What's with the Paranoia?

[haertig]

If it's not paranoia to not register a Kobo or a Kindle, what is it then?

"If it's not condescending and insulting to call people paranoid, what is it then?"

Assert your opinion as a fact, then challenge everyone to defend themselves against your silly assertion.

See ... anybody can play this stupid game.

[binaryhermit]

it's not *that* paranoid as paranoia goes, it could potentially be rounded to be considered a healthy level of paranoia.

Like, if it even technically qualified as a delusion, it's unlikely that alone would be enough to get significant psychiatric treatment.

EDIT: Psychiatric professionals generally prefer not to treat things that border on a disorder that don't cause major issues, and I'd argue "refusing to register a kindle or kobo you own" is far from a major issue without other problems.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by John F

I don't believe that matters. I believe he is generalizing.

Look at his first post. He makes sweeping generalizations, and calls people who don't want to register paranoid.

Whose first post? I was the one who used the term piracy in "This leaves one major source of "free" in copyright ebooks which, sadly, brings the word piracy to mind and does fit in with a touch of paranoia about privacy." which was in response to a message which simply contained "No. I don't buy ebooks."

Yes, I know about the Baen Free Library and quite a few other sites where I can legally obtain free ebooks. However much I personally like Baen and their books and their Free Library, they are not what I would consider a major source of books for most people.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Whose first post? ...

Jon's.

[Thasaidon]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Whose first post? I was the one who used the term piracy in "This leaves one major source of "free" in copyright ebooks which, sadly, brings the word piracy to mind and does fit in with a touch of paranoia about privacy." which was in response to a message which simply contained "No. I don't buy ebooks."

Yes, I know about the Baen Free Library and quite a few other sites where I can legally obtain free ebooks. However much I personally like Baen and their books and their Free Library, they are not what I would consider a major source of books for most people.

But you were not talking about "most people" You were wre talking about a specific poster.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You got the wrong post. This is the correct post.

Read the last line.

This is getting sillier and sillier. If someone doesn't want to register their ereaders why do you care? I do register mine. Do you care about that? If so, why?

If someone gets pirated books what business is that of yours? What's with the accusatory posts? I buy my books. I just counted. I bought 6 from Amazon so far this month. Do you care? Why? If I didn't, so what!

I have a friend who has a credit card but it's only for emergencies. He doesn't use it otherwise which means he rarely uses it. He has an ereader that I gave him years ago with a few books on it but he refuses to buy books. He doesn't want his name involved. He's terrified of identity theft.

Is that a silly idea? Sure! So what? It's his life and he's entitled to live it his way. He's a good friend and he has an idiosyncrasy. I have a few of them, too. And Mr. Wolfe, you have even more of them than I or my friend do . A little tolerance might be in order. You certainly get a lot of tolerance from us!

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

We don't question every person who don't want to register their ereader. Just the one who said they never buy ebooks. Like, at all. That's a bit strange, given that they probably don't use the library either. If they said they only buy DRM-free ebooks or only read fanfiction, for example, like many here do, no one would have questioned that. Ditto if they said nothing at all. But to announce they never buy and expect the others to just accept that without any questions is a bit much.

I buy books. I don't worry much about privacy in that regard. But I also read a lot of old public domain books. I wouldn't have much problem limiting myself strictly to PD books if I felt there was a reason to do so. People have been writing good books since long before I was born and I recently turned 80.

Equating not buying books with pirating books doesn't really make a lot of sense.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by issybird

There’s a coyness about “I don’t buy ebooks” that’s intentionally suggestive. Why not say, “I don’t buy ebooks; I only read public domain.” Or “fan fiction.” Or “my diary.” The poster is implying his/her piratical practices or is just trying to stir up controversy. Or both, of course.

I have a neighbor who only reads paperbacks. Yikes! Is she a pirate?

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If it's not paranoia to not register a Kobo or a Kindle, what is it then?

I bought my Kobo for sideloading so when I registered it I used a fake email. I did however register my Kindle. Does that make me half paranoid?

Barry

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by barryem

I have a neighbor who only reads paperbacks. Yikes! Is she a pirate?

Barry

Does she have an ereader? Has she talked about not buying ebooks on a public ereading forum?

No, it's not anyone's business which books someone buys or not as long as they keep it private. By announcing their habits on a public forum they make it everyone's business. This is a place for discussions and opinions, after all. If you don't want to be criticized for your more dubious choices, keep them to yourself. It's that simple.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by barryem

Is that a silly idea? Sure! So what? It's his life and he's entitled to live it his way. He's a good friend and he has an idiosyncrasy. I have a few of them, too.

Barry

Yes, he's entitled to live his life his way. And we're entitled to opine about his choices if he openly talks about them on a public forum.

I have many idiosyncrasies too. I don't blab here about those I don't want to be a public knowledge.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by barryem

Does that make me half paranoid?

I'm no doc, but I think there are two types:

Paranoid Personality Disorder

and

Paranoid Schizophrenia

The first one I think is better to have. Maybe you've got that

(I of course agree that, in real life, eReader decisions have nothing to do with abnormal psychology.)

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by barryem

This is getting sillier and sillier. If someone doesn't want to register their ereaders why do you care? I do register mine. Do you care about that? If so, why?

I don't care if someone does or does not want to register their ereader. I think it is silly not to but that's my personal opinion. With that and a toonie, you can get a coffee at Timmy H's.

Originally Posted by barryem

If someone gets pirated books what business is that of yours? What's with the accusatory posts? I buy my books. I just counted. I bought 6 from Amazon so far this month. Do you care? Why? If I didn't, so what!

Gee, I bought 5 books from Amazon, 6 from Kobo and 1 from Baen this week. As for the piracy, ebook piracy is theft. The author does not receive any payment for those copies. Do you support shoplifters? Pickpockets? We can get into the quibbling that an ebook is not a physical object but taking something without paying for it is theft.

I have a sideline in helping some authors get their books ready for publication and they have had some choice comments on the estimated 19% of all ebooks that are pirated copies.

My choice is not to support—in any way—ebook pirates. Your personal choices might be different.

Originally Posted by barryem

I have a friend who has a credit card but it's only for emergencies. He doesn't use it otherwise which means he rarely uses it. He has an ereader that I gave him years ago with a few books on it but he refuses to buy books. He doesn't want his name involved. He's terrified of identity theft.

Is that a silly idea? Sure! So what? It's his life and he's entitled to live it his way. He's a good friend and he has an idiosyncrasy. I have a few of them, too. And Mr. Wolfe, you have even more of them than I or my friend do . A little tolerance might be in order. You certainly get a lot of tolerance from us!

Is your friend an probable ebook pirate? If so, a nice story but lacking in relevance.

Continuing on a lack of relevance...

I had a late friend who would never order anything on line because she was worried about her credit card information being misused. Oddly, she had no fears of calling a phone number and using her credit card to pay for the purchase. That happy phase of her life ended about 5 years back when a scammer obtained her credit card information over the phone and it was maxed out in a couple of hours. I spent several hours helping straighten out the mess. Sadly, she didn't believe in Covid-19 but Covid-19 believed in her.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by DNSB

With that and a toonie, you can get a coffee at Timmy H's.

Coffee must be cheap in Canada. I'm envious.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by barryem

I have a neighbor who only reads paperbacks. Yikes! Is she a pirate?

Does she steal new books from a bookstore? Theft and piracy would be appropriate terms. If she only stole used books from a vendor for which the author has already been paid, she would be a simple thief.

OTOH, if she purchases new or used books from a vendor, gets free paperbacks from a community source, etc., then she is, like the majority of us, just muddling along as best she can.

It may be a bit old fashioned of me but I do get some amusement out of the people who would never steal a CD or book from a store but think nothing of downloading illegal copies of the words and music from the Internet.

As when one acquaintance of many years passed away and his wife asked me to take a look at his computer to assess it's possible value. For some reason I was reminded of a scene from "A Garden of Cucumbers" assessing the potential sales value of the St. Dismas Thriftshop: "About 5 thousand for the building and about 20 years for the contents". That quote is probably not totally correct since I read the book more decades ago then I care to think about. The computer was worth maybe $400, the contents of the hard drives were mostly very hard core porn images and videos.