Dangerously e-books: How do I know if my ebooks have been altered?

[Apache]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

The paranoia is strong in this one...

Is it Paranoia if they are really after you?
Apache

[SleepyBob]

Originally Posted by theducks

Editions change:
PC rules, Government regulation (editorial censorship). Corrected of text errors, file corruption (new data errors )

How did you know if your paper edition was un-modified?

Just because it was PRINTED does not mean what you see was what the AUTHOR originally wrote.

Right, but once I buy a paper edition, it's not likely to change. With ebooks, this is a real risk. Fixing typos may not be a big deal, but what if an author reworked a significant portion of their book and pushed it through as the same title instead of a new edition?

A running book might update a table of miles to run for a training plan, making it easier for newer runners, but I liked the old table better. Unless I never re-download the book, the new table could slip in without me ever realizing it.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by SleepyBob

Right, but once I buy a paper edition, it's not likely to change. With ebooks, this is a real risk. Fixing typos may not be a big deal, but what if an author reworked a significant portion of their book and pushed it through as the same title instead of a new edition?

A running book might update a table of miles to run for a training plan, making it easier for newer runners, but I liked the old table better. Unless I never re-download the book, the new table could slip in without me ever realizing it.

So make sure that you make friends with Alf and back up your books when you purchase them.

Shari

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by SleepyBob

Right, but once I buy a paper edition, it's not likely to change. With ebooks, this is a real risk. Fixing typos may not be a big deal, but what if an author reworked a significant portion of their book and pushed it through as the same title instead of a new edition?

I don't know how other vendors do updates, but Amazon will only update your copy of a Kindle book if you specifically agree to it. Smashwords make every version of a book since the time you purchased it available to download.

If I'm reading the OP's concern correctly, his worry is that a malicious hacker could replace the copy of an ebook at Amazon/B&N/wherever with a doctored version. That seems to me to be a possibility, but not one worth losing sleep over.

I guess the instance of "kindle" being replaced with "nook" in a copy of War and Peace sold at B&N is something akin to the issue the OP is worried about (Huffington Post story)

[Jack Torrance]

Originally Posted by EbookNovice

I find this extremely worrying to the point where I haven't been able to sleep.

Its time to put the Kindle down and step away from the computer....

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

How could a reputable ebook publisher "mess with" an ebook? They'd have to unpack the book, edit it, re-pack it, and put it out for distribution. Why would they bother? If you get a "messed with" book from an author's website or something, then that's the author's fault for not maintaining security on his website. How could you tell if the book was "messed with", anyway? What you consider to be fallacious reasoning, etc. might be just the author's opinion.

If I download a public domain book from, say, PG, and go through it and make "improvements" and upload it to the MR library, how would any downloaders know what I'd done unless they were already familiar with the book? I could "fix" grammar and punctuation and modernize language, and who would know without careful cross-checking?

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by Catlady

If I download a public domain book from, say, PG, and go through it and make "improvements" and upload it to the MR library, how would any downloaders know what I'd done unless they were already familiar with the book? I could "fix" grammar and punctuation and modernize language, and who would know without careful cross-checking?

Easy since there have been automatic compare programs since the days when Unix was young.

Baen, as you may know, sells unproofed eARCs 3 months or more before publication date. Readers often run a machine compare and report anything interesting.

http://www.baenebooks.com/c-59-downl...er-copies.aspx

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Easy since there have been automatic compare programs since the days when Unix was young.

It's easy if you know there's a reason to run such a program. But if I were to download The Three Musketeers (for instance) from here, I'd assume that it was the same text as on Project Gutenberg. I could easily check that it was, of course, but I wouldn't actually bother to check unless I had reason to believe that it was necessary.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by avantman42

It's easy if you know there's a reason to run such a program. But if I were to download The Three Musketeers (for instance) from here, I'd assume that it was the same text as on Project Gutenberg. I could easily check that it was, of course, but I wouldn't actually bother to check unless I had reason to believe that it was necessary.

Exactly. And when we compare two or three or however many digital versions, which one do we assume is the correct one?

[HarryT]

What do you mean when you say "the correct version" when you're talking about a translated book like "The Three Musketeers"?

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What do you mean when you say "the correct version" when you're talking about a translated book like "The Three Musketeers"?

I was just using The Three Musketeers as an example, because it was the first public domain book that came to mind. However, Catlady's point stands. According to Wikipedia, one translation was by William Barrow, and since he died in 1877, it will now be in the public domain. If I have multiple copies of "The Three Musketeers, translated by William Barrow", and they are all different, how do I know which one is an accurate reproduction of William Barrow's translation? How do I know that any of them are?

The point is that if you have multiple copies of an ebook, it's easy to tell if the text differs, but it may not be easy to know which text is the original.

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by avantman42

If I have multiple copies of "The Three Musketeers, translated by William Barrow", and they are all different, how do I know which one is an accurate reproduction of William Barrow's translation? How do I know that any of them are?

Go to archive.org and check out the scan. (Or go to a library which has a first edition - if the first edition is what you want; there's still the possibility that the publisher botched that one up and there's a later, better, more complete edition of the translation...)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Go to archive.org and check out the scan. (Or go to a library which has a first edition - if the first edition is what you want; there's still the possibility that the publisher botched that one up and there's a later, better, more complete edition of the translation...)

Abridged versions of classics are extremely common, especially when it comes to extremely long books like "The Count of Monte Cristo", or "Les Miserables".

[jersysman]

If I spent my time worrying about things like this, it would take away my enjoyment of the book. So, I don't spend time worrying. I just read.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Go to archive.org and check out the scan. (Or go to a library which has a first edition - if the first edition is what you want; there's still the possibility that the publisher botched that one up and there's a later, better, more complete edition of the translation...)

Do you go routinely go and check out the scans? And what happens if archive.org or other digital repositories go belly up and paper copies are not preserved?