Quote:
Originally Posted by teh603
How is downloading a public domain ePub from Gutenberg considered a Faustian act? Especially when the book in question isn't available in any other format?
Or what about having an ebook printed out through a POD kiosk?
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I'm not saying that eBooks are by definition bad, or that they should be avoided. I have a Kindle 4NT myself, for crying out loud! But I give up some things with eBooks that I can't get back.
The way the books are perceived changes with an eBook. The specific pagination of the text is lost (which makes it harder to find things if you can only remember on what part of the page something was located.) The permanence of the book is lost - I wrote some great stuff on my Commodore 64 that I'll never get back. We're dependent on the Internet to stay as it is, open and free, so we can continue to access our libraries. And some ereaders track their users' reading, even on sideloaded content, so you're giving up some privacy there.
It may be a bargain worth making, but nobody should close their eyes and cover their ears and say that technology only gives but never takes away. Because history has shown again and again that with each new technology that was going to make our lives easier or better or both, something was lost.