by Miriam
As you all know, we’re obsessed with electronic rights around here and pretty concerned with issues like piracy and copyright violations stemming from all the ways technology makes it easy to rip off an author’s work and not compensate him or her for it. And, now, my friend Joan has sent me this link about a device that will allow you to put your entire library, not to mention that heavy backpack full of textbooks, into your e-reader of choice with little fuss and no muss.
Full disclaimer: I’ve known Ian Sullivan, one of the inventors, since he was a four-year-old with an aversion to clothes and I was his longsuffering babysitter. Before I take him to task for contributing to the downfall of the publishing industry, what do you all think of his invention? Is it merely a boon to those of us who want to cart our entire library with us when we’re on the move? Or is it another sinister way to encroach upon author rights?
Posts
that little personal connection is amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe machines will do the thinking for the weak-willed masses.
ReplyDeleteI say go back to lo-fi, ovaltine and keep reading books.... this from a uni-tasker (who still writes with a typewriter).
Miriam, check out my blog at http://noirinmurder.blogspot.com/.
It seems clever enough but I think the ultimate easier answer would just be "lose the DRM on electronic copies, and you won't have to scan in the physical ones!"
ReplyDeleteAnd I say this as both an e-pubbed author AND a voracious reader of both print and electronic. And an owner of both a Nook and an iPhone, with a bunch of different books on each!
I love it! I have a house full of boxes of books, because I don't have shelf space for them. I clean out every few years and sell 500 hundred or so to the used bookstore, but I still have boxes and boxes and boxes. I would LOVE to put those books in digital form so they're USEFUL and ACCESSIBLE to me.
ReplyDeleteI like this device. Since I've already bought and paid for these paper books, no one is losing out on royalties. It's perfect for libraries or people like Melissa and myself with more books than space.
ReplyDeleteThis is a device that will become obselete fairly quickly. Once people scan in their existing books, and the majority of new books sold are e-books, this device will vanish. I say let it ride. Most "pirates" want to download something free that someone else has done the hard work on.
I think this device will do more to save and circulate older, out of print books than it will to create pirated copies of new books.
i want an e-reader that's flexible and exudes a smell of pulp paper
ReplyDeleteAs a writer/researcher, I need this. Seriously. Some of the indices in my books are more complete than others, and some of my books don't even have indices. If I could digitize them quickly and run a search for keywords, it would be WONDERFUL!!!
ReplyDelete