Calibre hosted service - beta program

tommy123 · 01-01-2011, 07:56 AM

Hi everyone,

I have created a service that runs Calibre in the "cloud" 24x7.
It is most useful to run Calibre "Fetch News" and let the "Newspapers" be sent to your Kindle device. (Using Calibres send mail feature)

If you want to participate in the free beta program for this service, feel free to sign up here:
https://sites.google.com/a/freenews4...s/beta-program

What you get, is a VNC address with a password which you can use to connect to the service.

Please check out this site for more information:
https://sites.google.com/a/freenews4....com/freenews/

Greetings
Thomas

user_none · 01-01-2011, 11:23 AM

Interesting idea. It appears that this is only targeted at new downloads?

If this is the case here is a future idea for your service that would scale quite well and be less resource intensive. You could create a web based app for management and use the command line interface to do the downloading at a given time. Since the news sources are fixed you could download them all to a specific place then email them off to the users that want a particular new source.

chaley · 01-01-2011, 11:46 AM

I wonder what the copyright implications are of a service like this. It could be that the service is considered as redistributing material, something that almost certainly violates copyright. This would especially be true if money was exchanged.

It might work if one can successfully argue that the only thing being provided is a machine. The user is renting time and space, and is personally responsible for fetching the material. At that point fair use should come into play.

tommy123, if you plan on making money from this, you might want to check with a copyright attorney.

kovidgoyal · 01-01-2011, 12:36 PM

@user_none: That would probably be a copyright violation, unless you restricted the service to news sites that require logins and asked your users to provide the logins.

user_none · 01-01-2011, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@user_none: That would probably be a copyright violation, unless you restricted the service to news sites that require logins and asked your users to provide the logins.

I don't see why. That's essentially what Google Reader does.

kovidgoyal · 01-02-2011, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by user_none

I don't see why. That's essentially what Google Reader does.

I am no lawyer, but to me redistributing copyright content without the content owners permission is pretty obviously a copyright violation. The whole point of copyright is to prevent that.

And if a webservice is copying the content once and then distributing that copy to many users, I think that's a pretty clear case of redistribution.

Now whether the copyright holders will actually complain is another matter altogether.

user_none · 01-02-2011, 01:00 PM

Maybe rights holders not complaining is how Google, Archive.org, Instapaper and others are able to get away with taking content and making it avaliable in other formats through their own services...

tommy123 · 01-04-2011, 02:59 AM

@user_none: I was thinking of that, too.
The issue right now is, that it is very complicated for a normal user to VNC into the server and handle the Calibre "fetch news" service himself.
A web based solution would be so much better, if it is really simple to use. Though the idea is to make it as simple as possible. A plain website, with user registration and some choosing which news feeds he wants. Quit simple. It has to be so simple that my mom can use it.

But by doing that there won't be the need to "Kindly buy" the newspapers anymore. Obviously there is a difference between the paid newspapers and free newspapers. This service would only use the free newspaper feeds. It would go into competition with the "Kindle buy" paid newspapers - somehow.

Another problem is that more and more people are using Google Reader and "creating" their newspaper themselves. This service wouldn't be able to deliver their personalized news to the Kindle device.

Anyhow. I think sending around prebuilt newspapers to Kindle devices as a easy to use web service is cool. The only thing the User would have to do himself, except registering and choosing the news he wants, is to enable the service email address in his Amazon Kindle settings, so the emails with the attached books actually go through. But this is rather easy to do.

Someone wants to join up doing this?

user_none · 01-04-2011, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tommy123

Another problem is that more and more people are using Google Reader and "creating" their newspaper themselves. This service wouldn't be able to deliver their personalized news to the Kindle device.

Oh but it can! calibre supports Google Reader as a new source. The user would have to give their account information but it may be possible to modify the Google Reader recipe to use an authentication token (much as the many services adding login with your Google account). This would give people another reason to use your service. Having their personal newspaper formatted and sent straight to their Kindle.

cody1 · 01-08-2011, 06:41 AM

I'm no developer - but having a server based instance of Calibre where I could schedule automatic news downloads would be ideal. I currently put my PC into sleep mode and then use a wake timer to rouse my PC, with Calibre already running and scheduled to fetch and deliver the specified news ready for when I wake up. It's an indirect solution because I have to leave my PC in sleep mode - but would be so much better if I could just install it on my server and set up cron jobs from there.

cody1 · 01-08-2011, 10:45 AM

Following on from my earlier post, I've put together a brief guide for using Calibre on a PC to auto-fetch and send news according to a user-defined schedule. It's an intermediate step that uses wake timers - and will have to do until a usable web version comes around. Thanks again for a great application!

readbeam · 01-11-2011, 03:27 AM

Interesting, Thomas. Just discussed the same idea with Kovid the other day. This is what I came up with (as early beta): readbeam.com. Any suggestions or ideas are welcome.

tommy123 · 01-12-2011, 10:18 AM

Hi readbeam,

this is basically what user_none was suggesting. A webservice, that sends out the news directly to your kindle device.
Readbeam is more or less what I had in mind. Great work. Let me know if you need some help with your service.

Thomas

nickredding · 01-12-2011, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cody1

Following on from my earlier post, I've put together a brief guide for using Calibre on a PC to auto-fetch and send news according to a user-defined schedule. It's an intermediate step that uses wake timers - and will have to do until a usable web version comes around. Thanks again for a great application!

Useful guide. However, you don't have to install a program to wake your computer from standby--just use the Windows Task Scheduler to start calibre at the required time of day, and make sure you check the condition box "Wake the computer to run this task."

cody1 · 01-16-2011, 10:26 AM

Thanks nickredding... I didn't think about that approach! Much more simple...

I'll amend my guide and add that in too. Thanks again.

I've had a look at the readbeam service and it seems to be just what I was looking for. I'd be interested in finding out how to set this up on my own server, rather than readbeam's bandwidth being swallowed up alone!

01-01-2011, 07:56 AM	#1
tommy123 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 302 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle 3	Calibre hosted service - beta program Hi everyone, I have created a service that runs Calibre in the "cloud" 24x7. It is most useful to run Calibre "Fetch News" and let the "Newspapers" be sent to your Kindle device. (Using Calibres send mail feature) If you want to participate in the free beta program for this service, feel free to sign up here: https://sites.google.com/a/freenews4...s/beta-program What you get, is a VNC address with a password which you can use to connect to the service. Please check out this site for more information: https://sites.google.com/a/freenews4....com/freenews/ Greetings Thomas

01-08-2011, 06:41 AM	#10
cody1 Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Kindle	Great idea I'm no developer - but having a server based instance of Calibre where I could schedule automatic news downloads would be ideal. I currently put my PC into sleep mode and then use a wake timer to rouse my PC, with Calibre already running and scheduled to fetch and deliver the specified news ready for when I wake up. It's an indirect solution because I have to leave my PC in sleep mode - but would be so much better if I could just install it on my server and set up cron jobs from there.

01-08-2011, 10:45 AM	#11
cody1 Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Kindle	Great idea part 2 Following on from my earlier post, I've put together a brief guide for using Calibre on a PC to auto-fetch and send news according to a user-defined schedule. It's an intermediate step that uses wake timers - and will have to do until a usable web version comes around. Thanks again for a great application!

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01-01-2011, 11:23 AM	#2
user_none Sigil & calibre developer Posts: 2,487 Karma: 1063785 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Florida, USA Device: Nook STR	Interesting idea. It appears that this is only targeted at new downloads? If this is the case here is a future idea for your service that would scale quite well and be less resource intensive. You could create a web based app for management and use the command line interface to do the downloading at a given time. Since the news sources are fixed you could download them all to a specific place then email them off to the users that want a particular new source.

01-01-2011, 11:46 AM	#3
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,336 Karma: 8012652 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	I wonder what the copyright implications are of a service like this. It could be that the service is considered as redistributing material, something that almost certainly violates copyright. This would especially be true if money was exchanged. It might work if one can successfully argue that the only thing being provided is a machine. The user is renting time and space, and is personally responsible for fetching the material. At that point fair use should come into play. tommy123, if you plan on making money from this, you might want to check with a copyright attorney.

01-01-2011, 12:36 PM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,190 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	@user_none: That would probably be a copyright violation, unless you restricted the service to news sites that require logins and asked your users to provide the logins.

01-02-2011, 01:00 PM	#7
user_none Sigil & calibre developer Posts: 2,487 Karma: 1063785 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Florida, USA Device: Nook STR	Maybe rights holders not complaining is how Google, Archive.org, Instapaper and others are able to get away with taking content and making it avaliable in other formats through their own services...

01-04-2011, 02:59 AM	#8
tommy123 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 302 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle 3	@user_none: I was thinking of that, too. The issue right now is, that it is very complicated for a normal user to VNC into the server and handle the Calibre "fetch news" service himself. A web based solution would be so much better, if it is really simple to use. Though the idea is to make it as simple as possible. A plain website, with user registration and some choosing which news feeds he wants. Quit simple. It has to be so simple that my mom can use it. But by doing that there won't be the need to "Kindly buy" the newspapers anymore. Obviously there is a difference between the paid newspapers and free newspapers. This service would only use the free newspaper feeds. It would go into competition with the "Kindle buy" paid newspapers - somehow. Another problem is that more and more people are using Google Reader and "creating" their newspaper themselves. This service wouldn't be able to deliver their personalized news to the Kindle device. Anyhow. I think sending around prebuilt newspapers to Kindle devices as a easy to use web service is cool. The only thing the User would have to do himself, except registering and choosing the news he wants, is to enable the service email address in his Amazon Kindle settings, so the emails with the attached books actually go through. But this is rather easy to do. Someone wants to join up doing this?

01-11-2011, 03:27 AM	#12
readbeam Member Posts: 18 Karma: 1746 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Kindle 4	Interesting, Thomas. Just discussed the same idea with Kovid the other day. This is what I came up with (as early beta): readbeam.com. Any suggestions or ideas are welcome.

01-12-2011, 10:18 AM	#13
tommy123 Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 302 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle 3	Hi readbeam, this is basically what user_none was suggesting. A webservice, that sends out the news directly to your kindle device. Readbeam is more or less what I had in mind. Great work. Let me know if you need some help with your service. Thomas

01-16-2011, 10:26 AM	#15
cody1 Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Kindle	Thanks nickredding... I didn't think about that approach! Much more simple... I'll amend my guide and add that in too. Thanks again. I've had a look at the readbeam service and it seems to be just what I was looking for. I'd be interested in finding out how to set this up on my own server, rather than readbeam's bandwidth being swallowed up alone!

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