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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.
"...after a preset number of days, the eBook will lock out the current reader so another patron can check it out"
How are libraries going to cope with the loss of 50 cent overdue fees?
Trying to make the digital world just like the real world doesn't work. Sure it would be great to check out e-books from the library. And it would be great to rent videos on the net. But in order to make it happen you have to take away freedoms.
You see, the internet is just information passing between computers over the phone lines (or what not). In order to get an ebook to you over the internet, that ebook needs to be copied. You cannot transfer a physical copy of something over the internet. Now, since duplication occurs, this falls under copyright.
But wait--what if we were to use technology to lock out the copy at one end, and only allow one user at a time to access the ebook? And after a period of time, technology locks out the information on the user's side? That would be just like a library correct?
No. Because in order to accomplish that, you need to take away a user's control over the information he possesses. This is taking away a fundamental right. In other words, you can make the digital world like the real world, but you can't make it the same. Sure, you open up a new business model or service. But on the other hand, you take away rights.
And that is exactly what a set-up like this can do. Luckily, in America, rights are protected, not business models.
But you can erode rights. A set-up like this comes along at first. Laws like the DMCA are passed to strengthen it. Hell, the DMCA is enough already. Suddenly renting digital information is possible.
And what if one year then, your college decides that it's cheaper to rent ebooks than have you buy real thing? Maybe they don't even publish the dead tree version anymore. Palladium and the DMCA lock out you out from real control of the information. In fact, the ebook manufacturer--given the ease of EULAs with this distribution system, might even decide to make a little more profit. After all who's to stop him? He makes you agree in the EULA not share the information you rent. Suddenly Stallman's vision of the future has come true. Brave new world, what not.
To me, the whole reason I *hate* eBooks is that it's entirely counter to the whole reading expirience. I like to be able to sit down and flip open a good smelling book and *feel* the whole thing as I read it.
I also like to not have to worry about batteries, screen glare, squinting at the small screen, etc etc
Plus, electronics are still too fragile. Can you drop your eBook reader 10ft on to concrete without worrying? Not that we do it intentionally, but accidents happen. Paper books are some of the most durable and long lasting storage methods around.
I mean, what's the longest lasting digital medium? CDs? 50 years?!?! Paper lasts thousands of years!
So I'll stick with my grand 'ol paper books.
Let me know when eBooks are practical (if I'm not dead by then...).
(Yes, I had a Palm V. I tried the eBook thing and it was bad. The screen *alone* was hell to read. Who want's to read a book on a flickery screen anyways? Whip out a 5 pound laptop to read a book the size of that laptop's battery? Squint at a bad screen for 20 hours?)
I am an author.
My latest book is coming out later this year in paper form, and will cost money.
The same book (actually bigger, since the publisher has asked to pare down the number of pages) is currently available on the web for free. It will continue to be on the web for free after the paper form is published. In fact, the web version is a significant part of the marketing of the paper version.
I will sell more paper versions by giving away the web version than I would if the web version were not available.
The web version of the book has been available in ever-growing form for about seven years now. I am constantly getting email asking if the paper version is available for sale. Those email inquiries alone (if they were actual sales) would make the book quite profitable.
The web and paper publishing are complementary (and the web version of the book is complimentary).
I suspect the same is true of music sharing on the net -- after all, it seems to be true of music sharing on the radio. Without hearing the music for free on the radio, I expect fewer CDs would be sold.
That's my opinion, and I'm taking it to the bank.
Free book: Science Toys You Can Make
Why does the law prevent any books from being published online? The whole point of the libraries was to make all human knowledge available to all people - not just entertaining fiction.
Now, I like the idea of a library putting out it's books on the internet, and I agree with the lock out date. If you go and check out a physical book, they stamp a return date on the back in the card pocket. Same general idea.
But, there are a few flaws. One, how long will the readable period be? Most libraries I've dealt with have a two week check out period. That's more than enough time to read a decent sized novel (such as one by Crichton, my favorite author, BTW). Will the lockout date correspond to their checkout period? Or will it be shortened in ebook form to prevent piracy?
And while I'm on the subject of piracy, there's a way that all ebooks can fail in their attempts to curb it. Let's say a guy with alot of free time, hard drive space and patience decides to download an ebook. He can't crack the encryption, can't copy the text directly. But what about screenshots? What's to stop him from hitting Alt+PrScr for each page and pasting them into a run of the mill image? He could then create a PDF, HTML or other collection of files and redistribute the book freely.
Is there a charge for these downloads? Then you get into the issue of fair use of something you've purchased. Libraries usually don't charge for check outs (at least not in my experience), and since this ebook model seems to work much the same way, I don't see the need to charge. The only charges I know of for libraries is overdue fees, which are more than reasonable.
And, is there a limit on how many copies can be digitally checked out at one time? If there is, that puts a waiting list into play. If there is a copy limit, then the lock out date makes sense. But let's say a person downloads an ebook and doesn't get the chance to finish it, and there are limited copies. Would they have to wait to download it again? Or could there be a renewal system to extend the lockout a few days to give the reader a chance to finish?
I've never dealt with ebooks, and probably never will (unless they outlaw physical copies). I'm an old school book nut and prefer to have a physical copy when I do my reading (which means I like to pay for my reading enjoyment, thus doing so legally). So, I really don't know if ebook reader programs prevent screenshots or not, or whether there will be charges and such. It seems like a decent idea, but the whole ebook idea is going to be flawed. Just like music (if I can hear it, I can rip/copy it), text will suffer from a similar ailment (if I can see it, I can copy it).
Blog Prophyts - Right On, Man
This is hardly the situation presented in "Right to Read." RMS's tale is about people who actually OWN the books not having the right to lend them to other people. This is a public collection being made available on the internet (and not just a single computer, as in "Right to Read").
I actually think this is a good idea, and if this model persists, then I think we'll all be in good shape. Think about it, in real life, when you borrow a book from your local library, you have to bring it back. This is for the simple reason that other people can read it too. If you don't bring it back, you have to buy a copy for the library to replace it. Of course we don't have the same problem here, but without getting into the debate about who gets more money, the authors or the publishers, books are a commodity that need to be paid for to support the authors who write them.
yes, there will be casesof authors releasing their works into public domain, and these individuals should be hailed for their contributions. And works that already ARE in the public domain should be made available online for free, but consider the ramifications of a newly published book by an autho suddenly made available for download without any restrictions. Anyway you slice it, the author is not going to make as much money as from a sale of the book. I grant you, there will always be people (like myself) who prefer the paper version for casual reading, but I do believe that the creator of a piece of art, literature, music, etc., is entitled to decide whether they should be compensated for possessing their work.
Yes the publishing companies are a bit tyranical in their price fixing, copy protection schemes etc., but just as we look forward to the day when people can download a song off of the internet, paying a fair price for doing so, and compensate the artist directly, I think we should also look forward to the day when the same can be done with books. But to support "full time" artists, there must be a system of compensation.
Simply allowing anyone anywhere to get and keep the book is just not a valid option. Yes, I know, these will be posted all over the net by their first check out. The debate of 2003 will become online book sharing, and the coalition of publishers will get together to crush programs like this. But really, it is a GOOD idea. You have the ability to keep the bhook on your computer for weeks without having to pay for it. If you don't finish reading it, you can just check it out again.
Honestly, I think we should be so lucky to have most major libraries doing this by the end of the decade. This, ladies and gentlemen, expands your rights online; make no mistake about that.
Looks like a decent system and definitely a boon for libraries. I won't use it, but then, I don't use libraries at all. I like to own stuff.
Really, it's the perfect use for ebooks. Nobody wants to pay for them, because they're inferior to paper books* in so many ways. But the libraries don't want to make money, they just want to let people read things for free. This system makes that possible at a lower price for the libraries, and publishers can feel good about themselves by giving the e-version away to libraries if they want to.
It won't take off, though, until the libraries come up with a cheap, incredibly durable ebook reader that they can lend out with the books. This will serve as a stopgap until the time when (and if) most households have a reader of some sort.
(Remember when video rental places rented VCRs?)
It's Slashdot's evil twin... SlashNOT
"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."
That must be one of the most idiotic things I have ever hear in my life. The whole point of a library is to provide books for people to read - not restrict access to them. They have multiple (physical) copies (which cost money) so that more than one person can read a book at the same time. The only reason that a physical copy is not purchased for every person who uses the library is due to cost - it would obviously not be feasible for the library. Now an electronic alternative is available that could service every reader simultaneously and what do they do? Cripple it.
Yet another classic example of a perfect use of technology being crippled in the name of greed.
I suppose I better start working on my auto-book-renew script.
If all books go into ebook format, won't it make it that much easier to just "Edit" "Find" phrases and paragraphs in a book, rather than actually reading the entire book? Believe me, the Internet Classics Archive has been a godsend this semester for me, however, I confess that I also didn't read much the material I should have, rather just searched for the phrases I needed to write my thesis. Being a philosophy major, its come to a point where I barely buy books because they're almost useless in book format (just like music not in .mp3 format for me is also useless).
I'm sure to people who do indepth research it'll be a godsend, where people actually read the material but need to find key topics quickly, however, I think it's going to help provoke a world of undereducated undergrads.
"In a Democracy, people get the kind of government they deserve." -Winston Churchill
I bought my grandmother some books for Christmas. All of them are old enough to be out of copyright. One of them didn't have any copyright notice in it at all. Another had this edition copyrighted, and the third had a plain copyright. The third being all of shakespear's works. How can any company put a copyright on public domain material like this? These works were over a hundred years old (books were new).
What we see depends on mainly what we look for. -- John Lubbock Now search for that bug slave!
You can also photocopy a book. The point is, this puts barriers to stealing the content. Not insurpassable ones, but, for the average guy or gal, a pretty high one.
Score:-1, Funny
If what the library is doing holds up in court, it would set a good legal precedent for the legality of some kinds of file sharing...
Repeal the DMCA!
Sound all to good to be true? Just can't be right? Well fret no longer boys and girls and walk on down to your LOCAL LIBRARY.
It's very common to be able to read a book/magazine/newspaper or listen to a COPYRIGHTED music CD, or watch a COPYRIGHTED DVD, or surf the internet on a rather large pipe all for the low cost of NOTHING at your local library.
The previous arguments of "This will never work people will just find a way to circumvent the security" make just as much sense as checking out a book at the library will never work because no one will bring it back. You want to make an illegal copy of a book, then walk to your local library and use their copy machine and whamo you've got a copy of the book, AND you've violated a copyright law, when all you really had to do was check it out and then renew it or check it out again at a later time.
It boggles my mind how many people who have commented seem to have no idea how the library system works. Here let me put it in "Spent Too Much Time In The Dark In Front Of The Computer" terminology. Libraries are publically accessible databases of all the information in the entire world, it's like a leech ftp server where anyone can get one and reep the benifits of it. You never have to pay for anything so long as you follow the rules.
The difference between p2p and the library is a lack of hardcore porn.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
> I am an author.
And one I've never heard of, no disrespect intended. You are currently no Pratchett, Gibson or Tolkien.
When you are, and you want profit to increase, and you see falling sales and increasing downloads, it won't take more than a few seconds for you to start thinking "hey, they're stealing from my children, the terrorists!"
At the moment you're benefitting a lot from the free publicity. When this stops, the downloads will too. Or at least the complementary nature of the web offering will decrease in value.
It doesn't matter if its secure or not.
Cleveland needs to TRY to make it secure. It doesn't matter if YOU can break it, as long as Joe Sixpack can't. They need to tell publishers that they are offering security as good as any other available in order to even try this experiment!
Someday people will look back and remember thinking:
"Today they go electric.
Tomorrow they discard the paper books because everything's electronic.
One day the data disappears suddenly and all that was electronic is lost.
Woe is me."
eBooks may be an interesting format to read books in though I only hope the paper books are preserved.
And you thought I was kidding about control of all information?
With this little trick, once people adjust to the idea will give people in power complete control of information.
Sure it will be cracked, but that wont help the common man that isn't capable of doing such a thing. Their entire view of the world, and history will be controlled.
It will take time, but this is the next logical step in the progression.
20 years ago if I told you people would be paying to listen to radio, or that you wouldn't be able to copy your music from your house to use in the car, possibly tossed in jail if you try..you would have laughed. Today the practice is pretty much accepted.
---- Booth was a patriot ----