11-22-2010, 03:36 PM | #61 | |
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I don't think epub will be notably "better" for most people until someone comes up with a device that's good for textbooks, though. While a few people really do care about the difference between 10 pt verdana in dot-letters on a computer screen and actual typography, most aren't going to notice differences between the formats until one of them supports tables, charts, and cross-document links and the other doesn't. |
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11-22-2010, 03:38 PM | #62 |
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I would guess that one main difference (and it probably has already been stated) between music/cd's and ebooks is that folks did not want to get forced into purchasing whole "albums" and folks like to create their own mixes of single tracks or random tracks.
That is certainly not the case with ebooks - it pretty much is all or nothing unless it is a short-story book or book of essays. There is no discrete $0.99 chapter. |
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11-22-2010, 04:07 PM | #63 | |||
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Most aren't, but it's less because "people are lazy" than because there's no particular reward, not even social points, for being meticulous about bootleg ebooks. There's no way to indicate, "this one is carefully crafted to look great in your ebook reader" the way that books here at Mobileread can. There's no way to pull the lousy first-version OCR-with-errors version out of the sharing pool. There's no way to legitimately promote the better versions, and a lot of proofreaders/formatters would prefer to save their time-consuming work for stuff that can be openly shared--Gutenberg's Open Proofreaders, or doing new versions of Creative Commons works that were released in PDF, and so on. Quote:
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Best-selling records count their millions of sales. Best-selling books count thousands. Oh, maybe tens of thousands... but only a handful of authors on the planet can expect to sell books by the million. *Any* popular band could jump to a million in record sales. The publishing industries have always been scrabbling to balance cost of creation (author's work) vs cost of production (printing & distribution) vs how much the public will pay. Ebooks threaten the delicate balancing act they've put together; they're under a great deal more economic threat from ebook filesharing than the RIAA is from Napster. |
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11-22-2010, 05:44 PM | #64 | |
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The easy way to check the format is to get a sample using the "Transfer via Computer" method, select the device that you'll be transferring to, and then you'll get a pop up window telling you what the format is (the format for the sample is the same as the format for the full version), you don't even need to download it, you can just cancel out of it if you want once you find out what the format is. You obviously meant blind, not deaf, but in this particular case there is an exception. If there are no available versions of an e-book that has TTS enabled, a person that needs that feature to allow the e-book to be usable can legally crack the DRM to enable TTS. |
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11-22-2010, 07:17 PM | #65 | |
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The only way I know of to download a file from Amazon is 1-Click--what is this Transfer via Computer method? |
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11-22-2010, 07:42 PM | #66 | |
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So you'll want it to say. "deliver to: Transfer via Computer" and then you press the "Send sample now" button. You'll be taken to another page, on that page you select the registered device you want to send it to (you can go with the default setting) and hit the "continue" button, that's when you'll get the pop up showing the format. It should be noted that I'm not capable of running the Kindle 4PC app, I keep getting an error that forces it to close, so I have no way of knowing whether you'll get the "Transfer via Computer" option if the PC app is your only registered device. |
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11-22-2010, 09:03 PM | #67 |
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Thanks. I do have the Kindle for PC registered, and my only options are to send to that app, or to register another Kindle. (I only have that single Kindle app.) So that must be why my options are different.
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11-23-2010, 12:40 AM | #68 | ||
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11-23-2010, 12:55 AM | #69 | |
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In the US, you can legally strip DRM from purchased books. What you can't do is distribute the software to do it with, or the liberated ebook after you have done it. The reason you can do this is that when you work your way through the law about DRM, it turns out that the one thing that has not been made a violation is stripping DRM from an ebook that you have bought. Amazon, Sony et. al. might try to convince you that you are only licensing the ebook, but the technical legal term for that argument is "baloney." But a library book might be a different matter, because you do not own the ebook. The library does. The intent of the law is to prevent the unauthorized distribution of ebooks. Arguably, you are violating the law by distributing the library's book to yourself in unDRMed form when you strip the DRM. The answer could go either way, though. As a practical matter, of course, if you can strip the DRM, and just use it on your own EBR, who's gonna know in either circumstance? And in my view, when you do that with a library book, you are just extending the lending period. The practical problem is that it is illegal for anyone to distribute the software TO you so that you can do the stripping. But if you have a tender conscience about all this, strip the DRM from your purchased ebooks with no concern, but leave the library ebooks alone. At least, in the US. Last edited by Harmon; 11-23-2010 at 09:35 AM. |
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11-23-2010, 09:44 AM | #70 | |
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Personally, I don't use my iPad as an EBR, but for a while I did, & the Kindle App is what I used in preference to my dedicated EBRs or any other iPad app. A lot of that had to do with being able to also read it on my iPhone, of course, but some of it was the ease of using Amazon to buy ebooks. I'm not entirely sure that the ebook retailers/publishers are trying to lock out readers. Nor am I sure that they are trying to make their proprietary EBRs necessary to reading their ebooks, although I wouldn't rule that motive out. What I think is that they really really believe that DRM is good, and accomplishes its purpose of preventing piracy & copying. Any other reason is secondary. |
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11-23-2010, 11:20 AM | #71 | ||
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11-23-2010, 12:42 PM | #72 | |
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The only thing DRM does is annoy honest people who don't understand why they can't move an ebook they purchased to any device they want. |
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11-23-2010, 01:06 PM | #73 |
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I think that DRM is an accommodation to some of the various complex and competing
components of the publishing system. Some want it, some don't want it, many could care less. I doubt the sales and marketing, distribution side of the business want it. I would not be surprised if only those within the system with law degrees are really calling for it. From the author's agent to the publisher's legal/contract dept., to the distributor's procurement division/buyers. In Amazon's case there may have been an added Machiavellian voice from the forces that launched the "Kindle" project. I could see it as having developed where the e-book sales section of Amazon first got sold the the idea that they could sell a lot more e-books if they only had some good handheld readers out there, by the Kindle visionary. Part of the spiel for the Kindle was probably the idea that it would lock-in e-book sales to Amazon. Over time the Amazon e-book sales department probably came to argue that they needed other platforms for their e-books to be read on, besides just the Kindle and the other apps came on the scene. I also suspect that when the initial DRM started to be widely circumvented the Pro-DRM forces pushed for the adoption of the stricter "Topaz" DRM. Then they encountered a drop in sales and an increase in complaints. So the sales dept. became less than enthusiastic about the use of "Topaz" and may be somewhat reluctant to support its use. The thing is, everyone in the system thinks that all the others are out to get them, or cheat them of what they are due. So it is easy to sell the idea that something that is touted as providing "protection" for their rights is a good and needed thing. The lawyers love this situation and the DRM, the merchants - not so much. Just my opinion. Luck; Ken |
11-23-2010, 01:09 PM | #74 |
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When you see them saying that you should point out that DRM has no affect on piracy at all, it only puts restrictions on the people who buy their product. Pirated ebooks do not have DRM, therefore they are more attractive to some readers than the official product. The way to combat piracy is NOT to release an official product that is inferior to the unofficial product.
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11-23-2010, 01:14 PM | #75 | |
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