Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Amazon's Book Search Hits a Snag

Posted by timothy on from the oopsie dept.

The Importance of writes "Yesterday, Slashdot readers discussed Amazon's brand new, technically impressive and highly useful book search feature that lets users search the full text of over 120,000 books. Today, the Authors Guild is saying that the publishers don't have the right to let Amazon do this. Uh oh."

5 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. odd way to read by potpie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I understand the technical reasons for this... but there is no practical reason, since it would probably be very hard to read a book this way.

    --
    Esoteric reference.
    1. Re:odd way to read by cicho · · Score: 5, Informative

      Amazon requires that you supply your CC number before you can search. (Probably happens automatically for those who already have an account.) Then there's a limit on the nuymber of pages per book they'll show you (up to 20%). So to get the whole book you'd have to have at least 5 separate accounts and 5 separate CC numbers. This Wired article has more.

      --
      "Only the small secrets need to be protected. The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity." - Marshall McLuhan
    2. Re:odd way to read by Wingnut64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A service that allows Internet access to a scanned image of an arbitrary page of any book is just begging to be misused.

      Good thing people don't put thousands of books in a big building and let people read them for free. It's just begging to be misused.

      --
      echo 'Header append X-HD-DVD "0x09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0"' >> /etc/apache2/httpd.conf
  2. Attempt to avoid being busted for Plagiarism? by SilentMajority · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Imagine....thousands of authors being busted for plagiarism because of Amazon's search feature.

    What a nightmare it must be for those that built up lucrative careers and solid reputations on the backs of others--they're hoping they can hide behind the lawyers.

  3. Re:Ohhh what by shog9 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I spent quite some time looking at tech books on Amazon last night, and can't honestly say I'd be thrilled if it were possible to read 10-20 pages at a time from a technical book I'd written.

    As opposed to, say, going into Barnes & Nobel and drinking coffee while reading the whole thing free?