Xerox throwing weight behind Espresso Machine

[M0zza]

I know we have seen this machine before, and have been impressed with what it can do. Well Xerox have decided to become a reseller of these units.

This means in the future you may not be buying your coffee in a bookstore, but your books in your coffee shop.

The thing is (which has just hit me as I write)... If I buy an ebook and decide I'd like to have a physical copy using one of these machines. would it be legal in those countries that have format shift laws?

[thename]

I liked this little summary found here. It's about printing at home but am sure moving it into the public (well, private retailers') space might make a difference for liability reasons, right?

Is it legal?

Maybe. It all depends on a number of factors. If the book is in the public domain, most certainly yes. If it’s not and still subject to copyright, it all depends on what you’re going to do with the e-book, the printed book and why you’ve printed it. In the USA, fair use will come into play. It allows for uses of copyrighted material in certain circumstances. Using excerpts in an educational setting for instance is often allowed under fair use. Now, if you are printing an e-book you legally own for your own use that is a bit of a gray area. However, if people are having their homes stormed by the police and being arrested for printing books for their own private, non-commercial use I think we have a bigger issue to worry about.

Anyone want to push an exception argument based on "interoperability" with hands?

[GA Russell]

Thanks for that link, Mozza! I hadn't seen one of those machines in action before.

Just think if a public library sold such books at cost!

[Worldwalker]

I can't help but remember when the US Postal Service raided a company and evaluated its mail, and then unilaterally fined that company for sending letters by FedEx which, as they weren't answered for several days, the finers claimed could have been sent by first class mail instead.

There's a law against that now. They picked a bad target: Equifax.

For those who don't know, Equifax is one of the three US companies that hold everyone's credit rating in their hands. I can just imagine the phone calls to Congress the next day.

But not everyone is so stupid as to raid Equifax, and we readers don't have Congressmen's credit ratings by the short 'n' curlies. So don't be too sure what the powers that be won't do.

[J. Strnad]

In ten years, this video clip is going to look so hilariously quaint!

This phase of book publishing might have had some traction five years ago. Now we're entering the "pure electronic" phase that makes this machine anachronistic.

It reminds me of watching those old 1950s industrial films where a clunky robot cleans house while an announcer proclaims "This is the world of the future!"

Of course, I could be wrong.

[vulcan_girl]

If I'm remembering my research right, Lightning Source (a POD publisher) was spun off, but is still owned by Ingram (book distributor). At least as of a year ago, Ingram was working to secure digital printing rights from publishers so that currently released books could be printed and sold via the Espresso Book Machine to fill orders instead of waiting for the publisher to order new print runs.

[Steven Lake]

This isn't anything new. They've been pushing these machines since...oh, what, the late 90's, early 2000's? I still remember when they told about the first machine they made. It could produce an entire book, bound and all, in like 5 minutes. The bookstores loved the idea because it meant more sales because they could then offer any book, even those out of print, to anyone who wanted them. The problem however has been the big houses. Every time this idea has come up and someone has produced one of these machines, the BPH's have killed them dead as road kill. They're doing that because they fear that if these machines get too popular people will be able to print and sell books left and right, and never have to pay the publishing houses, meaning the BPH's will lose a lot of money.

Of course, with the rise of ebooks, these may quickly become a thing of the past, or cease to be a necessity. Either way, there's too many forces working against them. So these print on demand book machines will likely rise as a novelty that serves a niche market, but little more, as I don't see the BPH's allowing them to rise to prominence. Yes, there's ways to track sales and bill the stores accordingly. However, those can be circumvented, which then leaves us back at reason one why they've never taken off.

[toronado]

Science Friday (NPR) just did a piece on it recently.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201103114

To me, it seems like one step forward and one step backwards.

It's better for the environment than having warehouses full of paper books that have to be physically transported to the retailers and consumers. However it's not as good as just simply forgoing paper entirely and using an electronic reading device. In fact, it's almost the opposite of an eBook, because the book is already in an electronic format in the Espresso machine's database, and then converted back into paper by the printing process.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

It reminds me of watching those old 1950s industrial films where a clunky robot cleans house while an announcer proclaims "This is the world of the future!"

Of course, I could be wrong.

My Roomba, Fred, works quite well, but he doesn't look anything like Robie the Robot from "Lost in Space".

Danger! Danger! Will Robinson.

[Kali Yuga]

I can see why Xerox is behind it -- after all, it's using a huge expensive Xerox printer.

It's a niche product. It will be great for colleges and university libraries for books that don't work well electronically, and perhaps at the airport bookshop for the stalwarts who refuse to buy ebooks, but not much else.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

I can see why Xerox is behind it -- after all, it's using a huge expensive Xerox printer.

It's a niche product. It will be great for colleges and university libraries for books that don't work well electronically, and perhaps at the airport bookshop for the stalwarts who refuse to buy ebooks, but not much else.

I like it for oversized books or textbooks...but not really for anything else.

Also, I wish that they had chosen a less confusing name - things called "espresso machines" already exist and are used by millions of people (directly or indirectly) every day.

[toronado]

To me, the only interesting feature, though I personally wouldn't use it, is the "print your own book" feature.

[Giggleton]

It's a bit expensive for the print your own book feature, but it might be ok for the become your own independent publishing business feature. People still do read printed books after all.

[RainingLemur]

I had all but forgotten about that machine. That's admittedly pretty nifty.

Now I want an espresso (the drink).

[Andanzas]

Too bad it's so expensive. This could be great for public libraries or colleges in poor countries where books are more expensive or difficult to access. And it could be an excellent tool to avoid censorship.