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Old 05-02-2013, 11:31 AM   #16
jfm
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jfm began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 10
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Join Date: May 2013
Device: Kindle Keyboard
Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
I entirely agree that failing silently is bad, but I must respectfully disagree that a 10% clipping limit for a copyrighted work is a "goof-ball restriction". It's a pretty generous proportion of a book to be able to copy. My local library, for example, will only allow one to copy a single chapter from a book.

What would you consider to be a reasonable percentage?
I think it depends upon how you want to use it. It could very well be more than adequate. There is a difference, though, I think, between a library book and one you own. If you have a physical book that you have purchased and want to copy and ocr whatever amount for your own non-commercial study, then there is, IMHO, no moral restriction upon that, and, so long as I am not going to give it away or sell it, I am not concerned about what the law may or may not say.

The book with which I am working is a well-known political history book, and as I get back into it, I am reminded of why I highlighted so much. The book is, to me, difficult to read, so what I wanted to do was read it through once, highlighting all of the important concepts, as much as I though necessary, and then go back through again, maybe several times, just reading the highlights and notes, adjusting them as necessary (try to do that with a physical book). One way to do that is via the clippings file, and while that is a way, it is not the best way. The best way is, I think, to go back through the actual book where the clips and notes have context. In other words, the clippings file is not necessary for this.

Down the road, however, as I come to understand things better, I will want to actually copy concepts here and there. These will wind up being my synopsis of the book, and, while I am not there yet, I would guess that this will be less than 10% of the book. Of course, there is a great deal of meat in this book, and I may be wrong. Anyway, that's the idea, and we'll see how it works. The problem is, though, that I will not be able to glean that less than 10% from highlights that are not there.

Also, I actually prefer physical books, and, since you can usually get great copies for less than an ebook would cost, the reason I would buy the ebook is so that I could do things either more easily than with the physical version or that I could not do at all.

I hope all of this rambling makes sense.
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