Pragmatopian Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Agreed, and I'm not trying to, but using the whole "piracy isn't theft" argument just makes you seem either stupid or like you have no understanding of what you are doing. I wonder if its possible to have a thread about the Kindle or Digital Distribution with out it descending it to an argument about piracy, its almost "Goodwin-like" in its inevitability A collection of articles by Cory Doctorow called 'Content' includes some interesting observations in relation to the copyright debate. It has a Creative Commons license, so it's free for all to download and in a variety of formats: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2883/content-selected-essays-on-technology-creativity-copyright-and-the-future-of-the-future (FeedBooks is also a good place to pick up out of copyright or open licensed books for your eReader) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 There was a survey that suggested that illegal downloaders spend more on music than other people. As for illegal downloaders driving up costs for the rest, that doesn't reflect what's happened in the music world. Cd's are cheaper now than they were in the 90's. The current number 1 lp can be downloaded for a fiver, roughly the cost of its late 70's precursor. The last year has seen a real upswing in music because there's a new way of doing business. Album lengths increased with cd's in contrast to the lp era, they cost more and an act would take years between releases. This was great if it was a classic album by an act at the top of it's game, but many struggled to sustain it over a whole lp. Also a band couldn't take a risk on a new style for an lp because they'd have to tour it for two years and no-one wants to repeat a folly for two years. It was the same for purchasers - you were reluctant to risk £15 on a cd you might like. During the 2000's the record companies persisted with this model and they lost out. Now though bands seem to be releasing lps of 10 tracks, or for about a fiver and releasing them more often. This enables the acts to take a risk on a change of style knowing the opportunity to rectify a misjudged experiment is not 2 years away (witness the success of Plan B's out of character RnB lp). And fans can try out more acts. Ultimately, this will mean the same money is spread across more artists, creating a more vibrant and varied scene. Authors don't have the luxury of a period when illegal downloads force a change in the model, because they don't have live income and merc. So publishers need to adept quickly, not try to make the new media fit the old ways of doing things. There needs to be a variety of download sites to provide competition, they need to ensure the back catalogue of authors is available (too often I see illegal ebooks available when amazon don't have them) and the price needs to come down because the ebook users will be the high volume purchasers and they need to encourage them to keep reading. ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarbunny Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 There was a survey that suggested that illegal downloaders spend more on music than other people. There have been surveys that show this, it would be interesting to see some hard facts though rather than surveys that are reliant on the honesty of pirates. Even if this is true however there is little reason for people to download free music any more, where as in the past it was impossible to get free music legally there are a few really good ways now. The most obvious being Spotify, a service that has never let me down when looking for some obscure acts, failing that there is myspace and youtube. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinnieK Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Piracy deprives content producers from their relatively minuscule royalties ? If you like their work enough to steal it you shouldn't steal it. It's no different to stealing from shops or your neighbours or family. It's a special case, but piracy is rife in academia amongst both students and academics, particularly in the sciences. Blaming it entirely on the individuals concerned is an oversimplification. Academic publishers are reknowned for more or less taking the piss because they hold something very close to a monopoly - the publishers entirely control the market, meaning that competition amongst book/eBook vendors has no effect) and have been accused both by customers and government (directly, or in veiled terms) of exploiting a large captive market in keeping their prices artificially high. This is particularly the case when it comes to eBooks: CUP for instance, offer the riveting 'Abstract Regular Polytopes' in ebook format for $111.00, and 'Introductory Muon Science' for $130. Similar practices occur for physical text books (OUP's 'introduction to Game theory' £48.00, or Springer's 'Proofs and Fundamentals: A First Course in Abstract Fundamentals' for £53.99) and they consciously try to subvert the second hand textbook market by churning out "New Editions" of basic text books, where the only difference between the old and the new edition is a slightly rewritten section here or there, a couple of extra worked examples and a few more problems - but it's enough to scare 19 year olds to buy it. As a result, specialist pirate e-book sites flourish with some academics even surrepticiously giving out links to their students, PDF copies and scans wing their way this way and that, and so on. You can view it as 'stealing, no matter what', but an alternative interpretation is that of the market trying to reassert itself under the pressure of cartels which keep prices artificially high (in a similar manner as what happened with the music companies during the late-90's) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandma Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Had email from Amazon today. All Kindle software will be automatically updated in the next few days. One new feature is Page numbering which has been a problem. Real Page Numbers Many titles in the Kindle Store now include real page numbers, making it easy to reference and cite passages and read alongside the print book in a book club or class. Page numbers will also be available on our free "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" Kindle apps in the coming months. As with all of Kindle's features, we want you to lose yourself in the author's words, so page numbers and locations are only displayed when you press the Menu button. PS. I have all legal books on my Kindle, 152 now, most freebies, some paid for. It's not worth pirating books, music maybe! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 As a result, specialist pirate e-book sites flourish with some academics even surrepticiously giving out links to their students, PDF copies and scans wing their way this way and that, and so on. You can view it as 'stealing, no matter what', but an alternative interpretation is that of the market trying to reassert itself under the pressure of cartels which keep prices artificially high (in a similar manner as what happened with the music companies during the late-90's) Yeah, I agree with this. Exactly the same thing happened in the music and video space, and piracy has definitely forced the price issue. Get the price and the convenience right and people will generally prefer to buy, not many people want to break the law. That said, I don't think digital should automatically be cheaper than physical, I think we need to detatch ourself from that idea. With games I'm prepared to pay a slight premium to get something on xbox live on demand or steam simply because of the advantages that format offers vs physical. I don't have to swap disks, I don't have a noisy spinning dvd in my drive, I can delete teh game and re-download at any time so don't have to worry about storage. I'm not saying I'm happy to pay loads more, but 15-20 quid for slightly older games on demand is a premium over the shop price that I think is worth paying. PS. I have all legal books on my Kindle, 152 now, most freebies, some paid for. It's not worth pirating books, music maybe! Difference in books vs music/games/movies is that the consumption time is so much longer. Barely seems worth robbing ebooks when you can buy them from amazon for £2 vs the time it takes to read it. It's not a mass consumption medium. I have had to resort to other means for some books though. Some books simply aren't on ebook yet, one series I was reading had the first and third book on amazon ebook, but not the 2nd. I'm also boycotting the take the piss publishers, which amazon pretty much asks you to do. I deffo miss 2nd hand book stalls at car boots though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Page numbers would be ace. Percentage is all very well to show progress through a book but if you don't know how long a book is it doesn't help you decide whether you can finish that book that night or whether the short story is finishable in the time available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbie Bobster Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I've been searching the kindle forums for the method to reset the "furthest read" indicator. Made the mistake of clicking an index link in the middle of a book I'm reading. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandma Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 There is a good Kindle users UK forum here. May help to sort out any problems http://www.kuforum.co.uk/kindleusersforum/forum-5.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I've been searching the kindle forums for the method to reset the "furthest read" indicator. Made the mistake of clicking an index link in the middle of a book I'm reading. Any suggestions? You have to turn off wispersync, then go to the start of the book, sync and have it fail, exit the book and turn on wispersync again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Been using mine for a year or so and I have noticed this week that I can now get the 3G. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broadcaster Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I picked up a Kindle a couple of weeks ago and I've had no problem in connecting to 3G, I'm sold on this little gadget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Where are you based Rodders? I've been using mine in UK and Europe with 3G everywhere I've gone. Now back on Island and no sign of a connection anywhere. Port Erin. wouldn't receive it last night though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Seems to be when the Kindle is new it can connect here, after a while it is "blocked". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slim Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Where are you based Rodders? I've been using mine in UK and Europe with 3G everywhere I've gone. Now back on Island and no sign of a connection anywhere. You know if you drop it back to GPRS it works fine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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