Article in Newsweek about Atiz "book ripper"

[RosanaE]

Title: Rip this book? Not yet.

Consumer book scanner?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/109580

[Cthulhu]

Thanks Rosana.
Levy has a point. If OCR becomes as easy as plugging in an iPod, Publishers will start to get afraid, or as sue-happy as the MPAA/RIAA.

Personally, am beginning to see scanning my own books as nothing worse than ripping "my music" to a hard drive. Of course, doing so requires a week's worth of scanning at best.

[Ervserver]

Too much effort to interest me, I'd rather buy them already in ebook form

[Cthulhu]

Verily, I would prefer to convert all my physical books into digital texts, especially with my wife and I moving house in a few months.

Lamentably, the publishing world has not yet met my demands:

1. Offer the books I have in non DRM'd format for $0.01-$15.00
2. OFFER THE BOOKS!

One lives in hope, and I don't mean Arkansas.

[RosanaE]

To read them and to convert them!

[Utahcowboy]

I really think that publishers should have a code in each traditional book that they sell that will allow the buyer to download one electronic copy of the book also without any additional charge. That way you can have the best of both worlds.

[TheLongshot]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

Personally, am beginning to see scanning my own books as nothing worse than ripping "my music" to a hard drive. Of course, doing so requires a week's worth of scanning at best.

Personally, I think it is the equivalent of recording vinyl to CD. While it might do the job, it still would require work to get things where you want.

Jason

[Cthulhu]

@ UtahCowboy:

Some publishers did that. I know that searching for some digitcal copies of books that I own I ran across this process. Lamentably, none of my texts were included.

@LongShot: Yes, OCR is more akin to all the work of tranferring vinyl to digital. But in terms of rights--a slipper slope--it more like expanding your library.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Pat Schroeder, the former Colorado congresswoman who is CEO of the Association of American Publishers. "We've been ready to sell e-books for 10 years," she says. "[But] everybody still likes physical books."

I don't understand this. If they have been ready to sell e-books for 10 years, why don't they ? even if they don't sell as many as paper books, what do they risk ? it's not like printing 50 000 paper books, which you have to store somewhere (so pay for a warehouse and all the peripheral expenses tied to that, plus shipping and stock handling etc.) and if you don't sell all of them you lose money because you paid for the paper and the ink. Imagine how much more selection we would have today, if they *had* started selling ebooks seriously 10 years ago...

Not that I want to encourage copyright infringement, but if book scanning *did* become more popular i suspect it could only be good for the ebook business overall and especially for the customers. Look where napster led ; now we have iTunes and all the similar services. when can we have iTexts ?

[slayda]

Originally Posted by TheLongshot

Personally, I think it is the equivalent of recording vinyl to CD. While it might do the job, it still would require work to get things where you want.

Jason

But using our eyes instead of our ears. Not having a good musical ear, using eyes is much easier for me. Also there are cheaper, faster ways than the BookRipper.

[Cthulhu]

Zelda:

I agree that taking matters in one's own hands may force involvement. Unfortunately, copying physical texts seems quite daunting task, either in terms of time involved or in expensive equipment. Add to this the fact that distributing a digital copy of a work that is protected intellectual property (thanks to Overlord Disney, Mr. Buono, and others) to people who indeed have a legitimatecopy is *possibly* illegal/unethical/unfair to all the poor artists.....

[zelda_pinwheel]

Cthulhu :

i completely agree with everything you say. this is why 1. i don't see myself taking on the digitalisation of my own books (even for personal use ; it's too much time / work, unless i was willing to destroy the actual book in the process to make it easier, and i'm not willing to do that with most of my books) and 2. i can't sincerely advocate the illegal distribution of copyrighted materials (hmm... maybe disney's works excepted, purely on principle... contrariness principle... i can't help feeling that they in particular seem to be asking for it, the greedy buggers). although i do think personally that if you already bought a particular book in paper version, getting a digital copy of it for your own personal use (even if you don't do your own format shifting) is rather a grey area, ethically. how many times should we have to pay for the same content ?

*however* if we examine the results of these practices in the music industry, many artists have affirmed that contrary to what the music industry executives would like us to beleive, far from being the harbingers of the death of the industry, illegal mp3s have actually helped them ; particularly in the case of more or less unknown bands who have gained a following because their music has been discovered this way by people who might not have had access to it otherwise, and also because true melomanes tend to buy just as much music as before (if not more, thanks to discovering new bands by downloading them first), even if they also download music in parallel, for diverse reasons including the desire to own the physical object and the desire to support the artists they appreciate.

it's a complex discussion and has too many ethical ramifications for me to want to stir that particular hornet's nest, but clearly things need to evolve and i can't help wondering (in a purely abstract, personally uninvolved way !) if that might be the most effective way of showing the publishing industry what the consumers really want ; just as it was effective for music.

according to the publishing industry representative cited in the article, people don't want e-books. we know they do (some of us at least !), even if we don't want to replace paper books completely (that's not really the question). how do we make them understand ? (*that* is the question !) especially if, as stated in the article, they *could* make e-books available (for the past 10 years...) but they don't because they don't recognize that there is a market for them.

but again, < disclaimer > i am not of course advocating distribution of protected intellectual property. </ disclaimer >

[Cthulhu]

Am so incredibly tired of being enraged and incensed by the circular logic of companies who attempt to defend their actions or lack thereof.

So, um, we like, kinda told three people that there were digital copies of our books available, and um, so 13,000 copies were purchased, but we totally don't think that this form of commerce that we have barely researched developed, participated in, or announced, is going to work out. Geeks and nerds are icky gross, and only they read on computer thingys, so we are so *not* about to distribute digital texts because no one (and by that we like so mean not enough people) want them.

What Publishing houses should say is this:

1. We don't like the lack of control of content inherent in a digital copy of our work.

2. We lack the infrastructure to adapt to new markets and trends.

3. We don't like digital text format, so we're not going to give it to you. F88k off, or rather go buy a nice big passel of paper with our data printed on it.

If one representative from a publishing house admitted that, I would feel very proud of them. Would still throw a rock through their window, but it would be a very proud rock.

;-)

[moz]

I'm somewhat disappointed with the device. I was hoping for something slightly more usable, or at least automated. Maybe I will have to build my own, like the Lego book scanner guy. Or just emulate the others who have combined a $1500 page fed scanner with a willingness to cut the spine off my books.

Unfortunately the recent really intense thunderstorms here flooded out the only supplier of cheap A3 scanners, so it'll be a month before I have a scanner. And probably a week before I have a lissoose. Bah!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Cthulhu

Am so incredibly tired of being enraged and incensed by the circular logic of companies who attempt to defend their actions or lack thereof.

you are not alone.

If one representative from a publishing house admitted that, I would feel very proud of them. Would still throw a rock through their window, but it would be a very proud rock.

;-)

please send photos of that proud rock, so i can vicariously rejoice with you.
(and also : hee !)

Originally Posted by moz

And probably a week before I have a lissoose. Bah!

!! first spotting of a wild lissoose outside of the nature reserve !! ("topic" ? what ?)