Questions Linger Over Google Book Rights Registry 107
We've discussed the fallout from Google's settlement with the Authors Guild a few times already. Now the issue is made pointed again by a Wall Street Journal editorial claiming that the settlement will ruin a functioning copyright system if it is finally ratified, as expected, in June by a federal court. Reader daretoeatapeach writes: "In the US this will establish a Book Rights Registry where authors can opt-in to 63% of the revenues of each book, the rest going to Google. While previously Amazon had cornered the market on e-books, Google's partnership with Sony will create a serious dent: 500,000 books to Amazon's 250,000. Though Google is currently only releasing the books that are in the public domain, they ultimately plan to sell the 7 million e-books they've scanned (and counting). This raises a lot of questions about the future of publishing: Do we want only one company (e.g. Google) controlling access to information? Should publishers get a cut of the money, at least as long as their book is being scanned? Will broader access to trade journals affect their relationship and reliance on libraries? If, in the future, more authors opt out of the traditional publishing model, when will this hit the 'recession-proof' book industry? And has the publishing industry learned any lessons from MP3s?"
Suspicious (Score:4, Interesting)
Ok, I think the guy from WSJ has some kind of a point, but...
We already have a good system. It's called the system of private property and free contract, designed for dispersed, autonomous individuals -- not command-and-control centers.
I don't know the situation in the US, but in Brazil we have 2 or 3 publishers that hold 95% of the market. That doesn't seem to me much different from 'comand and control centers'.
For the most part... (Score:3, Interesting)
Generally speaking, I very much prefer paper books too... and can't see ever switching over to a Kindle or any other sort of e-reader.
However, the one advantage that e-books have over the real thing is that I can't throw my feet up on my cubicle desk and read a paper book... but I CAN spend all day reading a PDF (and/or Slashdot), and it looks like I'm working.
Since I spend a quarter-to-a-third of my life sitting at the office, working jobs that involve 10% programming work and 90% being held up by inefficient management, time-fillers are an important part of my life. In a perfect world, I could just waste time openly and perhaps encourage management to get its organization together so I'd be less bored. In the real world though that would just get me outsourced, so I need to give the impression that I'm "heads down" and slaving away for my brilliant manager. E-books help.
Re:paper (Score:3, Interesting)
Even with screens of excellent quality, I prefer a book-like format to my computer for reading. The computer screen locks me into one posture, one particular lighting set-up, and a very narrow range of viewing distances. With a book, I can easily vary all of these conditions even as I read, and I find that I do so, constantly. I might spend an evening reading for pleasure (currently re-reading LOTR). But I'm changing my position, or the angle of the book to the lighting, or how far I'm holding it from my face almost constantly.
If I spend an hour working up a spreadsheet or editing a web page then go outside, it takes several minutes for my acuity to return to normal: things are a little blurry until my eyes adjust from the fixed conditions of the computer work to rapidly shifting focus between the path at my feet and the mountains miles away. That period of adjustment doesn't happen when I'm reading for pleasure, and I think its because I'm not locking myself into tight constraints on posture, etc, when I'm reading a book.
I'm thinking that I might see ebook hardware that I would like as much as deadtree books in the next 10 to 20 years, but we aren't there yet.
Re:Publish or Perish (Score:1, Interesting)
Yes, but how can this work? For any existing book the dead-tree publisher will have an exclusivity agreement with the author. As a writer, you don't get an advance from the publisher and the option to sell your work to someone else.
Regardless of any agreement between Google and the Writer's Guild, authors are bound by their existing contracts with publishers.
In other words, Google has negotiated a deal with authors via the Writers Guild, but what they need is the publishers' permission. Which they haven't got. I'm confused.
Re:paper (Score:3, Interesting)
More often than not I am trying to connect several similar concepts and have a finger or two marking my place as I rapidly switch between sections. How can I do that on a electronic device?
An electronic device is superior for that usage as well. First, it'll let you set any number of bookmarks, which you can jump between easily. Not quite as easily as with your fingers stuck in sections, but for that sort of use there's the "back" and "forward" buttons. On my Rocket e-Book reader there are some configurable soft-buttons on the touchscreen, and I set two of them to jump forward and back much the way forward and back icons work in your web browser. I can go to one bookmark, then another, then a third or a fourth, and then use back and forward to quickly jump between them.
If needed, I can also assign soft buttons to specific bookmarks. This is usually more effort than it's worth, but it can be nice.
The thing that really makes electronic readers great for reference books and textbooks, though, is searchability. Sometimes being able to search for key words or phrases is far more useful than any index. Oh... a properly-done index in an e-book is hyperlinked, which makes using it MUCH faster than a paper index, and if the page you find isn't what you wanted, just hit "back", and you're back at the index to try again.
Stepping up a level, if there's a common usage mode that is less convenient with an electronic device, then that just points out a flaw in the software. Since there are no physical limitations (other than screen size), there's no reason that everything you may want to do shouldn't be easier, faster and more convenient than with paper.
Re:Hummm. (Score:3, Interesting)