware (which is not going to come along until consumers start trusting the companies) that NO DRM solution is secure. No matter what. Worst case, things have to be brute forced, but since the unencrypted data passed through the clients computer somewheres along the line, heck, there is your weak point right there.
Now if somebody figured a way to encase the decryption key in some sort of VGA dongle so the actual decrypted data was only ever sent over the VGA wire, but even then, doing it cheap and such, heh. No go.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
"...and after a preset number of days, the eBook will lock out the current reader so another patron can check it out."
in conjunction with
"...including the ability to download books onto PCs and PDAs and create a portable eBook that can be read even when patrons are offline."
I'm assuming that the portable eBook created will be encoded with a 'lock' date.
I think it will work on a modest scale. It will be broken and pirated quickly.
But frankly, there's nothing like holding and reading a real book by the bedside or on the go.
ePaper, where are you ?
Offtopic, so I'll drop the +1 Bonus.
This comment reminds me of that commercial where the kids are playing with the educational toys teaching them to spell, and the dad comes in and says 'put the toys down, go study', kids put it down, then pick it up, etc.
Commercials like that disturb me, To see a father so out of touch with his childs life. Those things are like $45/ea, did his wife just go out and spend close to $100 on stuff for his kids without him even knowing it? Does he not care about his kids enough to know what they're doing?
I know I'm taking this too far, but damn that bothers me.
Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
Most of these books are probably already out on mIRC anyway. Not only that, but why go to mIRC and sit through hours of queues and porn solicitations when you can just get it from the library without any effort?
--Kevin
There seems to be a lot of people missing the argument when it comes to eBooks. Publishers and authors have a right to profit from there work regardless of what it is. In principle this would allow you to handle your digital book just like a paperback: you could read it for a time, share your license with a friend so they could too, and then return the book automatically when your rental time is up. No big deal and automation would most certainly save you from a $200 late charge!
Unfortunately in practice a digital system provides far too much power to the provider. Not only are you limited to how long you have a product but how you can use it. It's digital communism where on paper everyone gets exactly what they need but in practice leaves the power so readily exploitable by a select few.
Question is can we prevent a future like that presented in the linked story? With the growing power base among a select group of individuals/organizations and leaders put in power from the old boys club it'll be an interesting 21st century.
-Matt
--- Need web hosting?
Law books, those rows of reporters the TV lawyers always have in the background, are still a favorite for many, especially the older lawyers. But the convenience and power of electronic versions -- corrections and hyperlinks and potability and so on -- are winning out, even those the reading experience is inferior. It's pretty hard to juggle 20 of those big books.
The discomfort of the reading is getting better fast. Look at the difference in laptops in the last few years. Now there is finally talk of tablet computers that I hope will be more booklike, particularly if you can touch the screen to move things around. These will get sharper and faster and cheaper and battery life will disappear as an issue and so on.
Give it maybe 15 years to get really big, with incremental increases in the interim. Better screens, the biggest factor, are in the works. These active matrix screens haev only been affordable for a few years, and now they're standard. How about a screen with double or triple the resolution? Sure. Also, imagine having any book from any library available in seconds. Personally I'm getting tired of putting in for holds on new books at the local library, then waiting a month or, worse, spending $25 for it.
A book is tangible. It's different from text on screen. Buying a book will give you a distinctly different product than what you could get for free on your computer. Music is never tangible. Once you have an mp3 there's no reason to own the CD. You're getting the same experience whether you're listening to it on your computer or your mp3 player/burned cd. (and don't give me any 'well I could print the book' b.s.)
And they'll be all over mIRC channels an hour later...seriously, this is going to make authors the new dying breed of employment, after musicians and actors...
;))
/RANT off
/RANT on
Puh-leeeze, for starters, DIGITAL theft, is not going to put *ANYBODY* out of business right now, its just insignificant at this point in time. ("first they ignore you..." we are a *bit* past that.. ghandi the wise
What is going to happen though, is the self-proclaimed armchair warrior "DIGITAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS" are going to create the very problem they are trying to prevent... you scream fair use, yet at the same time you pirate 1000's of mp3s you may or may not own (for now, how long before bandwidth and compression technologies allow 'exact' media copies? they already exist). What do you expect them to do? bend over and say *take me now*, of course not, DRM was inevitable from the getgo, because its in corporate interest, however, you are all taking away any *ray* of fair use we might attain, by simply acting like 'jackasses'...
Organizations like EFF and such are doing all the fighting and your.. well your busy looking up the next track to download or game to pirate. If the problem went untreated (and it is a problem.. just 'small' right now, smaller than anyone on the 'evil corporation side' is willing to admit) do you really think it would get better? I *doubt* it, unless human nature suddenly changed... its like.. cheap=good, free (with virtually no risk of punishment)=better.
Both sides are resisting the breeze of change, and neither will end up getting what they want. RIAA/MPAA want to keep their broken business model (which will force itself to reform eventually, the internet is not the last thing that will threaten the pathetically broken way they work, but may change it significantly), and "DIGITAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS" we will call them for a lack of a better term, want to keep their fair use (and free content). I can see several 'middle-of-the-road' solutions, but none of them will occur unless their is some sort of agreement (fat chance of that).
so go ahead, give the RIAA/MPAA/[book/publisher? association of america] the middle finger, but dont expect anything but the same back...
But frankly, there's nothing like holding and reading a real book by the bedside or on the go.
...This is what I always used to say...
I love books. I started reading at 2. I worked at an independent bookstore for three years in high school. Then at a library in college. I love books.
Why would anyone ever want to read an ebook? Paper is so much nicer.
Then I tried reading an ebook on my Clie. At bedtime. I've got to say -- reading a book on a small bright handheld, no need for a reading lamp, being able to put it down and nod off... WOW. Reading in bed has never been so nice!
Moral of the story: Don't knock it 'till you try it.
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.
I read ebooks. I buy ebooks. I pay for them. I only buy unencrypted, public format ebooks. Anyone else can bite me.
--GrouchoMarx
Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?
You know, when someone dies on television, they're not really dead; they're just actors. They get up and go home to their wives and children after the camera stops rolling. I'm not kidding you.
I (not the poster you're replying to) am on a budget. My SO going out and spending $100 would blow that budget. That's not bean-counting, it's reality; we make financial decisions together, and set priorities. Not all of us have cushy high-paid software jobs, you know, where we don't have to care about money. $100 might not be a lot to you, but it is to us. A couple with two kids (as depicted in the ad) probably doesn't go throwing money around either, kids are expensive.
You also can't grep an encrypted text. So what's the point. This is not an unencrypted text file.
I think it will only be readable on some protected (not open) client on a protected OS (not Linux). Don't expect to read these books on your Linux handheld until after the DMCA is broken.
The truth shall set you free!
Try listening to Lawrence Lessig's talk titled free_culture and it may suddenly not seem all that far-fetched.
All you people going on and on about how Stallman is an unrealistic madman should read Free as in Freedom: Richard Stallmans Crusade for Free Software by Sam Williams which happens to be available under the GNU FDL and you might understand him a little bit better. The book was initially supposed to be an ebook with all the regular protections in place (as described by Lessig's presentation). I found the epilogue particularly touching.
I can't honestly see any advantage in ebooks for libraries in their crippled form. Well, maybe storage space but that is about it. You get more restrictions on your access to the information, less durable way to store it and somewhat clumsy readers but no advantages over traditional books. You could offer so much more with this without DRM.
Not that long ago, I worked for a company that builds library automation software. I built a prototype version of our web based catalog searching application that integrated the contents of Project Gutenberg into the system. It gave the user the ability to view books available in Gutenberg online. Included pagination, bookmarking, and searching.
Showed it to the cheif architect on the project and got rave reviews, showed the marketing department, they loved it. Showed the CEO and he proceeded to chew my ass out for wasting my time and his. I showed it (secretly) to a few customers and half loved it, half hated it. But nobody was willing to try it. That's just dumb.
The moral of the story? While many prefer the feel of a book in hand even the smell, some are willing to try other things.