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Old 03-16-2012, 05:51 AM   #18
magkelly
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magkelly does all things with Zen-like beautymagkelly does all things with Zen-like beautymagkelly does all things with Zen-like beautymagkelly does all things with Zen-like beautymagkelly does all things with Zen-like beautymagkelly does all things with Zen-like beautymagkelly does all things with Zen-like beautymagkelly does all things with Zen-like beautymagkelly does all things with Zen-like beautymagkelly does all things with Zen-like beautymagkelly does all things with Zen-like beauty
 
Posts: 15
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Device: T310 Cruz Tablet
Technically, probably not, but absolutely I refuse to buy any book from a book seller that I don't actually own unless I can unlock it. I don't like not actually owning the e-books I buy. According to their TOS Amazon can take every e-book you've purchased right off your reader if they like and there isn't much you can do about it. Cancel your account they have the right to kill all your books.

Unlocking books from the library would be a questionable use of such a program and I am sure that removing DRM from books you've purchased wouldn't be exactly kosher either but I think that could be seen as falling under "fair use" if you then keep your own books to yourself. It's like copying a DVD to your media player or PC, no they don't want you to think it's legal. That's why they put all those lovely FBI warnings on movies these days, but being able to put your own movies on your own device I don't think that's such an unreasonable thing to ask.

I like to keep the e-books I buy, just like I used to keep paper books. Regardless of whether or not I decide to stay with one service or try another at some time I don't want to lose the books I've bought if I ever close my account. Renting books is something you do at the library. Buying them I think should entitle you to keep them forever, paper or e-book, period.

It's the same thing they're trying to do with software. They think we're all willing to move to cloud computing and renting software. It is IMHO, utter BS. If I buy software I'd better be getting the whole program as a download or as a disk to reinstall with or I won't be buying it anytime soon. I'm not willing to stay on the internet to do my office work or to read books. Being online to do some things it's just not that secure.

I recently got a TV card for the computer because our new DVD recorder won't let me rip the video from a home recorded dvd to an avi so I can save my TV shows to DVD just like I used to do with VHS. I called up my cable company to get help in setting it up because I wasn't sure if I could use the cable box with it or not. They practically had a cow over the idea that I was using my PC to record my TV shows so I could edit out the commercials and save 12 episodes to a DVD instead of 3. We're already paying through the nose for cable for those shows, so what is the big deal with changing how I record them? But apparently it is one for them because they nearly threatened to cancel our service over it. I was really tempted to yank the cable completely for a minute there.

I also tried recording shows from my own VHS tapes that I'd taped onto DVD and couldn't do it. The new machine wouldn't let me. It would record directly onto the disc from a new show on TV, but limit me to recording only 3 or 4 hours onto a disk and it would record from the VCR to a tape, but if I tried to then edit the video I'd just recorded from the tape and put it on a disk the machine would balk. Same thing with my old VHS tapes. It would let me record off of video I'd taken with a personal camcorder, like a wedding VHS tape, but it wouldn't let me edit and disk record from VHS tapes I'd made when I was using a VHS VCR to record my shows.

I called up the manufacturer of the DVD-RW/VHS recorder to ask about it and I was told a lot of the new dual recorders have this limitation. I was like you're kidding, right? Nope. We're not supposed to record or own anything media-wise lately apparently. As more and more media things go to dl only that's going to cause problems for all of us. We won't own anything we buy because they won't be making physical media anymore.

All the video stores around here closed one by one. Same with the physical book stores. They're vanishing rapidly along with paper books. Very few remain except for specialty book stores, bookstores that have embraced selling online. Two of the oldest bookstores in my town still exist but they hardly carry anything in paper books. They won't buy them from you either. You can still walk in looking for some old volume you want but even then 9 times out of 10? They're offering to go find it for you online, to order it, because they barely have any stock in the stores old or new anymore. It's like they're just a physical storefront for Amazon and other online book sellers. If it wasn't for the fact that most of them sell coffee and stuff now, count on people being there to socialize in a cafe environment and maybe buy a few old books or a calendar or something, I seriously doubt they'd be able to pay the rent.

My library has cut it's new book paper book budget by like 2/3 this past year. They buy books for kids a lot and a lot of how to books, craft books, things like that, but all the new fiction is rapidly vanishing off the shelves in favor of the new e-books program. They're holding more and more classes, opening their doors to other public events, installing more and more computers, coffees etc, basically becoming media social cafes and community centers just to keep the doors open.

Everywhere I go I see more and more people reading on tablets and now tablet gear like stylus pens, covers et all, they are there at the checkout line, that's how mainstream using a book reader is going. I live in a pretty small city actually so I am amazed at all this happening, but it's true. 10 years from now? All new books will be e-books I think except maybe for a few best sellers at the supermarket checkout. All movies and TV shows etc will be downloaded. Kids will be carrying readers to school instead of texts. Physical media is going the way of the dodo or maybe I should say betamax? But the flipside of that is that the companies that provide the media will make the rules. You will only be able to buy locked stuff that they can take back if and when they so choose and using programs that bypass all that? Big no-no, sigh...
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