Comments on: Books are Dead 2. http://www.stevecooper.org/2007/12/19/books-are-dead-2/ Programming, writing, programming about writing. Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:10:05 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Steve http://www.stevecooper.org/2007/12/19/books-are-dead-2/#comment-45 Steve Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:58:07 +0000 http://www.stevecooper.org/2007/12/19/books-are-dead-2/#comment-45 <p>you're probably right about paper being the best defence.</p> <p>Question is, is there some way for it to creep in? For book piracy to take off, all you need is a guy and a scanner -- someone, somewhere, has the patience to photocopy the top ten bestsellers and put them on bittorrent.</p> <p>Also, Amazon have 90,000 books available for the kindle already, gutenberg has loads, wikipedia is freely available, and there are blogs and online papers and such. So there's a lot out there to tip the balance towards the electronic side.</p> <p>But I think you may be right.</p> you’re probably right about paper being the best defence.

Question is, is there some way for it to creep in? For book piracy to take off, all you need is a guy and a scanner — someone, somewhere, has the patience to photocopy the top ten bestsellers and put them on bittorrent.

Also, Amazon have 90,000 books available for the kindle already, gutenberg has loads, wikipedia is freely available, and there are blogs and online papers and such. So there’s a lot out there to tip the balance towards the electronic side.

But I think you may be right.

]]> By: Glyn http://www.stevecooper.org/2007/12/19/books-are-dead-2/#comment-44 Glyn Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:55:57 +0000 http://www.stevecooper.org/2007/12/19/books-are-dead-2/#comment-44 <p>Whether the days of the book are numbered will depend a lot on how stupid the publishing industry at large is: the digital music revolution was greatly facilitated (if not made possible) by the ubiquity of the CD, which is trivial to rip. Digital 'piracy' became commonplace and this is at least partly responsible for the death of record shops and the downturn in the record companies' profits. If the publishing industry learns from the mistakes of the music and film industries they will avoid electronic book formats like the plague, and keep selling their lumps of dead tree. If it's digital media and you can use it for the purpose for which it was intended, then you can copy it and file-share it to your friends.</p> <p>If the big publishing houses have any sense at all, they will see that the humble book already has one of the best anti-copy systems built in - far better than any forseeable digital format.</p> Whether the days of the book are numbered will depend a lot on how stupid the publishing industry at large is: the digital music revolution was greatly facilitated (if not made possible) by the ubiquity of the CD, which is trivial to rip. Digital ‘piracy’ became commonplace and this is at least partly responsible for the death of record shops and the downturn in the record companies’ profits. If the publishing industry learns from the mistakes of the music and film industries they will avoid electronic book formats like the plague, and keep selling their lumps of dead tree. If it’s digital media and you can use it for the purpose for which it was intended, then you can copy it and file-share it to your friends.

If the big publishing houses have any sense at all, they will see that the humble book already has one of the best anti-copy systems built in - far better than any forseeable digital format.

]]> By: Ellen http://www.stevecooper.org/2007/12/19/books-are-dead-2/#comment-26 Ellen Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:29:48 +0000 http://www.stevecooper.org/2007/12/19/books-are-dead-2/#comment-26 <p>According to store staff in York, Virgin Stores had a management buy-out, leading to 'Zavvi'. Which, as a name, sucks. So many jokes that can't be made any more... <em>sigh</em></p> <p>For books - I'll take both, thank you. I'll take the reader with me because I have so much to read that I've not got through, and books get banged up in my bag day after day. And at home, I'll read the paper copy.</p> <p>Unless I can get the reader to magically turn the books into audio... Handy for when I'm busy with something requiring my hands and eyes but not so much my brain.</p> According to store staff in York, Virgin Stores had a management buy-out, leading to ‘Zavvi’. Which, as a name, sucks. So many jokes that can’t be made any more… sigh

For books - I’ll take both, thank you. I’ll take the reader with me because I have so much to read that I’ve not got through, and books get banged up in my bag day after day. And at home, I’ll read the paper copy.

Unless I can get the reader to magically turn the books into audio… Handy for when I’m busy with something requiring my hands and eyes but not so much my brain.

]]> By: Steve http://www.stevecooper.org/2007/12/19/books-are-dead-2/#comment-24 Steve Wed, 19 Dec 2007 21:51:26 +0000 http://www.stevecooper.org/2007/12/19/books-are-dead-2/#comment-24 <blockquote> <p>I have yet to see a book reader that is as simple, portable and easy to use as a book</p> </blockquote> <p>I agree; it's not there yet. But it's not far off, I think. Things like hyperlinking and full-text search will push the readers towards being more useful than a book, I think. Plus, if you're just carrying the one object, it's a comparison between a single paper book, and every electronic book you've ever bought.</p> <blockquote> <p>Furthermore, books are engrained in most civilisation as things that hold knowledge.</p> </blockquote> <p>Yeah, that's true. That's because, I think, the book was the only practical way to store wisdom. It's not the object which should be respected, but the knowledge. If that knowledge is transmitted another way, so be it.</p> <blockquote> <p>“When people will burn books, they will burn people”</p> </blockquote> <p>If my theory is right, this isn't so much "people who will have no respect for printed paper ...," but "people who try to control information will kill to control people."</p> <blockquote> <p>do NOT trust anything on wikipedia</p> </blockquote> <p>For the sorts of things I use it for, it's often a good-enough definition or a starting point for further research. My real point was that almost every paper format has a comparable digital format that challenges it; encyclopedia britannica vs wikipedia, newspapers vs blogs, print magazines vs pdf downloads, novels vs <a href="http://www.podiobooks.com" rel="nofollow">podiobooks</a>.</p>

I have yet to see a book reader that is as simple, portable and easy to use as a book

I agree; it’s not there yet. But it’s not far off, I think. Things like hyperlinking and full-text search will push the readers towards being more useful than a book, I think. Plus, if you’re just carrying the one object, it’s a comparison between a single paper book, and every electronic book you’ve ever bought.

Furthermore, books are engrained in most civilisation as things that hold knowledge.

Yeah, that’s true. That’s because, I think, the book was the only practical way to store wisdom. It’s not the object which should be respected, but the knowledge. If that knowledge is transmitted another way, so be it.

“When people will burn books, they will burn people”

If my theory is right, this isn’t so much “people who will have no respect for printed paper …,” but “people who try to control information will kill to control people.”

do NOT trust anything on wikipedia

For the sorts of things I use it for, it’s often a good-enough definition or a starting point for further research. My real point was that almost every paper format has a comparable digital format that challenges it; encyclopedia britannica vs wikipedia, newspapers vs blogs, print magazines vs pdf downloads, novels vs podiobooks.

]]> By: french knight http://www.stevecooper.org/2007/12/19/books-are-dead-2/#comment-23 french knight Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:22:34 +0000 http://www.stevecooper.org/2007/12/19/books-are-dead-2/#comment-23 <p>I have yet to see a book reader that is as simple, portable and easy to use as a book. All book reader gadgets that I have seen lacked the basic ease of use of a printed book.</p> <p>Furthermore, books are engrained in most civilisation as things that hold knowledge. There is a prestige associated with having a book. There is something wrong with people destroying books.</p> <p>"When people will burn books, they will burn people" as quoted by Goethe.</p> <p>BTW, do NOT trust anything on wikipedia. It is not and never can be an authoritative source by its very nature.</p> I have yet to see a book reader that is as simple, portable and easy to use as a book. All book reader gadgets that I have seen lacked the basic ease of use of a printed book.

Furthermore, books are engrained in most civilisation as things that hold knowledge. There is a prestige associated with having a book. There is something wrong with people destroying books.

“When people will burn books, they will burn people” as quoted by Goethe.

BTW, do NOT trust anything on wikipedia. It is not and never can be an authoritative source by its very nature.

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