Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: RE: re Disappearing eBooks - but not inmates?
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2001 04:38:34 -0400
From: "Bob Frankston" <RMFx18 () Bobf Frankston com> To: <farber () cis upenn edu> Subject: RE: re Disappearing eBooks - but not inmates? Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 21:36:22 -0400 The real problem is IP, not Interesting People , and no, not the Internet Protocol. It's Intellectual Property. I can sympathize with the concern over price but books aren't sold at cost. The real problems are points #2 and #3 -- you have few rights. In fact, you often can't read it without having to establish your credentials and you may not have any rights to loan or transfer ownership. And you may wind up in jail for trying! E-books are like films in the days of fixed cameras before people started to move the cameras and cut and paste. We already have the e-publishing with HTML and the Web. The real frustration is not that e-books are problematic, it's that we don't have a better way to incent authors than to keep control over the IP by binding it to wood pulp simply to make it hard to copy. But, at least, we can transfer ownership or repurpose it on a cold New England night. Bob Frankston http://www.Frankston.com -----Original Message----- From: owner-ip-sub-1 () admin listbox com [mailto:owner-ip-sub-1 () admin listbox com] On Behalf Of David Farber Sent: Tuesday, August 07, 2001 17:12 To: ip-sub-1 () majordomo pobox com Subject: IP: re Disappearing eBooks - but not inmates?Date: Tue, 07 Aug 2001 15:59:30 -0400 To: farber () cis upenn edu From: "James H. Morris" <james.morris () cmu edu> Subject: Re: IP: Disappearing eBooks - but not inmates? If Amazon continues it's pricing policy eBooks will disappear on their own. 1. They cost the same as a hardback. 2. You can't print them. 3. You can't "return" them, unlike all other Amazon products. James H. Morris Dean, School of Computer Science 412 609-5000 http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~jhmFor archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/
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- IP: RE: re Disappearing eBooks - but not inmates? David Farber (Aug 08)