New ebook store for Australia and New Zealand

[troykm]

i do not advocate using torrents as a way of life, i do not use torrents for music or movies! i agree that it is stealing. however, recent history has shown that industry will do nothing unless forced too. in the case of the music industry it was provide it or loose your business. the same will apply to ebooks, if the industry can not supply what i and others want, we can get it another way. thats all im saying.

i should also state that i have no issue with DA direct nor cbell, both of whom have been most helpful to me and others and i know they (cbell in particular) have their hands tied. i still love my eco reader and will buy the books that i can from the readwithoutpaper.com store.

as for things i want but can not obtain through purchase, i will get other ways.

[ostler99]

@m-reader
I was unaware that the seeding in torrents could be disabled (as I do not use torrents).
Your point is a good one - torrent users should consider it.
I wonder what the answer is to these fundamental questions:
One, is it illegal to download a non-public domain ebook (without acquiring it legally)?
Two, is it illegal to possess a non-public domain ebook (without acquiring it legally) ?
I understand that the law in each country will be different but there is some probably some fundamental provision in international copyright law whaich would help answer.
(I am a lawyer but this is way outside my area of practice).

@troykm
I agree. I think that in (say) 5 years time we will have ebooks sold using the Apple iTunes model. I think I read that the Apple store is now the biggest distributor in the world of music. That shows that the illegal market can be destroyed if simple, cheap and borderless ebooks are made available.

[tezza]

I posted earlier on this thread about how I tried to purchase some Star Trek books from Read Without Paper, but I couldn't due to geographic restrictions. (No fault of theirs.)

Finally managed to buy some from Books on Board. Paid about $10 each. And guess what? They are RIDDLED with typos. Pathetic.

Is Captain Kirk's best friend SPOCK, or SPECK? Hard to tell as you read William Shatner's DARK VICTORY.

My favourite passage...

"On the semen, a thin blue stream of phased energy shot from the Voyager to find its target."

Sentences are muddled, about 50% of the hyphens that should be there aren't, and there's at least one typo per page.

I've downloaded other books that have other problems (thought nothing like the Trek books). For example, in Greg Rucka's FISTFUL OF RAIN, the first letter of each chapter is omitted.

If publishers want us to pay a premium for these ebooks, rather than take the free alternative, they'd better pull up their proverbial socks.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by ostler99

@m-reader
I was unaware that the seeding in torrents could be disabled (as I do not use torrents).
Your point is a good one - torrent users should consider it.
I wonder what the answer is to these fundamental questions:
One, is it illegal to download a non-public domain ebook (without acquiring it legally)?
Two, is it illegal to possess a non-public domain ebook (without acquiring it legally) ?
I understand that the law in each country will be different but there is some probably some fundamental provision in international copyright law whaich would help answer.
(I am a lawyer but this is way outside my area of practice).

@troykm
I agree. I think that in (say) 5 years time we will have ebooks sold using the Apple iTunes model. I think I read that the Apple store is now the biggest distributor in the world of music. That shows that the illegal market can be destroyed if simple, cheap and borderless ebooks are made available.

Well my understanding is it depends on how the non-public domain books with acquiring it legally is actually downloaded. Obviously if you have a copyrighted book on an ftp server then yes you can be deemed to be distributing, however with torrents, you with other seeders only give portions of the book (IP packets essentially) which on their own means nothing, can't do anything with it, IP packets aren't under copyright etc. But download enough of these packets and have them put in to sequence and you'll have a complete book.

Think of it like having 1000 people with a paperback, and each person gives you a random letter from a random page 1000's of times. Each letter is just a letter, but if in the right order you will have the entire book. Are the people giving you a letter breaching copyright? I don't think so, they are just giving you a different letter from the alphabet on multiple occasions.

So my impression is you can't be found guilty for distributing or downloading the material, but can be found guilty for possessing. Then again i have never really seen a case go to court and a real judgement be ruled.

[troykm]

what the hell are geographical restrictions anyway?? every time i see that phrase i see "the author and publisher have decided they don't want to make any more money"

stupid

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by troykm

what the hell are geographical restrictions anyway?? every time i see that phrase i see "the author and publisher have decided they don't want to make any more money"

stupid

No, actually you see a dealer that doesn't want to play on a world stage. It is the dealers that want restrictions enforced and mainly it seems ones from GB.

Dale

[tech_au]

Originally Posted by troykm

what the hell are geographical restrictions anyway?? every time i see that phrase i see "the author and publisher have decided they don't want to make any more money"

stupid

Geographical restrictions boil down to money and who gets it.
Because of some crazy book deals such as this fictitious example Macmillan publishers get the UK rights for a book and Harper Collins get the US rights. HC don't want US people buying the ebook from the UK as they lose out and vice versa. The fact that a US person can buy the UK hardcopy from the UK without a problem doesn't seem to matter to them though they lose more money than allowing the ebook to be sold.
Very strange old world thinking still abundant in the publishing industry.

[tech_au]

On a different note and good news for Oz readers. I noticed that WH Smiths in the UK have added the same regional availability functionality that Read Without Paper added recently so at least you can now see if you are able to buy them and most of them are available for Australia.

But I have found that due to good pricing at ReadWithoutPaper the 20% off Oz price at RWP is practically identical to the 30% off UK price at Whsmiths for a number of ebooks I tested so apart from getting an ebook at Whsmiths that RWP doesn't sell there is not really any advantage to buying in the UK anymore.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by troykm

what the hell are geographical restrictions anyway?? every time i see that phrase i see "the author and publisher have decided they don't want to make any more money"

stupid

It is a strategy encouraged by ASIS and specifically designed so that Australians have more money for beer and pies and stop wasting it on that foreign book rubbish.