Confidence in Books staying inthe Cloud ???

TheSFReader · 12-23-2010, 09:16 AM

Hi all, this is a post of my new Books in the Cloud post on my blog, which is a reflexion shared with "non technical" people about the "persistence" (or lack thereof) of ebooks with today's books resellers.

Since I don't get much traffic, I share it with you here too ...

Most ebooks resellers that I know of work with one of 2 kinds of delivery models :
1) they send you / give you access to a link (or list of links) where you can download the book in a "limited fashion" (time, number of downloads ...). This induces almost necessarily the use of a PC to download and manage the ebooks collection.

2) they keep the bought ebooks in a "library" section of their site, where you can download the book "at will". This allows you to remove the ebook from your reader, (archiving), without losing access forever to it. It also allows you to manage your ebooks collection without any other device (PC for example).

The "major resellers" (Amazon, Google, B&N, Smashwords...), and some others (Webscription for example) all work on that second model.
This also allows them to develop a model where you don't even need to download the entire ebook to your device, but use a specific browser to access it on their server as with the "PC version" of the Google EBooks reader. The Book is kept "in the cloud" for you in "eternity", or ... as long as the reseller keeps the ebook at your disposition ...
There have been incidents whrere bought ebooks where removed from the "Library" as well as from the "device" !

So while the Library is that (a Library), we should not consider them "Safe" : the "librarian" can "at will" change the content of that library, either by adding/removing books, but also by "corecting" them the way they choose without our knowing...

If we want to have a more "long-lasting" library, I think we need to maintain our own "library" in addition to the reseller's ones. In our own library, we should have a copy of each and every ebook we have bought, if possible without DRM so that we also will be able to convert them to other future-proof format ... How to set up such a library is left as an exercice to the reader... but I guess you should backup it the same way you do your digital photographs (you DO backup your photos right ?)

This does in NO way mean say that we should NOT use the reseller's library facility (in some way, if our own library goes down, we will be most happy to use theirs as a backup

), but we should NOT trust them the same way we would a Safe in a bank.

ardeegee · 12-23-2010, 10:54 AM

There is a term for people who are confident that anything will be long-term safe "in the cloud": morons.

If you don't keep multiple local backed-up copies of your data, you might as well get "sucker" tattooed across your forehead.

NNolan · 12-23-2010, 11:22 AM

"Cloud-y with a chance of cabbages" is starting to sound better and better as a long-term storage approach.

TheSFReader · 12-23-2010, 11:42 AM

As it happens, I Love Cabbages

Not sure what they use regarding DRMs though

CWatkinsNash · 12-23-2010, 11:50 AM

I, too, love cabbages and the security they afford me. I definitely trust my triple-redundancy backup method more than Cloud servers.

FF2 · 12-23-2010, 01:40 PM

(not sure why this posting is moved to Author promotions...)

Well, I just purchased with instant rebate a usb 3.0 (2.0 compatible) tiny 1 tetrabyte drive from Costco for $99.00. That should hold a few ebooks and mp3 and my years of digital photos. Of course, it might be more vulnerable than a cloud but will serve.

12-23-2010, 09:16 AM	#1
TheSFReader Groupie Posts: 172 Karma: 161634 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Nook	Confidence in Books staying inthe Cloud ??? Hi all, this is a post of my new Books in the Cloud post on my blog, which is a reflexion shared with "non technical" people about the "persistence" (or lack thereof) of ebooks with today's books resellers. Since I don't get much traffic, I share it with you here too ... Most ebooks resellers that I know of work with one of 2 kinds of delivery models : 1) they send you / give you access to a link (or list of links) where you can download the book in a "limited fashion" (time, number of downloads ...). This induces almost necessarily the use of a PC to download and manage the ebooks collection. 2) they keep the bought ebooks in a "library" section of their site, where you can download the book "at will". This allows you to remove the ebook from your reader, (archiving), without losing access forever to it. It also allows you to manage your ebooks collection without any other device (PC for example). The "major resellers" (Amazon, Google, B&N, Smashwords...), and some others (Webscription for example) all work on that second model. This also allows them to develop a model where you don't even need to download the entire ebook to your device, but use a specific browser to access it on their server as with the "PC version" of the Google EBooks reader. The Book is kept "in the cloud" for you in "eternity", or ... as long as the reseller keeps the ebook at your disposition ... There have been incidents whrere bought ebooks where removed from the "Library" as well as from the "device" ! So while the Library is that (a Library), we should not consider them "Safe" : the "librarian" can "at will" change the content of that library, either by adding/removing books, but also by "corecting" them the way they choose without our knowing... If we want to have a more "long-lasting" library, I think we need to maintain our own "library" in addition to the reseller's ones. In our own library, we should have a copy of each and every ebook we have bought, if possible without DRM so that we also will be able to convert them to other future-proof format ... How to set up such a library is left as an exercice to the reader... but I guess you should backup it the same way you do your digital photographs (you DO backup your photos right ?) This does in NO way mean say that we should NOT use the reseller's library facility (in some way, if our own library goes down, we will be most happy to use theirs as a backup ), but we should NOT trust them the same way we would a Safe in a bank. Last edited by TheSFReader; 12-23-2010 at 09:18 AM. Reason: formatting

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12-23-2010, 10:54 AM	#2
ardeegee Maratus speciosus butt Posts: 3,292 Karma: 1162698 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: PRS-350	There is a term for people who are confident that anything will be long-term safe "in the cloud": morons. If you don't keep multiple local backed-up copies of your data, you might as well get "sucker" tattooed across your forehead.

12-23-2010, 11:22 AM	#3
NNolan Compulsive Gadget Geek Posts: 395 Karma: 4219324 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Almost Canada Device: One of each, and two in some cases	"Cloud-y with a chance of cabbages" is starting to sound better and better as a long-term storage approach.

12-23-2010, 11:42 AM	#4
TheSFReader Groupie Posts: 172 Karma: 161634 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Nook	As it happens, I Love Cabbages Not sure what they use regarding DRMs though

12-23-2010, 11:50 AM	#5
CWatkinsNash IOC Chief Archivist Posts: 3,950 Karma: 53868218 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Fruitland Park, FL, USA Device: Meebook M7, Paperwhite 2021, Fire HD 8+, Fire HD 10+, Lenovo Tab P12	I, too, love cabbages and the security they afford me. I definitely trust my triple-redundancy backup method more than Cloud servers.

12-23-2010, 01:40 PM	#6
FF2 Wizard Posts: 1,105 Karma: 1025784 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: WiFi Kindle3	(not sure why this posting is moved to Author promotions...) Well, I just purchased with instant rebate a usb 3.0 (2.0 compatible) tiny 1 tetrabyte drive from Costco for $99.00. That should hold a few ebooks and mp3 and my years of digital photos. Of course, it might be more vulnerable than a cloud but will serve.