Amazon's own ebook format

[barryem]

Originally Posted by jswinden

But with digital eBook (or music) it becomes a sticky point of contention because you are basically only buying the right to read/view/listen to your digital media. You are not buying a physical copy and technically don't own the digital media.

I almost agree. Amazon is selling the right to read the book. I'm buying the book. I'm sure Amazon disagrees and I'm sure a judge and jury would disagree. But when I pay for a book I feel like it's mine and I'm the one who gets to decide that.

I'm perfectly willing to respect Amazon's and the publisher's and the author's right to make money. In fact when I lend a book I lend it on an old Kindle so this doesn't really apply to me at the moment. But when my friends and family have Kindles of their own it could very well apply.

Sharing books with friends and family is a good thing and some silly paranoid and unenforceable law doesn't change that for me. It's what civilized people do.

Barry

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by barryem

Sharing books with friends and family is a good thing and some silly paranoid and unenforceable law doesn't change that for me. It's what civilized people do.

Barry

I'm sorry, Barry, but buying an ebook does not give you the right to give copies of it to all your friends. That's piracy, plain and simple.

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by barryem

Sharing books with friends and family is a good thing and some silly paranoid and unenforceable law doesn't change that for me. It's what civilized people do.

Barry

I noticed this news at another internet site:

"A new DRM technology is being developed in Germany that gives every ebook a unique watermark of sorts, so that publishers can track them and see who is pirating copies. With the popularity of ereaders and ebooks on the rise, publishers are looking for new ways to combat the rise in piracy on ebooks, especially expensive ones.

The DRM essentially alters words, punctuation, and other text elements in ebooks so that every copy is unique in some way. This means that copies can be traced back to the people who bought and pirated them, making it easier to catch wrong-doers and cut down on ebook piracy in the long run, or at least that's what publishers are hoping for.

While the storyline of an ebook would remain intact, the DRM would change some words around, as well as insert synonyms, change the paragraph format, or alter the punctuation just a tad. A good example is that some copies could come with "don't" instead of "do not," or "that's so pathetic" instead of "that's pathetic.""

Thus, "unenforceable" may be soon replaced by ENFORCEABLE.

Back in 2003 those stripping DRM from music files, sharing with friends and having the friends upload to pirate sites, were shocked when the first 875 subpoenas were received by private individuals. Supposedly the technology then could not enforce those copyrights either.

[robko]

While that idea was floated, I think it was rapidly dismissed (I remember reading something about it). The logistics of keeping track of it alone would kill the idea, and I suspect that readers aren't going to be pleased by misplaced punctuation and writers wouldn't be pleased by publishers randomly changing words in their books (not withstanding what may or may not occur during editing).

[DiapDealer]

Not to mention the all legal issues that were raised over whether or not ebook retailers could be compelled to turn over private customer transaction data to a third-party (private) entity for the purposes of monitoring/enforcement (forget about whether the actual copyright holders would sign off on the actual content of their work being altered in way).

I haven't heard anything new about this particular "anti-piracy" plan for months and months and months. Assumed it was dead, in fact.

[ProfCrash]

Some one read Patriot Games and how Jack Ryan made it easy for the CIA to track documents that were leaked back to the leaker. (eye roll)

Not gonna happen. I don't want words moved around, words changed, or any element of a book messed with for any reason. I want to read the words that the author wrote. I seriously doubt any author would be happy to hear that words were being changed or rearranged in the interest of preventing piracy.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Not gonna happen. I don't want words moved around, words changed, or any element of a book messed with for any reason. I want to read the words that the author wrote. I seriously doubt any author would be happy to hear that words were being changed or rearranged in the interest of preventing piracy.

think new off some to something story or reading. words will a one would we'll the keep rearranging get interesting twist fly punctuation totally Maybe plot around thinking. for make very unexpected. Anyway, and I it'll

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

think new off some to something story or reading. words will a one would we'll the keep rearranging get interesting twist fly punctuation totally Maybe plot around thinking. for make very unexpected. Anyway, and I it'll

I knew it!

You're the one leaving all those nonsense blog post comments (and sending spammy emails) all over the internet, aren't you?

You're busted, banana-flinger.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm sorry, Barry, but buying an ebook does not give you the right to give copies of it to all your friends. That's piracy, plain and simple.

You've just put a slight twist on what I said. Buying a book and giving all my friends a copy is piracy. We agree on that. I have a lot of friends and neighbors and I come from a fairly large family.

I currently have a single Kindle that I use for loaning books. It doesn't stay loaned out all that much. A number of my friends, neighbors and family members don't read a lot. Others do but not the same things I read. So my loaner Kindle gets loaned now and then.

If my sister gets a Kindle and I'm reading a book and she wants a copy I wouldn't hesitate to give it to her. Currently I loan her my Kindle to read it. Either way works. The result is the same.

Is that still piracy? Sure it is. But it's piracy in it's very mildest form and being a stingy brother or friend or neighbor is a lot worse.

We're weighing two evils here; selfishness and lawbreaking. You argue on the side of selfishnees. I argue on the side of lawbreaking. It's the nature of the world we live in that we have to make choices like that sometimes.

Barry (criminal mastermind)

[barryem]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

"A new DRM technology is being developed in Germany that gives every ebook a unique watermark of sorts, so that publishers can track them and see who is pirating copies.

None of my friends or family members are the kind of people who would upload a book to a pirate site. In fact I'm probably the only one I know who would even know how to find a pirate site.

They would all probably read the book and delete it. If I found out one had uploaded a book to a pirate site they'd never get another one from me.

Keep in mind that we're talking about a fine point here. We're discussing which ways we share books with our friends are okay and which aren't. No-one in this discussion is advocating piracy.

Barry

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by barryem

None of my friends or family members are the kind of people who would upload a book to a pirate site. In fact I'm probably the only one I know who would even know how to find a pirate site.

They would all probably read the book and delete it. If I found out one had uploaded a book to a pirate site they'd never get another one from me.

Keep in mind that we're talking about a fine point here. We're discussing which ways we share books with our friends are okay and which aren't. No-one in this discussion is advocating piracy.

Barry

Amazon already allows you to "loan" your eBook to any other Amazon customer. It lasts for 2 weeks during which you may not read it while they finish the eBook. Most publishers allow the "loan" but a few do not.

Thus, there is really no reason to skirt the copyright laws at all.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Amazon already allows you to "loan" your eBook to any other Amazon customer. It lasts for 2 weeks during which you may not read it while they finish the eBook. Most publishers allow the "loan" but a few do not.

Thus, there is really no reason to skirt the copyright laws at all.

I think you can only loan a limited number of times.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Amazon already allows you to "loan" your eBook to any other Amazon customer. It lasts for 2 weeks during which you may not read it while they finish the eBook. Most publishers allow the "loan" but a few do not.

Thus, there is really no reason to skirt the copyright laws at all.

If I'm not mistaken though (and it's certainly possible that I am), through the Amazon "loan" feature, you can only loan a book one time. So if you have two siblings that are interested in reading the book after you're done with it, you have to choose between them--maybe causing strife within the family...

[sirmaru]

Originally Posted by dordale

If I'm not mistaken though (and it's certainly possible that I am), through the Amazon "loan" feature, you can only loan a book one time. So if you have two siblings that are interested in reading the book after you're done with it, you have to choose between them--maybe causing strife within the family...

True, you can only loan the book one time. If the borrower does not open it in 7 days, you can then loan it again. The book page at Amazon must show it is lendable. The lender cannot read the eBook while it is out on loan.

However, if the book is that good, then others should BUY the book. The copyright holders are entitled to that fee. I think that is a very generous policy which most folks have never even explored.

If anyone is interested, all the instructions on LEGALLY sharing eBooks are here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custom...594&sr=1-1-acs

[whitearrow]

Originally Posted by barryem

Is that still piracy? Sure it is. But it's piracy in it's very mildest form and being a stingy brother or friend or neighbor is a lot worse.

Or maybe we can stop using the RIAA's and MPAA's preferred "maximize the evil" terminology and call it what it is, precisely -- copyright infringement, which US law treats as a civil tort in most cases. Pirates kill people, take hostages, and commit extortion. It's not exactly the same thing.