"3. Lack of content: Books they are interested in aren't available in electronic format."
It is not just that some authors refuse to publish their works as ebooks, but also that the important books (say: the Harry Potters) do not appear exclusively or first as ebooks. I believe Ellora's Cave's erotica appear as ebooks first, and as printed second, and that might be the sort of thing that will lead people to reading ebooks.
Another thing that might help ebooks gain prominence is improved print book "piracy". Currently hobbyists have to invest quite a large amount of time and trouble to get books scanned and OCR-ed, but with prices of digital camera's dropping, speedy conversion of a book is going to be less of a problem. (I am a Project Gutenberg volunteer, that's why I know how much time it takes--in case you were wondering.)
Authors have been saying that they don't publish their books as ebook because of concerns about wide-scale copyright infringement, but at some point the analogue hole will be larger than the digital one. At that point, authors will either give up their resistance, or even switch to ebook only.
"They are a proven and timeless form of communication that will *never* be obsoleted, just as we will never live on the moon, drive flying cars or have robotic teachers at our children's schools. Wake up."
You forgot to mention that when cows see one of those new-fangled steam trains, their milk turns sour.
Having said that, there are a few reasons why I am reading ebooks, and there are still plenty of things I would like to see improved.
First of all, I use my Palm to read the classics with. The advantage isn't even so much that of price, but of availability. Project Gutenberg has scanned pretty much all of the classics in the English language. (And where it hasn't, that's your fault for not warning us.)
Ah, there's the second reason: I am a Distributed Proofreaders volunteer, and my Palm helps me read the books I helped produce. For instance, currently I am reading H.G. Wells' Certain Personal Matters (not published since 1901, and a lovely collection of satirical essays!).
As for the things that need improving: devices. I am someone who carries books with him, and so I have this wishlist that devices currently do not live up to. Weight, price, size, power consumption, ports, software, none of the devices currently available get all of these right.
And of course it speaks for itself that I own the device, not the publishers. That is why I will never buy Sony.
The real problem of course started when the government started recognizing businesses as persons. All these other laws and regulations since then are small change.
"Too late than by a long shot. There is no way an organized armed revolt would even come close to success. The second amendment doesn't allow me to own a fully loaded stealth bomber. Even then it wouldn't be nearly enough. The second amendment out lived it's intended usefulness a long time ago."
This is assuming that only you or a small group want to revolt. That would not be a particularly democratic movement; you could not claim to speak for the people.
In a true revolution, you'd have popular support, with a chance of access to plenty of stealth bombers, if part of the army were on your side.
"Outsourcing customer service has conflicting incentives which often make it to the advantage of the vendor to provide sub-par service."
Have you Americans ever heard of this thing called "capitalism"?
Outsourcing is about letting a third party do what they do best. I see comparisons here between a cheap, "substandard" Indian outfit and a hugely expensive, local division. You cannot compare the two. In the first case, the company has decided to spend less on activity/feature X. You should compare the underperforming Indian outfit with a much smaller, well-paid, underperforming American outfit. Perhaps the Americans will be intelligible or even motivated, but there won't be enough of them to take all the calls, and so the overall customer experience will be just as bad, if not worse.
The bottom line in this case is that either way the company does not care enough about its customers to provide top-notch service. But at least the company that chooses to use the Indian outfit saves money, which can then be used to lower prices or to provide better service in other areas.
Doing business is about creating win-win situations. The rose-coloured situation where customer support is provided by highly motived, well-paid Real Kristjun Merkins, is one you guys could not pay for with all the borrowed Chinese money in the world. If you want to create a state where no American goes without a job, you can. It's called communism.
"If software comes with a license, people should be aware of what it says. That's just common sense. Understand now?"
The New Zealand government's webpage says: "While the use of open source software has many benefits, it brings with it a number of legal risks not posed by proprietary or commercial software."
If you are not discussing the article, perhaps you should mention that, because now it sounds like you're claiming only OSS has got licenses.
Forget about it. You cannot build communities; communities build themselves. And as somebody else mentioned in these comments, if your community needs something from, needs something built, they'll let you know. They won't be shy about it. The fact that you have to ask here already means there is no basis for your "community".
Also, if you want to do research into the needs of your target audience, you do not ask the readers of a website that subtitles itself News for Nerds what to do, unless you wish to start a competitor to Slashdot. Instead, you go to your target audience and ask them.
That somebody is paying you for this beggars belief.
"Is it really so hard to fathom that the chances a popular song would be purchased at any given moment are greater than the chances an unpopular song would be purchased?"
Yes it is, because they aren't. At least not in a store that offers equal access to popular and unpopular songs alike. I do not know if ITMS fits that description.
I was going to ask a similar thing. In my country (the Netherlands) you cannot force a customer to buy a second product if he needs only the first. I doubt an Arts school would leave much room for students to choose what photo editing software to buy, for instance. I am sure students would go to the local competition watchdog over this.
As a buyer of software I would not only expect (not demand: expect) access to the code for an audit, I would also expect you to keep the source code in escrow, in case you fold and are no longer able to support the software.
As the other poster said, if you're in the business of moving bits on discs, you're already ruined. You're just waiting for the time delay to kick in.
"They don't need to prove you did anything. It doesn't even matter if you've done anything. All they have to do is accuse you of piracy, and you will settle out of court, because you cannot afford to pay the legal expense of defending yourself. Proof never gets the chance to enter the picture. That's how the system works. If this new technology allows them to accuse people of piracy, that's all they need."
How does this new technology help them accuse people of downloading? Surely they can do same without it?
"In theory it lets the distributor figure out who the source of the piracy was. Joe User logs into their site and downloads the latest hit DRM_SUX.mpeg. Unknown to him it has a unique watermark in it that identifies him as the one who downloaded this particular file. Six months later the Copyright Kops find a copy of DRM_SUX.mpeg floating around on P2P networks. They analyze the file and discover the watermark points to Joe User, so they then sick their landsharks^M^M^M^M lawyers on him."
At this point, Jos Gebruiker will claim that indeed, a friend had asked him to make a copy for private use, which is perfectly legal under Dutch copyright law. So, what will your lawyers do now?
Who on earth modded you UP for such an obvious error? Russia has been to the moon many times. (Unless you want to argue semantics, as it was the Soviet Union, not Russia. Still the same people though.)
Slashdot Mirror
"3. Lack of content: Books they are interested in aren't available in electronic format."
It is not just that some authors refuse to publish their works as ebooks, but also that the important books (say: the Harry Potters) do not appear exclusively or first as ebooks. I believe Ellora's Cave's erotica appear as ebooks first, and as printed second, and that might be the sort of thing that will lead people to reading ebooks.
Another thing that might help ebooks gain prominence is improved print book "piracy". Currently hobbyists have to invest quite a large amount of time and trouble to get books scanned and OCR-ed, but with prices of digital camera's dropping, speedy conversion of a book is going to be less of a problem. (I am a Project Gutenberg volunteer, that's why I know how much time it takes--in case you were wondering.)
Authors have been saying that they don't publish their books as ebook because of concerns about wide-scale copyright infringement, but at some point the analogue hole will be larger than the digital one. At that point, authors will either give up their resistance, or even switch to ebook only.
"They are a proven and timeless form of communication that will *never* be obsoleted, just as we will never live on the moon, drive flying cars or have robotic teachers at our children's schools. Wake up."
You forgot to mention that when cows see one of those new-fangled steam trains, their milk turns sour.
I am reading ebooks right now.
Having said that, there are a few reasons why I am reading ebooks, and there are still plenty of things I would like to see improved.
First of all, I use my Palm to read the classics with. The advantage isn't even so much that of price, but of availability. Project Gutenberg has scanned pretty much all of the classics in the English language. (And where it hasn't, that's your fault for not warning us.)
Ah, there's the second reason: I am a Distributed Proofreaders volunteer, and my Palm helps me read the books I helped produce. For instance, currently I am reading H.G. Wells' Certain Personal Matters (not published since 1901, and a lovely collection of satirical essays!).
As for the things that need improving: devices. I am someone who carries books with him, and so I have this wishlist that devices currently do not live up to. Weight, price, size, power consumption, ports, software, none of the devices currently available get all of these right.
And of course it speaks for itself that I own the device, not the publishers. That is why I will never buy Sony.
"If you follow the GPL, you have a license to use OSS."
Nonsense.
Following the GPL does not generate a license for OSS.
You do not have to follow the GPL in order to use GPLed software.
Some OSS uses the GPL, but following the GPL does not switch off copyright law for you; you still have to follow all the other OSS licenses.
Furthermore, a license is not a contract.
The real problem of course started when the government started recognizing businesses as persons. All these other laws and regulations since then are small change.
"no more so than any other EULA"
Any other EULA compared to what other EULA?
"In the vast majority of possible temperatures it is gas or solid. So I'd say, on average, no; water is not wet."
In the vast majorities of possible temperatures it is impossible to test your claim.
"Too late than by a long shot. There is no way an organized armed revolt would even come close to success. The second amendment doesn't allow me to own a fully loaded stealth bomber. Even then it wouldn't be nearly enough. The second amendment out lived it's intended usefulness a long time ago."
This is assuming that only you or a small group want to revolt. That would not be a particularly democratic movement; you could not claim to speak for the people.
In a true revolution, you'd have popular support, with a chance of access to plenty of stealth bombers, if part of the army were on your side.
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
"Interesting to see how intolerant the left really is. We should have absolute freedom...as long as you agree with us."
I wasn't aware that "freedom" is something only the left care about.
If Alesis sue you, they have to sue you over something. Over what? What would be their claim? What would be the law that you presumably had broken?
"Outsourcing customer service has conflicting incentives which often make it to the advantage of the vendor to provide sub-par service."
Have you Americans ever heard of this thing called "capitalism"?
Outsourcing is about letting a third party do what they do best. I see comparisons here between a cheap, "substandard" Indian outfit and a hugely expensive, local division. You cannot compare the two. In the first case, the company has decided to spend less on activity/feature X. You should compare the underperforming Indian outfit with a much smaller, well-paid, underperforming American outfit. Perhaps the Americans will be intelligible or even motivated, but there won't be enough of them to take all the calls, and so the overall customer experience will be just as bad, if not worse.
The bottom line in this case is that either way the company does not care enough about its customers to provide top-notch service. But at least the company that chooses to use the Indian outfit saves money, which can then be used to lower prices or to provide better service in other areas.
Doing business is about creating win-win situations. The rose-coloured situation where customer support is provided by highly motived, well-paid Real Kristjun Merkins, is one you guys could not pay for with all the borrowed Chinese money in the world. If you want to create a state where no American goes without a job, you can. It's called communism.
"If software comes with a license, people should be aware of what it says. That's just common sense. Understand now?"
The New Zealand government's webpage says: "While the use of open source software has many benefits, it brings with it a number of legal risks not posed by proprietary or commercial software."
If you are not discussing the article, perhaps you should mention that, because now it sounds like you're claiming only OSS has got licenses.
Forget about it. You cannot build communities; communities build themselves. And as somebody else mentioned in these comments, if your community needs something from, needs something built, they'll let you know. They won't be shy about it. The fact that you have to ask here already means there is no basis for your "community".
Also, if you want to do research into the needs of your target audience, you do not ask the readers of a website that subtitles itself News for Nerds what to do, unless you wish to start a competitor to Slashdot. Instead, you go to your target audience and ask them.
That somebody is paying you for this beggars belief.
I thought the same thing. Welcome to the paranoid club, where we won't sell your personal data to strangers, at least ... that's what we say.
"Is it really so hard to fathom that the chances a popular song would be purchased at any given moment are greater than the chances an unpopular song would be purchased?"
Yes it is, because they aren't. At least not in a store that offers equal access to popular and unpopular songs alike. I do not know if ITMS fits that description.
I was going to ask a similar thing. In my country (the Netherlands) you cannot force a customer to buy a second product if he needs only the first. I doubt an Arts school would leave much room for students to choose what photo editing software to buy, for instance. I am sure students would go to the local competition watchdog over this.
I read an interview with a bike thief once who said that he stole the bikes that had been painted ugly first, just to spite the owners.
As a buyer of software I would not only expect (not demand: expect) access to the code for an audit, I would also expect you to keep the source code in escrow, in case you fold and are no longer able to support the software.
As the other poster said, if you're in the business of moving bits on discs, you're already ruined. You're just waiting for the time delay to kick in.
"They don't need to prove you did anything. It doesn't even matter if you've done anything. All they have to do is accuse you of piracy, and you will settle out of court, because you cannot afford to pay the legal expense of defending yourself. Proof never gets the chance to enter the picture. That's how the system works. If this new technology allows them to accuse people of piracy, that's all they need."
How does this new technology help them accuse people of downloading? Surely they can do same without it?
"In theory it lets the distributor figure out who the source of the piracy was. Joe User logs into their site and downloads the latest hit DRM_SUX.mpeg. Unknown to him it has a unique watermark in it that identifies him as the one who downloaded this particular file. Six months later the Copyright Kops find a copy of DRM_SUX.mpeg floating around on P2P networks. They analyze the file and discover the watermark points to Joe User, so they then sick their landsharks^M^M^M^M lawyers on him."
At this point, Jos Gebruiker will claim that indeed, a friend had asked him to make a copy for private use, which is perfectly legal under Dutch copyright law. So, what will your lawyers do now?
"I think Taco doesn't like it because it hits too close to home."
These two guys pretty much represent what I imagine Zonk and Cowboy Buttmonkey look like. (Zonk is the one with the glasses.)
"Naw, I think he's got it covered."
Yeah, asking the pizza delivery girl out on a date through a closed door reminded me of that too.
I am pretty sure pirates helped the snail cross the ocean.
"Russia IS poor, and has never been to the moon."
Who on earth modded you UP for such an obvious error? Russia has been to the moon many times. (Unless you want to argue semantics, as it was the Soviet Union, not Russia. Still the same people though.)