eBook resources

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by glop glop

Though I have to say I'd find it hard to imagine any company prosecuting someone for downloading a music album he/she already owns.

I entirely agree with you. I too think that it's a reasonable thing to do, but I'm not kidding myself that that makes it legal.

The problem is, of course, that although you or I may own the CD/book/whatever, and hence consider it reasonable to download it from the Internet, if it's publically available there's nothing to stop it being downloaded by 1000 people who haven't paid for it for every 1 person who has. That's why I'm all in favour of the most vigorous prosecution of uploaders.

[JSWolf]

it is getting better. But it will take time to get more older (possibly out of print) material available in electronic format. The only thing we, as users, can do is let the publishers know we want more older content.

[monkeywrench]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

it is getting better. But it will take time to get more older (possibly out of print) material available in electronic format. The only thing we, as users, can do is let the publishers know we want more older content.

Every time I see a fairly recent title that I would like to read that is not available in ebook format I contact the publisher by email. I always get the same response "there are currently no plans to make this title available in electronic format." Although the response I get isn't what I am looking for I truly believe that this contact is planting the seed that there are in fact people in the world that want their content in electronic form. The more people that do this the better.

I also drop Sony a note every month or so with a list of books that I would like to see. You can do this from the connect web site.

From what I have seen in these forums there are several people that are doing this. With any luck, over time, this will help.

[glop glop]

Originally Posted by monkeywrench

Every time I see a fairly recent title that I would like to read that is not available in ebook format I contact the publisher by email. I always get the same response "there are currently no plans to make this title available in electronic format." Although the response I get isn't what I am looking for I truly believe that this contact is planting the seed that there are in fact people in the world that want their content in electronic form. The more people that do this the better.

I like that, I think I'll run off a template and I can reuse whenever I can't find an eBook I'm after. Of course I may well "back drawer" the reader after a while given the lack of choice currently available!

[HarryT]

Are you interested in SF or Fantasy? If so, take a look at Baen. They have a large selection of books, all DRM free, at reasonable prices. They also have lots of stuff you can download free.

[glop glop]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I entirely agree with you. I too think that it's a reasonable thing to do, but I'm not kidding myself that that makes it legal.

The problem is, of course, that although you or I may own the CD/book/whatever, and hence consider it reasonable to download it from the Internet, if it's publically available there's nothing to stop it being downloaded by 1000 people who haven't paid for it for every 1 person who has. That's why I'm all in favour of the most vigorous prosecution of uploaders.

Bit of a moral maze that one.

You could argue that if it weren't for uploaders we wouldn't have anywhere near the range of (legally) downloadable music that we have today.

[glop glop]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Are you interested in SF or Fantasy? If so, take a look at Baen. They have a large selection of books, all DRM free, at reasonable prices. They also have lots of stuff you can download free.

Cheers. Baen is on my bookmarks list already though, to be honest I think I've pretty much got every site that's been mentioned on mobileread!

You can see the problem, my choice in books to read (like I think most people's) comes not from browsing websites and seeing "what's available", it comes from friend recommendations, newspaper/tv reviews and similar.

[monkeywrench]

Originally Posted by glop glop

Of course I may well "back drawer" the reader after a while given the lack of choice currently available!

Glop Glop,

Another thing worth mentioning is that a lot of people around here read books in several different formats. While I have been trying to use my Sony Reader for as many books as possible I have also read several hardcover and paperback books since I got the device. I wouldn't limit yourself to one or the other.

I usually go to the book store every other week or so and take a note of several books I want to read. When I get home I look for them on connect or one of the many other sites that people mention in the forums and if I can't find them I usually order them online or pick them up the next time I go by the store.

One of the great advantages has also been that I am reading stuff that is out of the ordinary for me. Since I like to read on the reader I will often take a chance on a book that I am not sure about. Because of this I have discovered a lot of great reading that I would have never touched otherwise. There have been a few that I wish I wouldn't have bought but not too many.

I think if you give it a chance and just mix it up a little bit you will find that you like it more and more as time goes on.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by glop glop

Though I have to say I'd find it hard to imagine any company prosecuting someone for downloading a music album he/she already owns.

Just as it was in the cassette tape and VCR days, I don't think anyone was ever sued for copying a song, movie or book they already owned. They did get sued, however, if they tried to sell copies of that material, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to expect to happen.

Unfortunately music and literature content owners are assuming that everyone who has a digital copy of their content will copy and sell it, because it's so easy. So, instead of taking steps to make sure that purchasing their content is so much more convenient and satisfying than bothering to pirate it, they panic and lock the content down.

I expect this trend to change, once publishhers figure out how to properly package their content in such a way as to make purchasers want their legitimate material, instead of pirated copies. But it's been pointed out that mainstream publishers have been glacially slow to adapt, so we'll probably have to wait a while to see that from anyone other than independents.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Unfortunately music and literature content owners are assuming that everyone who has a digital copy of their content will copy and sell it, because it's so easy. So, instead of taking steps to make sure that purchasing their content is so much more convenient and satisfying than bothering to pirate it, they panic and lock the content down.

Or charge a levy on blank recording media which gets passed on to the music industry. I don't know if it's the same in the US, but in the UK, CDR-Audio discs (the type used by HiFi CD recorders) are much more expensive than normal CD-R data discs because they have a special tax imposed on them which gets passed back to the recording industry, on the grounds that the only use for these CDs is to copy music.

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by grimo1re

E-book reader owners of the world unite! Perhaps we can show the publishing industry there *is* a viable market for e-books!

The only way to do that is to be vigilant and to buy the books by authors you like as soon as you find them. Publishers are businesses and they only really understand money. So the sales figures on how many Readers are sold may get them interested, the only thing which will keep them interested and will get them to commit to providing content is to see that their early offerings are being purchased.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Or charge a levy on blank recording media which gets passed on to the music industry. I don't know if it's the same in the US, but in the UK, CDR-Audio discs (the type used by HiFi CD recorders) are much more expensive than normal CD-R data discs because they have a special tax imposed on them which gets passed back to the recording industry, on the grounds that the only use for these CDs is to copy music.

Yup... more assumptions. On one hand, assuming people only copy music... on the other, assuming that it is all pirated music, and not simply albums already in their possession.

No wonder people are discovering more and more independents... where they don't automatically feel like they're being treated as criminals...

[JSWolf]

The CDR-Audio discs are more expensive int he US as well even though stand along audio CDR drives are a dead issuee for most as we have enough portable computer hardware to do the audio recordings with regular CDR.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The CDR-Audio discs are more expensive int he US as well even though stand along audio CDR drives are a dead issuee for most as we have enough portable computer hardware to do the audio recordings with regular CDR.

The reason I use them is that I'm a big fan of classical music and opera, and we have a government-funded radio station here in the UK (Radio 3) which has lots of live concerts, opera, etc. I have a Yamaha HiFi hard disk recorder with a CD-Audio writer as a part of my HiFi system and, using that, I can make purely digital recordings - digital radio recorded compression-free to the Yamaha's hard disk via an optical input and then transferred to CDR-Audio. Gives superb results.

I'm sure I could do the same thing with a PC, but the way I do it now is extremely convenient - it allows me to set a timer to record stuff when I'm not at home, and so on.

I believe that all HiFi CD recorders only work with CDR-Audio discs - mine gives an error if I put a standard CDR in it.

[glop glop]

Buggeration!

Just been round asking a few of my literate work colleagues to recommendation one book each, I came away with the following list :

• John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• The Mapmaker by James Jauncey
• The Physician by Noah Gordon
• Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
• Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock

Can I find any of them on eBook?

Well yes actually, a dodgy pirated eBook of Connie Willis' Doomsday Book but that's it.

Honestly although *I do really like Sony's Reader hardware* the selection of books to use on the bloody thing is absolutely dire, almost every book I've had a mind to read has been unavailable!!

I have an eBook reader here, I have money to pay for eBooks what is the bloody problem!