looking for privacy friendly quality ereader

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

That is exactly the reason why I do not want to have an attempted copy of a paper book on a reader.
The reader cannot. He cannot compensate for the font widths - what he does is change the space widths and I find the result just horrible, it disturbs my reading flow so much that I have to read word for word instead of taking a block at once.
And I don't enjoy reading this.
With the layout I chose, it works again.
It doesn't look nice, but neither does a pBook simulation.

I just upped the font size to something rather large. Most of the gaps are not gaps but really large spaces. Hyphenation really helped. I cannot say there were no gaps, but you do get some short lines.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Tar

...I tend to think about purchases as a means of supporting something. So if would support companies and products that I think are flawed in aspects important to me - instead of those who don't have those flaws - it would make my principles/beliefs a bit meaningless. It's a bit like some people not buying the fruits of child labour or not shopping at shops that donate to abortion clinics etc. So I guess it's a bit of activism. I understand how debatable this rationale is, but feel free to share your input if you will.

Mostly I hope your principles extend to supporting authors whose work you read. You aren't going to borrow books and you aren't going to buy them, so either you read only public domain work or your principles don't amount to much.

Originally Posted by Tar

Another reason for avoiding even such "small" hindrances as required registration:
The fact that registration, even if fake, is REQUIRED tells me two things:
1. There may be other things that the manufacturer thinks are REQUIRED which might be repulsive to me.
2. The manufacturer thinks I'm an idiot who needs to be guided away from making a "mistake" or not registering so they don't even provide that option.

In short, this small thing, required registration, shows their product philosophy, their view on manufacturer-client(in this case, serviceprovider-client, because they don't just manufacture it but retain their presence after purchase) relation and how they view their clients in general.

Pardon me, but that is ludicrous.

With both my Nooks and Kobos, I registered with the manufacturer and then essentially, they never need hear from me again. Meanwhile, for years and years I use a device that has features I like and need never connect it to the internet.

[Tar]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You aren't borrowing or buying eBooks. Are you planing on stealing them?

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

From where are you getting your books? The only alternatives are downloading from piracy sites.

If you don't believe that copying not approved by the publisher is just like kidnapping and murder, you might prefer not to use the word “piracy” to describe it. Neutral terms such as “unauthorized copying” (or “prohibited copying” for the situation where it is illegal) are available for use instead. Some of us might even prefer to use a positive term such as “sharing information with your neighbor.”

The words “piracy,” “theft” and “stealing” are not legally recognized words and amount to propaganda. Propaganda that has billions of dollars worth of industries supporting it.
https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-banned...-trial-131129/

No one on the other side (supporters of free sharing) has any financial incentive to fight this propaganda so these words are now in common use.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Mostly I hope your principles extend to supporting authors whose work you read. You aren't going to borrow books and you aren't going to buy them, so either you read only public domain work or your principles don't amount to much.

Again you are making a very reasonable, logical point. Respect for consistent thinking.

This is not an easy question to answer and has many aspects to it and is hard to paint white or black (and should not be painted as either so I hope you guys can accept the discussion positively).

Firstly, thank you MR for allowing this discussion - I read the rules and did not find anything prohibiting discussions of content sharing (legal or not) as long as means to break the law are not provided (they are not). So this discussion is allowed (unless deemed OT).

To answer your question - yes my principles do extend to supporting the authors of the content that I like. For this I am supporting several authors directly (albeit not by much and certainly not all authors that I'd like to support, after all not all of them accept donations in any form).

As I said this is a complex topic but let me try and share my opinion:

Not all money you pay for books go to authors. In fact, firstly at least in the things I read, in MORE than 90% the money would NOT go to the author. More than 50% of what I read is free anyway (mostly read ancient or technical stuff, and things people want to get out into the open for free). For the remaining ~40% most of the authors are already dead, etc. (don't care who "owns" or rererepublishes it much). The money would go to someone else. For the less than 10%:

There are authors that I like and that I dislike.

The ones I like are sometimes very rich sometimes dirt poor. I don't care about supporting the rich ones so I disproportionally try to support the dirt poor authors that I like. I believe that is the moral, not to mention intelligent thing to do for me. This way my money has a way bigger impact on production of good literature (so benefits all) not to mention helps the author to be more motivated and just to pay their bills.
For rich authors I don't care about throwing another few bucks their way just because that's the common thing to do. I have better uses for my money than to stack it on someone's pile (even if I like them). It's just economical thinking really. You invest money where it counts.

For the authors I dislike, -rich or not- I do not see the need to support their writing endevours. I want less, not more of that literature and not going to pay them just because I had the displeasure of getting to know their works.

It may not be legal but being prohibited doesn't make it morally wrong. In general, laws don't define right and wrong. Laws, at their best, attempt to implement justice.

I have the abiltiy to circumvent the law and do the morally correct thing so I do it.

My method is not without flaw, especially since it is a rare method so doesn't have the infrastructure for it, but I don't let it stop me.

As i mentioned before, my way has a flaw of many authors not supporting 'donations', and it is a big problem for me, I wish that changed faster. Though I'm happy more and more authors reach out to the community and accept support in any way. Truly times are changing.

But another problem is:
Some books are released without a living author but let's say with a new translation. Translating books costs a little money and some translations are important work and I would like to support them, too. However, I had never supported a translating person for their work. So this is another flaw in my method - such people go unsupported. I wish that changed but I try to compensate by supporting wonderful authors instead, since I have that ability.

Lastly: Libraries.
http://publiclibrariesonline.org/201...library-books/

There is no difference between an ebook torrent site and a library. Both buy a copy and share it with others. Libraries pay no additional money for the authors by the number of books read or anything like that. Just like torrent sites.
The only difference is libraries are government approved. Library readers are NOT supporting anyone. I know there are quite a few library-only readers here on this forum as well.
Again: Something being legal or not does not make it right or wrong. Although people have a dangerous habbit of feeling right when following the path of least resistance so there's that.

[issybird]

Moderator Notice
I am not going to do an exegesis on the above post to point out its many and egregious errors and flagrant entitlement and immorality. I will only note that while MobileRead permits neutral discussion of piracy, it absolutely does not allow the advocacy of piracy. At all, ever. Do not post in such a fashion again.

Adding: let the mods do the moderation and do not comment on moderation on the boards.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Tar

To answer your question - yes my principles do extend to supporting the authors of the content that I like. For this I am supporting several authors directly (albeit not by much and certainly not all authors that I'd like to support, after all not all of them accept donations in any form).

As I said this is a complex topic but let me try and share my opinion:

Not all money you pay for books go to authors. In fact, firstly at least in the things I read, in MORE than 90% the money would NOT go to the author. More than 50% of what I read is free anyway (mostly read ancient or technical stuff, and things people want to get out into the open for free). For the remaining ~40% most of the authors are already dead, etc. (don't care who "owns" or rererepublishes it much). The money would go to someone else. For the less than 10%:

There are authors that I like and that I dislike.

The ones I like are sometimes very rich sometimes dirt poor. I don't care about supporting the rich ones so I disproportionally try to support the dirt poor authors that I like. I believe that is the moral, not to mention intelligent thing to do for me. This way my money has a way bigger impact on production of good literature (so benefits all) not to mention helps the author to be more motivated and just to pay their bills.
For rich authors I don't care about throwing another few bucks their way just because that's the common thing to do. I have better uses for my money than to stack it on someone's pile (even if I like them). It's just economical thinking really. You invest money where it counts.

For the authors I dislike, -rich or not- I do not see the need to support their writing endevours. I want less, not more of that literature and not going to pay them just because I had the displeasure of getting to know their works.

It may not be legal but being prohibited doesn't make it morally wrong. In general, laws don't define right and wrong. Laws, at their best, attempt to implement justice.

I have the abiltiy to circumvent the law and do the morally correct thing so I do it.

My method is not without flaw, especially since it is a rare method so doesn't have the infrastructure for it, but I don't let it stop me.

As i mentioned before, my way has a flaw of many authors not supporting 'donations', and it is a big problem for me, I wish that changed faster. Though I'm happy more and more authors reach out to the community and accept support in any way. Truly times are changing.

But another problem is:
Some books are released without a living author but let's say with a new translation. Translating books costs a little money and some translations are important work and I would like to support them, too. However, I had never supported a translating person for their work. So this is another flaw in my method - such people go unsupported. I wish that changed but I try to compensate by supporting wonderful authors instead, since I have that ability.

Denial's more than just a river in Egypt. Your entire argument is, not to put too fine a point on it, bullshit.

You can try to pretty it up and justify it however you want: "I'm not stealing! Taking a free copy is not the same as walking out of a store with a book in my pocket..."

Ultimately, you are receiving a product/work for which you have not paid.

Do you use some spreadsheet to determine when an author has benefited enough from their writing that you no longer have to worry about stealing their work? What is the cutoff, in exact dollars? Do you somehow track their finances to know who makes enough for you to steal from guilt free versus who you steal from but feel really bad for it?

Lastly: Libraries.
http://publiclibrariesonline.org/201...library-books/

There is no difference between an ebook torrent site and a library. Both buy a copy and share it with others. Libraries pay no additional money for the authors by the number of books read or anything like that. Just like torrent sites.
The only difference is libraries are government approved. Library readers are NOT supporting anyone. I know there are quite a few library-only readers here on this forum as well.
Again: Something being legal or not does not make it right or wrong. Although people have a dangerous habbit of feeling right when following the path of least resistance so there's that.

You don't know the first thing about how public libraries work.

A library doesn't purchase a copy of a recent Stephen King bestseller for cover price and loan it endlessly for 'free'.

[issybird]

Let's drop this. It's not an argument we're going to have and the poster can't respond in any case.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by issybird

Adding: let the mods do the moderation and do not comment on moderation on the boards.

Since it seems it was missed. A post has been deleted.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I just upped the font size to something rather large. Most of the gaps are not gaps but really large spaces. Hyphenation really helped. I cannot say there were no gaps, but you do get some short lines.

Yes, but I do get a familiar picture of word combinations.
But if the spaces are unequal in length, then it is not known and I have to use words word for word, which is tedious and long-winded.
I prefer the weight of a paper book.

[johnwhelan]

I might look at the requirements first which are to read books.

Moon+ Reader Pro would be my choice of software. Then it is just a matter of which hardware it can run on. It runs on Android. I've had both epaper and LED screens, my personal preference is LED screens. I happen to like the Nexus 7 2103 but you can't buy them any more. They do have a replaceable battery but if you read in an armchair why not just have it plugged in when you read it? I think Samsung currently have a 7 inch tablet with a similar spec. Calibre on the PC and just connect with a USB cable.

DRM free books keeps you safe from the ecosystems, Smashwords are a good solid source.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Yes, but I do get a familiar picture of word combinations.
But if the spaces are unequal in length, then it is not known and I have to use words word for word, which is tedious and long-winded.

I've been reading your posts and this keeps prompting a "Huh?" from me. They even prompted me to pick up a book from the bookshelf to check. And, honestly, every line on all pages has different spacing between words. Just like my ereader does when the text is justified. The variation in the ereader is probably higher, but, I also tend to use a slightly larger font than most paperbacks. But, I don't see different spacing as I turn off the justification and go with ragged-right.

I prefer the weight of a paper book.

You mean physical weight? Really? The only physical aspect of paper books that I miss is being able to look at the thickness of the book to get an idea of how long it is and how much I have left to read. But, the ereaders handle this in other ways.

For the record, I'm one who does not care if ebook is displayed in the same way as a paperbook. And, I don't want them to be as the only advantage of doing that is familiarity. And there are major advantages to dropping attempt.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Yes, but I do get a familiar picture of word combinations.
But if the spaces are unequal in length, then it is not known and I have to use words word for word, which is tedious and long-winded.
I prefer the weight of a paper book.

You have your pBook collection. You go to read one of them and find out you cannot because your eyes have changed and now you need to have the text size larger. On my H2O, trivial to up the text size. Or I could go get my iPad and have larger text. On the pBook, nope. Not going to happen.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by davidfor

IFor the record, I'm one who does not care if ebook is displayed in the same way as a paperbook. And, I don't want them to be as the only advantage of doing that is familiarity. And there are major advantages to dropping attempt.

I agree.I'm an advocate of making the eBook look good on a Reader and not try to duplicate the look of the pBook. In most cases, it's a failed formatting attempt when publishers try to duplicate the pBook.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Indented justified paragraphs don't exist only to ape the features of a paper book. Why did paper books adopt those features in the first place? They exist because for many (not all) they make reading easier.

For indented paragraphs rather than blank lines between paragraphs, physical books use them because it means more text on the page, so cheaper to produce and lighter (fewer pages).

That doesn't mean the same decision makes sense for eBooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

For indented paragraphs rather than blank lines between paragraphs, physical books use them because it means more text on the page, so cheaper to produce and lighter (fewer pages).

That doesn't mean the same decision makes sense for eBooks.

Yes it does. The same indents and no paragraph spaces makes more sense then paragraph spaces with or without indents. Paragraph spaces can take me out of the story. That's why they have to go. They get in the way. Formatting that you pay attention to while reading or formatting you notice while reading is very poor formatting.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Yes it does. The same indents and no paragraph spaces makes more sense then paragraph spaces with or without indents. Paragraph spaces can take me out of the story. That's why they have to go. They get in the way. Formatting that you pay attention to while reading or formatting you notice while reading is very poor formatting.

No, they take you out of the story. Even though above you posted that you didn't want publishers to duplicate the look of a paper book, most of your comments and suggestions seem to go against this. And this is one of them.

Personally, prefer the indent/no paragraph spacing layout. When I do find a book the other way, I'll probably fix it, but, only when I need to fix something else. If it is "throwing me out of the book", it is because it was already happening because of something else.

I think, that one of the reasons that people like it, is that for short paragraphs at least, you can absorb the whole paragraph in one go. And for ragged-right formatting, it probably makes it clearer where the paragraph ends. I don't have a way to prove any of this, but, it feels that way when I do read a book formatted that way.

Of course, the most important thing is that my wife prefers the the space between paragraphs. It doesn't matter to her much, but, when I suggested that I could show her how to "fix" them, she said no. This has a lot more impact on me than your constant rants (and yes, they are both "constant" and "rants").