MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - What happens to my digital content when I die

notimp · 07-07-2017, 10:09 AM

The spin in here is strong..

"Why would you trust a cloud less than a harddrive that could fail on you?"

What kind of a sidetracking question is that? And what if a fire broke out, and your library burnt away? Would you therefore ask the state to take your rights as a citizen away from you and own your books on your behalf, because you couldnt do a simple thing such as do your own backup, or upload the files at any cloud storage flogger, that doesnt also want to own the concept of "the future book"? (#kfx, ecosystem lock in, ...)

If you don't know, here is how it went down. Way back when, in the beginnings, big companies went to the state and held up their case, that the internet (nextbigthingTM) allowed them to scale SO MUCH, that they couldnt be bothered with personal support (thats the internet structure thing, where on youtube you are guilty until proven innocent, if someone wants to take down your video), or legal litigation. Because, and that was the argument - if even a tiny percentage of those "users" sued the company - much of their running capital would be tied up in lawsuites.

So they made schemes legal, where they take away all your rights to any of the goods or services you are still imagining to buy. And while they were at it, they made sure to make culture (what happens to a book, or a record, after you buy it - when it circulates) a corporate only thing as well. Something that only exists in their silos, and you can buy a right to look at, or listen to. For a contractually defined period of time. If your account with them is still valid, which of course they can terminate for no reasons, because - thats what contracts for millenials look like.

Thats what the streaming ecosystem is all about. And to the guy that wanted to express, that you can't do that (remove DRM) with Netflix - guess what, I know, that was the idea from the beginning, and thats part of my case for why it is so important that this doesnt happen to books.

Thankfully Amazon has managed to make the Kindle so uncool (and rightfully so - because their corporate "content policies" were so outrageous), that nowadays people feel the need to excuse themselves in public, when they read on a Kindle in any circumstance other than on a vacation.

The idea to take the concept of a book, and put it behind their walled garden, and their proprietary "book" format exclusively, was not even a remote success, anywhere but in the US.

(Dont ask why..

)

So I can now laugh it off, but what I can not laugh off, is the education level people ultimately got on what they were buying in the first place. "Something thats neatly backed up in the cloud, without you haveing to think about preservation?" Sure. But also something you never owned never had any rights to, never existed anywhere but in that magic place, where you are registered and logged in on a corporate terminal...

You know... a book.

Let me end again with "rights are important", because otherwise the notion of convenance as something "the corporation brought" will be used to lull you into thinking that you pay for that actually - but of course you don't.

Company has to keep a copy of the digital wares they sell anyhow, so they dont do you a favor by being your personal cloud backup provider, because they arent. Its just part of the technological progress that allowed them to cut operating costs by 1000%, and that a marketing guy came up selling you as "you always have a backup in the cloud - so thats worth paying for on your end...".

Why?

1. Microsoft is shifting over to that business model, scaling down and discarding their sales force left an right.
2. Every mom and pa bookstore was able to come up with their own ebook cloud, and manage it sufficiently. (What happened there was, that rightsholders didnt want to deal with it on that level, so the made holdings and then sublicensed to independant bookstores)
3. Amazon deleted books out of "your cloud", when they felt, they could be legally preassured to pay some licensing fees, you know - the backup solution of your dreams...

I never imagined that I'd have to explain to an American the actual benefits of property...

07-07-2017, 10:09 AM	#79
notimp Addict Posts: 248 Karma: 892441 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: K2i	The spin in here is strong.. "Why would you trust a cloud less than a harddrive that could fail on you?" What kind of a sidetracking question is that? And what if a fire broke out, and your library burnt away? Would you therefore ask the state to take your rights as a citizen away from you and own your books on your behalf, because you couldnt do a simple thing such as do your own backup, or upload the files at any cloud storage flogger, that doesnt also want to own the concept of "the future book"? (#kfx, ecosystem lock in, ...) If you don't know, here is how it went down. Way back when, in the beginnings, big companies went to the state and held up their case, that the internet (nextbigthingTM) allowed them to scale SO MUCH, that they couldnt be bothered with personal support (thats the internet structure thing, where on youtube you are guilty until proven innocent, if someone wants to take down your video), or legal litigation. Because, and that was the argument - if even a tiny percentage of those "users" sued the company - much of their running capital would be tied up in lawsuites. So they made schemes legal, where they take away all your rights to any of the goods or services you are still imagining to buy. And while they were at it, they made sure to make culture (what happens to a book, or a record, after you buy it - when it circulates) a corporate only thing as well. Something that only exists in their silos, and you can buy a right to look at, or listen to. For a contractually defined period of time. If your account with them is still valid, which of course they can terminate for no reasons, because - thats what contracts for millenials look like. Thats what the streaming ecosystem is all about. And to the guy that wanted to express, that you can't do that (remove DRM) with Netflix - guess what, I know, that was the idea from the beginning, and thats part of my case for why it is so important that this doesnt happen to books. Thankfully Amazon has managed to make the Kindle so uncool (and rightfully so - because their corporate "content policies" were so outrageous), that nowadays people feel the need to excuse themselves in public, when they read on a Kindle in any circumstance other than on a vacation. The idea to take the concept of a book, and put it behind their walled garden, and their proprietary "book" format exclusively, was not even a remote success, anywhere but in the US. (Dont ask why.. ) So I can now laugh it off, but what I can not laugh off, is the education level people ultimately got on what they were buying in the first place. "Something thats neatly backed up in the cloud, without you haveing to think about preservation?" Sure. But also something you never owned never had any rights to, never existed anywhere but in that magic place, where you are registered and logged in on a corporate terminal... You know... a book. Let me end again with "rights are important", because otherwise the notion of convenance as something "the corporation brought" will be used to lull you into thinking that you pay for that actually - but of course you don't. Company has to keep a copy of the digital wares they sell anyhow, so they dont do you a favor by being your personal cloud backup provider, because they arent. Its just part of the technological progress that allowed them to cut operating costs by 1000%, and that a marketing guy came up selling you as "you always have a backup in the cloud - so thats worth paying for on your end...". Why? 1. Microsoft is shifting over to that business model, scaling down and discarding their sales force left an right. 2. Every mom and pa bookstore was able to come up with their own ebook cloud, and manage it sufficiently. (What happened there was, that rightsholders didnt want to deal with it on that level, so the made holdings and then sublicensed to independant bookstores) 3. Amazon deleted books out of "your cloud", when they felt, they could be legally preassured to pay some licensing fees, you know - the backup solution of your dreams... I never imagined that I'd have to explain to an American the actual benefits of property... Last edited by notimp; 07-07-2017 at 10:52 AM.