Fight the Good Fight ... against DRM

[neilmarr]

Hya folks:

I ran a short blog post yesterday (http://www.bewritebooks.blogspot.com) about our indie publishing house's stance against DRM.

The response was quite incredible (site hits suddenly reached three times the normal Thursday traffic and I had a sackful of emails in support), so I got all excited and laid plans last night for a huge anti-DRM campaign, petitions and what have you.

Of course, in the cold light of day, after Googling myself crazy, I realised that the campaign is already underway -- uncoordinated as it might be -- and that we're likely to be seen as jumping on the band wagon rather than pioneering.

Anyway, so that I'm not totally deflated, here are three wee logos you're welcome to copy and use wherever you like. They were run off by my technical partner, Tony Szmuk in Canada, and based on the old 'rejected' rubber stamp.

One is totally general, another carries a tiny BeWrite Books bee logo (if you look carefully enough), and the other is blatantly BeWrite Books-specific. No hard feelings if you choose to use the first. If there's any interest, I'll ask Tony to re-do the first to read as a demand: Our Books -- Our Way.

Thanks and best wishes. Neil

[Worldwalker]

The logos look great!

You might want to set up a page on the site for not just those, but some BeWrite link graphics, too, for benefit of those people who might want to link to your site from blogs, etc. You have an awesome graphics guy, by the way.

Also, for benefit of those with odd page colors and/or backgrounds, those logos on transparent backgrounds (either GIF or, to annoy the IE5 users into upgrading, PNG) would be good.

You have the three of them shown in your post in my order of preference, by the way. I'm not sure what it is with the third one -- I think it's either the condensed nature of the "DRM FREE" letters, or the colorful bee breaking the monochrome style, but it doesn't work for me as well as the others. Maybe a monochrome bee?

Y'know, if I'd been present at the creation of the world, I'd probably have kibitzed.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

The logos look great!

You might want to set up a page on the site for not just those, but some BeWrite link graphics, too, for benefit of those people who might want to link to your site from blogs, etc. You have an awesome graphics guy, by the way.

Also, for benefit of those with odd page colors and/or backgrounds, those logos on transparent backgrounds (either GIF or, to annoy the IE5 users into upgrading, PNG) would be good.

yes please.

i actually agree with all the points worldwalker made, which i guess saves me the trouble of typing them out myself, so thanks worldwalker.

thank you neil for the graphics !

edit : also, worldwalker, i love that signature.

[Worldwalker]

Actually, that was a typo; it was supposed to be the IE6 users, who also need annoying.

Seriously, any IE6 users who might see this: if you're a Microsoft fanboi, get IE8, for the love of Gates. And if you're not a Microsoft fanboi, get anything else. But quit making me spend more work making my CSS and my graphics work with your broken, out-of-date, ill-behaved browser than I do making it work for every other browser on the market put together. It's easier maintaining compatibility for Lynx than it is for IE6!

Oops, sorry, that was the canned website designer rant, you accidentally pushed the "start" button.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Actually, that was a typo; it was supposed to be the IE6 users, who also need annoying.

Seriously, any IE6 users who might see this: if you're a Microsoft fanboi, get IE8, for the love of Gates. And if you're not a Microsoft fanboi, get anything else. But quit making me spend more work making my CSS and my graphics work with your broken, out-of-date, ill-behaved browser than I do making it work for every other browser on the market put together. It's easier maintaining compatibility for Lynx than it is for IE6!

Oops, sorry, that was the canned website designer rant, you accidentally pushed the "start" button.

sing it brotha !!! i do the same rant when you push my "start" button.

2 of my favourite sites :

http://www.killbillsbrowser.com/

http://explorerdestroyer.com/

[neilmarr]

Thanks again, Worldwalker and Zelda. And again, I'll ask tech partner Tony to read this thread and advise me on how to put your good ideas into action. I'm a mere scribe and a technodunce, as you may have realised.

By the way, we'll have a very usable version of the logo for you later (absolutely non-BB specific) that reads more as a demand than a promise: 'OUR BOOKS DRM-FREE OUR WAY'.

You guys are a goldmine of sound advice and encouragement. Much appreciated.

Very best. Neil

[zelda_pinwheel]

great news ! thanks neil.

by the way, i'm not sure how Tony is making these logos, but if you really want them to go far, ask him if he could make them available as vector images (.eps and / or .svg), which would allow them to scale with no loss of quality. that would be brilliant. (obviously, i'll be very happy just to have a transparent .png, of course. i don't want to seem too demanding.)

[neilmarr]

That's a great idea, Zelda. Thanks. I'm not sure how Tony's creating the images either, but he'll be checking this thread. He's in BC Canada, nine hours behind your clock and mine here in France, so it'll be a wee while before he's back in the land of the living. Slainte. Neil

PS: By the way, Zelda, is your mother tongue English or French? I ask because a bloke I know in the US has a blog for native French speakers who prefer to read in English. He's been in touch with a few of our authors who've contributed some of their short story work, and he'll be running the stories monthly on site or as downloads later this year with a glossary alongside explaining difficfult or unusual words and phrases. All free of charge, of course. If you want to take a look at how the blog looks right now, it's here: http://le-mot-juste-en-anglais.typep...bienvenue.html N

[zelda_pinwheel]

thanks for the blog suggestion neil. actually i wouldn't say i prefer to read in english, however i am more or less obliged to read more in english than in french because of the penury of french-language ebooks so far. it's actually a bit of a sore subject. i would choose to read books in their original language anyway whenever possible so i don't mind reading jane austen or douglas adams or julian barnes or whathaveyou in english but sometimes i just get tired of it, i really want to read some fred vargas, léo malet, boris vian (etc. etc. etc.) on my liseuse too ! french publishers still have a lot of catching up to do, although i have to admit, they do seem to be making an effort (some of them, anyway).

[zelda_pinwheel]

hm, i took a quick look at that blog, is your friend american in fact ? i ask because he uses an expression i would never use (and in fact don't think i have ever seen), "locuteur français", i would say "francophone" instead.

[Stinger]

As one of those people that will never buy an ebook that's wrapped in Draconian DRM out of principle, it's always nice to see more people jump on the bandwagon as you say Kudos

[neilmarr]

I've only known Jonathan Goldberg as a cyber pal for a short time, Zelda. I think he's American but has spent a lot of time in France and has strong connections here (perhaps his wife is French, as is mine). In fact, he was telling me in his last note that he'll be in France for a couple of weeks in June, staying with friends (maybe family?) in Montpellier. I'll be sure to ask him when he's next in touch. Very nice chap.

By the way, one of the writers I put him in touch with is a magnificent US author called Howard Waldman, who lives not a million miles from you in Paris. Howard spent the first part of his working life teaching French literature at an American university and the rest teaching American literature at a French university.

He retired about twelve years ago and started to actually write at last. I'm glad he did because I love his work. We have all four of his novels, which I guess fall into what's become known as the *literary fiction* genre.

His first, Back There is a dark romance set in Paris in the '50s. His last is a really off-beat piece called Good Americans Go to Paris When They Die. If you like, take a look at them on our http://www.bewrite.net site (you'll find blurbs, extracts and author biography there) and let me know by email (ntmarrATbewrite.net) if you're interested. I'll send them straight over to you with our compliments in PDF or ePub.

Best wishes. Neil

[neilmarr]

Thanks, Stinger. You've stumbled into like-minded company here at MR. Here's karma to ya. Cheers. Neli

[zelda_pinwheel]

that's very kind of you, neil. i'll take a look at them right away.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Thanks, Stinger. You've stumbled into like-minded company here at MR. Here's karma to ya. Cheers. Neli

consider your band-wagon well and truely jumped upon ....