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Robert Minneman · 02-23-2010, 05:56 PM

I read this poll mainly from the perspective of personally having invested thousands and thousands of dollars on hard copy books and now that I have an eReader (Sony PRS-505), I'd love to have all those stories available to me on my preferred media.

I've already paid for the book, why should I have to invest more money to get the book in the new format?

Yeah sure, it was 'great gravey' early on for the music industry, transitioning from LP to 8-track to casset then to CD. Sure the music industry was only to happy making us pay, over and over and over to own a copy of an albulm in all those various formats to keep up with technology. What happened when they realized that with the transition to CD's and the CD format transitioning to a cheap and common computer device? Why they tried to get the laws changed in such a piss poor and generic manner that made just about any use of any digital media by a home user illegal. Some companies (specifically Sony Music comes to mind) went so far as to insert malware trojas on their music CD's that were supposed to prevent "unauthorized copying" of the music, but instead caused major functionality issues for thousands of people.

I'm sorry folks the genie is out of the bottle, and while I'm certainly concerned that the actual creator of a work may not get his just deserts, I have no such worries over the publishing industry. They've worked themselves into this whole, let them dig themselves out.

There are those of us who will use this 'power' responsibly:

Creating/obtaining "digital backups" of originals we have purchased so that those works can be made available to us on the most modern media. We've paid our monies to the author and the publisher already, after that point anything we do for our own private/personal use of said is our business.

If I purchase the collected works of Heinlein, photo copy the pages and wallpaper the inside of my house with them, that's my business, and perfectly legal (if not bad decorating).

That said, I'm sure very soon there will be periods of time, like with the music industry where I will wish for a means of paying my money directly to the musician instead of to the general industry. Having learned of the moral abuses the music industry has practiced over the years with their artists, well, I shed no tears for music execs, let me tell you.

Then there are those of us who would be irresponsible and abuse this new power:

Making it point to create and obtain copies of works that they have not paid for nor have any intention of ever paying for.

That sort of copying is wrong.

Only a few of the choices on this poll reflected that, and it's reassuring to see that those that believe that sort of copying is ok are actually a very small minority.

02-23-2010, 05:56 PM	#312
Robert Minneman Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 18010 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: Sony PRS-505	I read this poll mainly from the perspective of personally having invested thousands and thousands of dollars on hard copy books and now that I have an eReader (Sony PRS-505), I'd love to have all those stories available to me on my preferred media. I've already paid for the book, why should I have to invest more money to get the book in the new format? Yeah sure, it was 'great gravey' early on for the music industry, transitioning from LP to 8-track to casset then to CD. Sure the music industry was only to happy making us pay, over and over and over to own a copy of an albulm in all those various formats to keep up with technology. What happened when they realized that with the transition to CD's and the CD format transitioning to a cheap and common computer device? Why they tried to get the laws changed in such a piss poor and generic manner that made just about any use of any digital media by a home user illegal. Some companies (specifically Sony Music comes to mind) went so far as to insert malware trojas on their music CD's that were supposed to prevent "unauthorized copying" of the music, but instead caused major functionality issues for thousands of people. I'm sorry folks the genie is out of the bottle, and while I'm certainly concerned that the actual creator of a work may not get his just deserts, I have no such worries over the publishing industry. They've worked themselves into this whole, let them dig themselves out. There are those of us who will use this 'power' responsibly: Creating/obtaining "digital backups" of originals we have purchased so that those works can be made available to us on the most modern media. We've paid our monies to the author and the publisher already, after that point anything we do for our own private/personal use of said is our business. If I purchase the collected works of Heinlein, photo copy the pages and wallpaper the inside of my house with them, that's my business, and perfectly legal (if not bad decorating). That said, I'm sure very soon there will be periods of time, like with the music industry where I will wish for a means of paying my money directly to the musician instead of to the general industry. Having learned of the moral abuses the music industry has practiced over the years with their artists, well, I shed no tears for music execs, let me tell you. Then there are those of us who would be irresponsible and abuse this new power: Making it point to create and obtain copies of works that they have not paid for nor have any intention of ever paying for. That sort of copying is wrong. Only a few of the choices on this poll reflected that, and it's reassuring to see that those that believe that sort of copying is ok are actually a very small minority.