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Update Your Shelf: BitLit Offers Access To Ebook Versions of Books You Own

Posted by timothy on from the ink-is-kind-of-a-committment dept.

First time accepted submitter Peter Hudson (3717535) writes Cory Doctorow writes on boingboing.net "BitLit works with publishers to get you free or discounted access to digital copies of books you own in print: you use the free app for Android and iOS to take a picture of the book's copyright page with your name printed in ink, and the publisher unlocks a free or discounted ebook version. None of the Big Five publishers participate as yet, but indies like O'Reilly, Berrett-Koehler, Red Wheel Weiser, Other Press, Greystone, Coach House, Triumph, Angry Robot, Chicago Review, Dundurn, and PM Press (publishers of my book The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow) are all in."

19 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. What could possibly go wrong by photonic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Great, one guy who actually owns the book takes a high resolution scan and puts it on the internet, everyone else prints it out and signs it ....

    --
    karma police: arrest this man, he talks in maths; he buzzes like a fridge, he's like a detuned radio. [radiohead]
    1. Re:What could possibly go wrong by peter.hudson452 · · Score: 2, Informative

      There are probably easier ways to get a free eBook (e.g. BitTorrent) that don't involve a GIMP and printing on acetate. Just saying...

    2. Re:What could possibly go wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, you have to be REAL desperate to consider opening GIMP just to get a free ebook...

    3. Re:What could possibly go wrong by Ken_g6 · · Score: 2

      My phone is so cheap it doesn't have a flash, you insensitive clod!

      --
      (T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
    4. Re:What could possibly go wrong by mfh · · Score: 4, Interesting

      People aren't evil. The simple fact is if a publisher sells a book at a fair price people would rather pay money than simply download the book.

      Case in point against DRM are the musicians and comedians who are offering a "pay what you want" model that is so successful these guys make MORE money than they would through a traditional publisher, with less advertising and less overall effort. Time is money.

      So yeah some guy will offer the book for free... and a few people will see the link and realize they can BUY the thing, and they'll do that instead. The people who download it wouldn't have bought it anyway. How many books do you read at Chapters? Do you buy EVERY BOOK?

      Nope.

      --
      The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    5. Re:What could possibly go wrong by davester666 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Pretty much the only musicians/comedians who make money with "pay what you want" or even with their own web site selling their wares for similar or even lower than the 'regular' price of similar merchandise are the ones who don't need the money and who have already 'made it'. They already went through the process of going through labels or promoters, dingy nightclubs, and made it big, so that lots of lots of people already know about them and what to expect from the product they buy. And they also get a whole bunch of free advertising by doing it. Louis CK offers a video of his standup for a couple of bucks, lots of web sites published articles about how cool it is that he is doing it all on his own. Joe Blow comedian does the exact same thing, NOBODY NOTICES and/or CARES. His mom will buy a vid, but that's about it.

      But this is only about your DRM thing. The rest of your comment is reasonable.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    6. Re:What could possibly go wrong by sumdumass · · Score: 2

      Mine has a flash. I generally have my finger over it though.

      You don't need a cheap phone. You do need to know how to take a picture with it though.

    7. Re:What could possibly go wrong by rtb61 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Not all books are the same. There are two major categories non-fiction versus fiction. I would have to be honest and say when it comes to say text books, I want to download them for free and never pay for them. I don't want a text book written by one author that only lasts a couple of years. I want one where hundreds even thousands of people expert in the field have collaborated on and update once a year. A government funded exercise, where it is not about generating a profit but saving money by reducing cost for education for every citizen. So open collaborative text books free of copyright hassles beyond keeping plagiarists under control.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    8. Re:What could possibly go wrong by LordLimecat · · Score: 2

      People aren't evil.

      Welcome to the internet! You'll first want to take our new users orientation, where you study such schools of thought as this...

  2. Physical books are great by redmid17 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    but they take up a lot of room, and when traveling I find it much easier to bring my kindle fire. With as much as new books cost, especially hard covers, there is no real reason to not bundle an ebook with the physical copy. The last few years I've shelled out $15-$30 on brand new hardcovers (preorder to impulse buy). I enjoy reading them and then stick them in my bookcase. I don't really want to get them torn up while traveling and they are huge. That gives me three options: purchase another physical book in paper back, buy the ebook, or download an ebook. I've already spent upwards of $30 on the book, so giving more money isn't really an enticing option. The $30 is probably enough to buy the hard cover, paperback and ebook a year after it comes out.

    Just bundle them. Do it as a pre-order thing. People might even be enticed to pre-order something they wouldn't otherwise.

  3. Not a chance by stevez67 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "None of the Big Five publishers will EVER participate ..." FTFY

  4. This app is incompatible with all of your devices by frovingslosh · · Score: 2

    Well, it is still considered Beta, but it has a big failure. I get the message "X This app is incompatible with all of your devices" when i go to download it, even though I have several Android devices it should be compatible with. I expect this is the same problem as I have seen with a few other apps, they are using a specific list of compatible devices and my Lenvo tablet just isn't in there. When are developers going to learn to be more inclusive in their supported devices, or at least let users download the apk file and trying installing it at their own risk?

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    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  5. Re:Book Resale value by Nyder · · Score: 3, Informative

    So, i have to physically damage my book by writing in it, and it will prevent the next guy down the line from ever participating in such a scheme.

    um, photoshop the writing in?

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    Be seeing you...
  6. Write your name with a pen? by metlin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Really? Some of us really enjoy our books -- as someone who has a personal library with ~4,000 books, I would be appalled if I had to write on any of their pages with a pen.

    Not because I am planning on selling any of them, but because to me, I just see it as damaging the book.

    A good many of them are autographed or antiquarian books, and the last thing I'd ever want to do is sign them with a *pen*.

    I find the whole deal oddly disturbing -- maybe it's just me as a bibliophile, but writing on a book sounds like a sacrilege.

    1. Re:Write your name with a pen? by metlin · · Score: 2

      Yes, clearly I was unaware of this fact when I made this comment. Because, you know, it's an all-or-nothing world where people offering product features tell their users to do it their way or stick it.

      If you cannot offer a helpful suggestion when someone questions something they aren't comfortable with, perhaps you should cut down the snark and just ignore the comment.

  7. Re:This app is incompatible with all of your devic by anubi · · Score: 2
    That one thing, Sir:

    I get the message "X This app is incompatible with all of your devices"

    is by far the PRIMARY motivator I have of pirating anything. Second is having to reveal my banking transaction codes in order to make a purchase, when I have no trust of either my own system, my connection, or my vendor, third, and LEAST, is the PRICE.

    It has been my experience that DRM'd stuff is so finicky and unreliable I might as well throw it away like an old screwdriver whose shaft slips in its handle. Its simply not good for anything. Maybe I can superglue the shaft to the handle to get an operable screwdriver - someone will cry foul, but you know, I'm gonna do it anyway, because I have a screw I need to install and the damned screwdriver won't work.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  8. There's an easier way with O'Reilly by chrism238 · · Score: 2
    I note that with BitLit the 'price' of an eBook from O'Reilly is $4,99.

    However, if you sign up with O'Reilly (free), determine the ISBN of any of their physical books (which is on the physical copy that you bought, and O'Reilly keep a 'backup' copy of the ISBN on their website), you can receive an eBook copy of that book for - wait for it - also for $4.99.

  9. So... by LSDelirious · · Score: 2

    All I have to do is head to Barnes & Noble with a disappearing ink pen?

    --
    Slavery is the legal fiction that a person is property; A Corporation is the legal fiction that property is a person.
  10. Re:How does this compare to Amazon's Kindle MatchB by peter.hudson452 · · Score: 2

    Matchbook only works for books you buy on Amazon.com and only works if you have a Kindle registered under the same account... For an average reader, the physical books they've purchased on Amazon is a relatively small percentage of the books on their shelf. BitLit works for all books regardless of where you acquired them. Excuse me while I don my fireproof suit and remind /. comment thread readers that they are not average.