eBook Reader help

I must be getting old. As much as I enjoy electronic gadgets, I want my books in paper.

 

Yep, there's no substitute for being able to see it in person.

To me, the "soul" of a book is the words. Words can be recorded on clay tablets, parchment, papyrus, paper, etc., or they can be recorded digitally and displayed on a screen.

Books can contain art, and then an ebook reader is a poor substitute for good-quality paper. Reference books, where you jump around all the time, are a poor fit for an ebook reader. But for just reading text, as in novels, this old fogy really likes being able to make the typeface big enough for these old eyes, rather than having to squint and get eyestrain because the publisher thought that six-point type would save him on printing costs.

 

I think that might depend on the reference book in question, daniel... For me, electronic versions of various software language reference books are much better and easier to use than their paper copies. At least, they're easier to search through!

 

You should really try out each device that you are considering. Otherwise, there is an element of rolling the dice on a 'sight-unseen' purchase.

 

FWIW, I looked at a Sony ebook reader to see if I liked the e-ink technology. I did. But I bought my Kindle sight un-seen based on the user reviews of all the different devices. I was not disappointed. What really tipped me to the Kindle DX, and away from the Kindle 2, was consistent user review comments that the contrast on the 2 is poor, but that the DX restored the good contrast of the Kindle 1. And I figured (rightly or wrongly) that Amazon would have the largest selection. I have looked for a few books that turned out not to be available for the Kindle, but I suspect those are probably not available in any electronic format. I think some authors are Luddites who are against ebooks on principle, just as some Americans are against anything foreign on principle. They insist that their books be distributed only on dead trees.

 

Sounds like just the ticket!

 

So I took a look at goodereader-dot-com, and a few things raised my suspicions:

1. The language in the Terms and Conditions was in places odd, as though English was not the first language of the writer.

2. There seems no way to view the available titles without subscribing. (If I'm mistaken, someone please let me know.)

3. On their forum there's a thread in which someone offers a program to strip the DRM from Kindle books. One of the admins of the site chimes in with some advice on how to make it work. Thus the owners or administrators of the site are openly helping people to break the law.

#1 above might not mean anything. A legitimate site hosted in another country might not have perfect English in its rules.

#2 makes me hesitant to subscribe. Kind of like buying a pig in a poke.

#3 makes me wonder if the site is legit. Everyone knows that I am not the most law-abiding guy on here. But a site that OPENLY encourages people to pirate books (they'll say they just want people to be able to put their book on their other ereader, but we all know that the next step is to give copies to their friends and perhaps sell copies) could get sued and taken down before you've gotten the value of your subscription in books; and I wonder if the books they are selling are even legal, or if they are pirated.

I have broken some laws. But I don't buy pirated books. If I was not about to leave for a trip I'd write the publishers of some of the books they offer, and ask if the site has a license to sell them.

 

I use Firefox. No problem viewing the site, registering, and reading some of the forums (some are members only).

I sent them an email and asked outright if they have authorization from the publishers to sell the books. $12 a month for unlimited e-books is awfully cheap if they are paying royalties. Why would a publisher who can get $6 or $10 for their books on the Kindle store (minus a modest commission for Amazon) accept the very tiny royalties goodereader-dot-com could afford to pay them on memberships of $12 per month???

You can register for free and post to the forums. But without paying for a membership you cannot actually browse their list of titles. To me that is suspicious.

 

Out of curiosity, are you using Chrome on a true PC or, are you using Chrome on an iPhone or other Smartphone?

 

**disclaimer**
i am not advocating or encouraging any illegal activity nor am i using situations or legal options of one form to apply to another form.
**end of disclaimer**

its funny to me what is considered to be "pirating". to me, its always been a question of distributing for profit as being illegal since i am not the copywrited owner of the work, so therefore i should not profit from it. but i can remember a TON of times, that i have borrowed, loaned out or otherwise allowed someone access to printed material that i only had legal right to one copy of the work. so if i were to allow only one person at a time to read my licensed copy, am i violating the law?

or was my lending my copy of the book "Old Yeller" to my entire 5th grade class one student at a time illegal?

right now i am trying to regain control. i am sitting in my den looking at my bookcase at the books there. now this is just a small bookcase; three shelfs about 2 feet long. discounting the various text, references and magazines there, i have one shelf where nearly half of the books on it are borrowed. hmmm, have one i borrowed from my Dad about 4 years ago. i wonder if he is missing it?

isnt google offering books for download?? anyone check them out? or are they still bouncing thru the legal system?

 

Copyright laws are clear: It is illegal to copy copyrighted material without permission. You can allow people to read over your shoulder. You can lend or borrow books. If you own a copy of a book you can sell it. The only thing you may not do is make copies of it. Courts have allowed copying VERY SMALL EXCERPTS for "legitimate" purposes such as reviewing a book. I suppose that's a gray area: How small is small?

However, what you describe above is completely legal: borrowing and lending hard copies. Your copy exists as just one copy.

In the case of electronic media, courts have said that keeping a backup copy is allowed, but it's clear that a backup copy is used only to replace the original if the original is erased.

What is clearly illegal is MAKING COPIES. As a practical matter, other than a backup copy, the only reason to make copies is to distribute them, and this is illegal whether you charge for them or give them away. Stripping the DRM from a copy and then placing it where people can copy it is illegal.

In Mexico there were not enough copies of textbooks. Students would go to the library and stand in long lines to Xerox books. This is illegal. Absolutely and unequivocally.

Copyright means the exclusive right to make copies. There have been pirate publishers since forever. There has been illegal copying since Xerox machines. Digital media is just a lot easier to pirate.

I'm not on a crusade. I don't much care if someone pirates books. But I do not buy pirated books if I know they are pirated, and I try to find out before I buy a book. I believe the author has a right to be paid for her/his labor. (I once aspired to be an author. I even had 2 or 3 poems and 3 or 4 articles published in magazines.) I do think that some e-books are overpriced. Then I exercise my right not to buy it; and if I don't by it (or borrow a legitimate copy, e.g. from the library) then I don't read it. There are other books to read. Pricing them reasonably increases sales volume, and there is no printing cost for an e-book, only the much cheaper bandwidth cost.

It sucks to wake up in the middle of the night. I'm going to try to get back to sleep.

 

Are you using the right URL?

http://goodereader.com/

 

I don't think i could have said it better, daniel. Perhaps the important thing to remember is that it's not illegal to receive illegally copied materials, only to distribute. So in this case, you could download as many books from that site as you want and be legally free. Of course, morally it makes you an nice person for not paying the author for his work.

What gets most people in trouble is the way the programs they use to download music and movies work - yeah, you download them... but if you aren't extremely careful, the program turns around and makes you a distributor on the network so others using the same program can download from you. It's only the second part that gets you in trouble.

 

That is very, very, weird! I clicked on the link in your quote of my message and the site opens. Firefox 3.6.6. running on OS X 10.6.4. Comcast is my ISP, if that makes a difference. And FWIW I just now opened it with Safari 5.0 also. Safari is my backup browser when a site does not render properly with Firefox.

Anyway, they answered my emails very promptly (overnight, no less) and claimed that they do pay publisher royalties. They also clarified that members are capped at roughly 30 e-book downloads per month. They said that the reason non-members (a member being someone who PAYS, not someone who registers to have free access to the forums) cannot browse the titles is:

That does not make much sense to me. Maybe people who understand spambots can make sense of it.

The next step will be to write to the publisher of one of the books they offer (there is a thread where they list a few of them) and ask if the site is authorized to distribute their books.

The last thing would be to give them a short try. E-books can be well or poorly formatted, and poorly formatted books are annoying to read. Some of the free books are done by volunteers and are not worth the money you save. And some free book lists are arcane titles that I have no interest in. Amazon's user reviews, combined with the free samples (you can get a free sample of ANY Kindle title) go a long way in selecting books.

When I get back from my vacation I'll pursue this further if someone else does not pick up the ball and report. I've already loaded up my Kindle with books for this trip, and depending on how much time I have for reading, maybe the next trip as well.