Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
What rights are being taken away from you?
|
My rights to use what I've bought as I wish, including, but not limited to, the following:
- move my books to another device (any device, not only devices sanctioned by some publishers (eh, as if all publishers could ever agree on which devices are OK, unless some external authority forces them to), e.g. a device that will be built after the publishers have gone out of business)
- convert my books into another format (e.g., to some format that supports better bookmarks/annotations/whatever, or if my sight gets worse I may want to convert them to something that supports a bigger font, or if I lose my sight completely I want to convert them into audiobooks)
- backup my books and restore them after my device breaks down and/or the publishers are out of business
- still use my books even if the publisher suddenly decides it doesn't want me to read them
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
Certainly you will check the user agreement before buying anything.
|
You want me to plow through a fracking EULA, most likely written in incomprehensible legalese, for a fracking book?!? People almost never read EULAs, and shouldn't be required to. There should be some easy-to-understand government-dictated standard so that people know what they buy without having to contact a lawyer every time they buy a book.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
Then please come up with a better idea of how authors and publishers can effectively protect their work.
|
No, I don't think they should "protect" their work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan
If you have a better idea, please tell us.
|
The model I'd prefer is similar to shareware, except that you promise to pay at least some small amount, X, but you also agree to pay Y1, Y2, Y3 or even Y4 if you like the work. One of the main points is that you can't pay immediately, only after some time, T. At that time you will get the bill to pay, and it should be made such that it's very easy to pay Y1, Y2, Y3 or Y4, but if you don't mind putting in some small effort you can make another bill for an amount as low as X and then pay that.
There are several psychological factors here. One is that it's somehow easier for many people to buy stuff when you don't have to pay immediately. Another one is that many of the cheapskates will pay Y1, especially if they're also lazy, because next to Y2, Y3 and Y4 the Y1 seems quite small and it's the smallest of the most convenient amounts. Then X should be small enough so that many of the ones who would otherwise "pirate" the stuff will feel no, or very little, incentive to try to find unofficial, illegal copies.
This system also suits people who want to try stuff first and then decide whether to support the authors or not. Now these people download the stuff from p2p networks, but even though they have the best intentions they often forget to actually buy the stuff later on even if they liked it.
And then there are those who really feel that they want to reward good works. (Personally I want to reward good works, and if possible I make donations, but I don't want to pay even the normal fee of something I think is bad (and if I think it's degrading I don't even want to sell it to someone else), but if X is sufficiently low I would rather pay that than getting it illegally.)
I believe the values of these different variables could be tweaked for very good results and reflecting even small variations in the culture, which shifts faster and faster every year.