DRM and the Destruction of the Book 419
Hugh Pickens writes "EFF reports that Cory Doctorow spoke to a crowd of about a hundred librarians, educators, publishers, authors, and students at the National Reading Summit on How to Destroy the Book and said that 'anyone who claims that readers can’t and won’t and shouldn’t own their books are bent on the destruction of the book, the destruction of publishing, and the destruction of authorship itself.' Doctorow says that for centuries, copyright has acknowledged that sacred connection between readers and their books and that when you own a book 'it’s yours to give away, yours to keep, yours to license or to borrow, to inherit or to be included in your safe for your children' and that 'the most important part of the experience of a book is knowing that it can be owned.'"
Re:Doctrine of First Sale (Score:5, Informative)
What Doctorow says about books applies to music and movies as well. For decades, records and tapes were yours to loan, share, give away... you OWNED them.
The constitution says that Congress can give a "limited time" monopoly on publishing to "authors and inventors". Period. It was included to protect authors and inventors from publishers. It gives Congress no power to protect publishers from anyone.
Yet, somehow in the 1950s the record companies got copyright law to let them screw over the artists, making phonorecordings automatically "works for hire".
If you want to pirate a Cory Doctorow book, just go to his website. They're available there for free download in many formats. The same goes for Lawrence Lessig's books, on his website. I urge everyone to read Lessig's book Free Culture. His and Doctorow's books are available under a Creative Commons license.
The Constituton is, in fact, the cornerstone of all US law. However, Congress ignores it and the Supreme Court lets them. Of the four boxes, we'd better start being more effective with the first three before we're forced to use the forth.
Re:Zhnore... (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, that's what the church thought too when the bible was translated and the pressess started running. It'd surely destroy them.
It might have if theology were all that they offered, but they also offer community.
Same as records destroyed the music industry,
Records severely deprecated the sheet music industry, which would probably have been eliminated altogether by the internet and free music [score, tab &c] sharing sites if they had not somehow managed to convince the legal system that every instantiation of a collection of notes are the property of the sheet music publisher.
and home recording, and VHS, and CD-burning, and DVD copying, and Bluray copying,
All of these have a certain built-in hassle factor. You actually had a better chance of a properly viewable copy of a rental VHS (given macrovision removal, anyway) than a rental DVD has turned out to provide, because of the inherent behavior of analog media under degradation. You might have a blip on the tape, but it wouldn't choke unless you had a problem with your deck and it ate the damned thing. Also, a lot of people see the value inherent to purchasing things they enjoy, under a system of capitalism anyway. In a more socialist society, it might make more sense to mail payment to the artist to show your appreciation.
What pray tell ARE the effects?
First Sale and Fair Use are under attack from multiple quarters. DRM-"protected" media is just one more example; you have to go back through the original seller to facilitate transfer, which is precisely what First Sale law was intended to prevent, especially as relates to books!
Re:too much knowledge out there (Score:2, Informative)
Re:too much knowledge out there v2 (Score:2, Informative)
You can't do that with a digital copy.
Actually, yes you can. Annotation is a key feature on the Kindle and it works pretty well, actually.
Re:The Right To Read by Richard Stallman (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Can someone explain to me... (Score:1, Informative)
...why anyone takes Cory Doctorow seriously? He's a political activist and passable young-adult sci-fi author who contributes to a geek blog. He's an expert on nothing. He has not formally studied anything. He mouths off about copyright all the time, but his grasp of law and legal history is laughable. Yet he consistently makes headlines for saying asinine things about subjects about which he has no expertise.
Ad hominem arguments can also be used against any other activist or public speaker out there, and are equally worthless. If you disagree with the message, attacking the messenger will do nothing to prove you right.
Re:hyperbolic nonsense (Score:2, Informative)
Until the Tycho Uprising [gnu.org], at least. (Can't believe no one has linked to "The Right to Read" yet. RMS, ahead of the curve as always.)
Re:Silly me (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, but if an author can't get an advance from a publishing company, fewer authors will be able to afford to take the time away from their "real jobs" to write a book. Yes, you can build an audience using unpolished, unedited work, and yes, you can take many years to write a book, but the first route leaves you looking like an amateur and the second route means you are more likely to get frustrated and give up halfway through.
The vast majority of books aren't a hit on the level of Harry Potter or Twilight. Most barely break even. The way that an author can afford to write them is by taking an advance and writing the book. It's the advances that keep the author fed, clothed, and sheltered between books if it's budgeted properly. I'm sure book signings and other "feelies" can help, but for every New York Times bestseller, there are hundreds of decent books that barely break even.
Quirks and eBooks (Score:5, Informative)
Copyright restrictions and such on sale of books/music/movies is extremely stupid in my opinion. In the end all it took was changing my address twice - once to Canada and then back - but it's the principle of it all. I'm happily reading my book now; a book that just to purchase I had to be dishonest about where I lived simply so I'd be allowed to purchase it.
DRM is another issue I'm worried about, however with the advent of tools to strip the Kindle and nook DRM, I'm not to worried about moving my books to a new platform once a better read becomes available.
Re:Doctrine of First Sale (Score:3, Informative)
We have the best government money can buy!