University of Chicago Announces free Monthly ebook

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by weedfreak

They use pdf as an ebook format, which it is not is, and that is their fault.
I am assuming that the d/l is drmed which is why they use ADE and that is their fault.
Why anyone would DRM a free book is beyond me.

Well, they actually sell this free ebook, using their tiered pricing. So it's free, but only for a while I suppose.

I expect they use ADE because it's a 3rd party process, so the U of C doesn't have to come up with its own DRM scheme.

And you are right - the use of pdf for ebooks is noxious, at least, based on this book. The lines format correctly only at the smallest font, which is virtually unreadable on my Sony 300. Size 2 is closer to readable, but I get one word lines every other line. Size 3 gives me words broken in half at the end of the line, plus 3/4 lines every other line. Changing over to landscape gives me the identical problems.

So I won't even bother to read this book, nor go back for more free books, nor purchase any of their offerings at any price level.

Which annoys me even more because I went to U of C to get my law degree.

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by weedfreak

Something else to note about this 'free' ebook, the book is only a loan book, it is for a year so plenty of time to read it but if you want to keep it to reread it then it will need to be deDRMed.

Source?
I have the ebook in question here. It has the following permissions set by the publisher:

• Allow viewing: on any device
• Allow copying: 1 copy with an additional copy accrued every 1 minute, capped at 1 copy, on any device
• Allow printing: 50 pages, on this computer, at a maximum resolution of 200 dpi

Based on this information, I can only conclude you are incorrect and this book is not a loan book.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

Came as PDF. Guess that PRS-500 firmware upgrade will come in handy soon PDF reflow good...

What pdf reflow? I aint got no pdf reflow on my 300...

[AprilHare]

Originally Posted by Harmon

What pdf reflow? I aint got no pdf reflow on my 300...

Hmmmmm. Interesting.
The information I have is that the PRS-300 does PDF reflow.
PDF reflow, of course, only works if the PDF has been generated with PDF reflow in mind.
This may have led you to believe your PRS-300 does not do PDF reflow (after all, if you've never experienced it..)

[weedfreak]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

Source?
I have the ebook in question here. It has the following permissions set by the publisher:

• Allow viewing: on any device
• Allow copying: 1 copy with an additional copy accrued every 1 minute, capped at 1 copy, on any device
• Allow printing: 50 pages, on this computer, at a maximum resolution of 200 dpi

Based on this information, I can only conclude you are incorrect and this book is not a loan book.

I base my suspicions on the ascm file -

<fulfillmentToken fulfillmentType="loan" xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/adept">
  <distributor>urn:uuid:bdfb6d9d-d903-4065-b66c-e870cb98624d</distributor>
  <operatorURL>http://press-bv2.uchicago.edu:8080/fulfillment</operatorURL>
  <expiration>2010-11-21T08:32:07-06:00</expiration>

I have written to UC to check, but they seem to have the weekend free.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by AprilHare

Hmmmmm. Interesting.
The information I have is that the PRS-300 does PDF reflow.
PDF reflow, of course, only works if the PDF has been generated with PDF reflow in mind.
This may have led you to believe your PRS-300 does not do PDF reflow (after all, if you've never experienced it..)

What you say makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is for an ebook publisher to generate pdfs which don't reflow.

[bibliovault]

Hi--just to clarify--these free Birthday Books are NOT a loan--once opened, they're unlimited duration. No time limit.

The Birthday Book should reflow on Sonys--it does on the Sonys we've tested on.

(But PDF reflow obviously can't be as good, on any small device, as a natively-reflowing file format would be. We are getting there--but it's a lot of work, and there are lots of books to move.

Thank you very much for your interest--university presses are non-profits, and it's hard to find funding to reflow files for already-published books. Knowing there's interest helps us stay on task.)

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by bibliovault

The Birthday Book should reflow on Sonys--it does on the Sonys we've tested on.

(But PDF reflow obviously can't be as good, on any small device, as a natively-reflowing file format would be. We are getting there--but it's a lot of work, and there are lots of books to move.

Well, I've previously described the lack of reflow on my Sony 300.

I also have a Sony 505. The reflow is also lacking for that device, although it shows up a little differently. Unlike the 300, on medium font I don't get a single hanging word. But I also don't get a larger font - what seems to be happening is that the small font is just sort of unformated, and shows up occupying the top half of the screen, rather than being centered on the middle of the screen.

The large font gives me a half line every other line.

Changing to landscape doesn't help.

So I don't know what Sonys you would have tested - the 600 & now obsolete 700?

[AprilHare]

Hopefully soon I'll be testing a firmware upgraded PRS-500 PDF reflow first up..

Originally Posted by Harmon

Well, I've previously described the lack of reflow on my Sony 300.

I also have a Sony 505. The reflow is also lacking for that device, although it shows up a little differently. Unlike the 300, on medium font I don't get a single hanging word. But I also don't get a larger font - what seems to be happening is that the small font is just sort of unformated, and shows up occupying the top half of the screen, rather than being centered on the middle of the screen.

The large font gives me a half line every other line.

Changing to landscape doesn't help.

So I don't know what Sonys you would have tested - the 600 & now obsolete 700?

[colinsky]

The book has been updated!

Marty Crump
Headless Males Make Great Lovers
And Other Unusual Natural Histories
With Illustrations by Alan Crump
216 pages, 108 line drawings, 1 table 6 x 9 © 2006
E-book Free! See form below (about e-books)

“It’s not just about insect sex—though there is a lot of it here. Marty Crump’s book is a trawl through the whole gamut of weird animal behaviors. Watch out for spine-anointing, toad-chewing hedgehogs; tortoises that stomp the ground to draw up worms; and the mantids of the title that mate more effectively once the female has bitten off their heads.… This beautifully written and charmingly illustrated book combines acute observation with helpful explanation. Nature has never seemed so bizarre and splendid.”—Adrian Barnett, New Scientist

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ebooks/free_ebook.html

[daffy4u]

I can't open it on my desktop version of ADE. I keep downloading it but nothing shows up in ADE.


Edit: Big thanks to bibliovault who helped me get the book to open.

[koland]

If you've installed the new Sony Ebook Library software, look there. I clicked on the link, ADE opened, asked me if I wanted to download the book (duh, why else did I click the link? and why word it to look like a previous download failed?), then the book itself installed into the Sony library instead.

Guess Sony stole a file association, the same as Amazon did with Kindle for PC.

[colinsky]

New book up..they're quite timely at getting these updated on the 1st of the month, three times in a row...

Adrian Johns
Piracy
The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ebooks/free_ebook.html

“[Johns] traces the tensions between authorized and unauthorized producers and distributors of books, music, and other intellectual property in British and American culture from the 17th century to the present. Johns’s history is liveliest when it is rooted in the personal—the 19th-century renegade bibliographer Samuel Egerton Brydges, for example, or the jazz and opera lovers who created a thriving network of bootleg recordings in the 1950s—but the shifting theoretical arguments about copyright and authorial property are presented in a cogent and accessible manner. Johns’s research stands as an important reminder that today’s intellectual property crises are not unprecedented, and offers a survey of potential approaches to a solution.”—Publishers Weekly

[greencat]

Thanks for that, colinsky - looks like a good read.

[colinsky]

April book up:

Leo Durocher with Ed Linn
Nice Guys Finish Last

“Mr. Durocher has somehow managed to be involved with more than his fair share of baseball’s mythic moments and situations.… This is Leo Durocher talking straight as a low line drive.”—New York Time

Same address: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ebooks/free_ebook.html