sharing ebooks

[Format C:]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Oh, sorry, I misunderstood - I thougt you meant that you were going to share your personal account details with everyone here. No, obviously if it were done openly that would be a completely different thing, but I really can't see FW going for it, can you? For one thing, in order for people to use the books (if you were thinking about secure books) the DRM would need to be removed, and that's really a legal "grey area", to say the least!

If the publisher is in the agreement, he can even give us DRM-free copies. It's just one DVD: we can arrange the distribution ourselves!

I'm talking about giving 200.000$ all at once!
And also giving the list of the thousand people who will read some of the books.

It's something like we all get unlimited lifetime access to all those books.
Nobody other than us will ever have that same access, and we won't "steal" access to other books of yours.
There are two closed lists: a list of people, and a list of books.
And it costs a lot less than a large room with 1.000 copies of the keys...

[Format C:]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm not saying that I don't think that it's a good idea, just that I can't see any eBook store going for it .

Nor do I.
And that's mostly because they don't trust us!

But I'd like to know if somebody wants at least try it...

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by Format C:

Just for fun, let's try a proposal:

We all make one single subscription to FW (or BoB, or any other one), with username and password given to every member of the forum.
We all together with that single account buy every single Mobipocket book in the catalog (yes, the entire library), encrypted with a generic, well known PID.

That way, we all have access to a lot of books, don't we?
And the bookstore have sold his entire catalog...

Isn't it a good deal for everyone?

Look at it:

• The store sells about 20.000 books (one copy each, but it's still better than sell 1.000 copies of 3 books...).
• The store still sells single copies to other customers (the "club" is a one time only, no late members are admitted).
• Nobody will read ALL the books, just a few dozens of them.
• New books are still sold individually: it's a one shot deal, and the account can be disabled to new purchases.
• One year later, the shot can be repeated with the new editions of that year.
• If we're 1.000, we pay for about 20 books each (which is the average in the western world), but we can read a lot more (and I bet someone will read less...).

We can also think to limited genre-related buyer clubs...
And if we're enough we can pay full price for each book, regardless to rebates and micropay or similar deals...
And if we're double than that, we can pay double price for the books...



In a distant future, that will be the only business model for digital content distribution...

They exist you know............They are called libraries

[daesdaemar]

Originally Posted by Ned

Is the legality of something related to whether or not it is morally acceptable?
In the UK /EC for example, our idiots in government make such absurd laws that I for one have no moral problem in ignoring many of the silliest.

Anyone who has studied ethics knows that one of its basic tenets is that there is not [necessarily] any relationship between what is moral and what is legal. Moral refers to right and wrong, good and evil. Laws are meant to control behaviors within societies. This control of behavior is necessary [in the view of governments] to maintain an orderly society [within their definition of an "orderly society"]. From a moral philosophical perspective, many laws can be strongly argued to be immoral/evil.

[Format C:]

Originally Posted by ErwinOtten

They exist you know............They are called libraries

It's not the same.
Libraries restrict access to books, both geographically and in time.

I cannot borrow books from American libraries, and you can't keep them for your life.

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by Format C:

It's not the same.
Libraries restrict access to books, both geographically and in time.

I cannot borrow books from American libraries, and you can't keep them for your life.

Hmmm, the geographical argument doesn't convince me, that's inherent to the WWW.
You're right about the time-restriction though, that's a new dimension

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Format C:

I cannot borrow books from American libraries, and you can't keep them for your life.

At our University library you actually can (or at least could) keep the books for your life if nobody else request the book . And some people have done that.

[HarryT]

University libraries in the UK don't generally let you "borrow" books - they are solely for reading in the library itself.

[Format C:]

OK, then.
Will you point me to a digital library where I can get thousands of e-books still in copyright for the price of about 20?

Honestly, I don't know such a place.

[HarryT]

Anyone can join the NY Public Library for a fee of I think about $100 a year. They have a huge range of eBooks.

[Dr. Drib]

Libraries that I've visited only let a person check out 2-5 books at one time (depends on the library, of course).

What I'm trying to say is that the analogy to a library does not quite correlate.

Don

[igorsk]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Anyone can join the NY Public Library for a fee of I think about $100 a year. They have a huge range of eBooks.

AFAIK only US residents.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Libraries that I've visited only let a person check out 2-5 books at one time (depends on the library, of course).

What I'm trying to say is that the analogy to a library does not quite correlate.

Don

Clevenet lets you checkout 20, and you can manage your checkout time to as little as 7 days.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Clevenet lets you checkout 20, and you can manage your checkout time to as little as 7 days.

That's good to know.

However, I don't think one can "check out" thousands of books at one time, getting back to the library analogy.

Don

[daesdaemar]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Clevenet lets you checkout 20, and you can manage your checkout time to as little as 7 days.

I don't believe one can subscribe to Clevenet unless they live in Cleveland metro area.