.
| Hearsay: |
Cory Doctorow points to, and comments on, a piece reminding us that whatever e-Books we “purchace” aren’t actually “owned”, but rather licensed.
If you buy a regular old book, CD or DVD, you can turn around and loan it to a friend, or sell it again. The right to pass it along is called the “first sale” doctrine. Digital books, music and movies are a different story though. Four students at Columbia Law School’s Science and Technology Law Review looked at the particular issue of reselling and copying e-books downloaded to Amazon’s Kindle or the Sony Reader, and came up with answers to a fundamental question: Are you buying a crippled license to intellectual property when you download, or are you buying an honest-to-God book?
In the fine print that you “agree” to, Amazon and Sony say you just get a license to the e-books—you’re not paying to own ‘em, in spite of the use of the term “buy.” Digital retailers say that the first sale doctrine—which would let you hawk your old Harry Potter hardcovers on eBay—no longer applies. Your license to read the book is unlimited, though—so even if Amazon or Sony changed technologies, dropped the biz or just got mad at you, they legally couldn’t take away your purchases. Still, it’s a license you can’t sell.
In other e-news, are text book writers getting the e-shaft up their e-holes now that things are going digital? (Top item)
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March 24th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Oh well, no hope of anybody making a living out of writing over the coming century.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
was there ever a hope of anyone making a living out of writing? I didn’t
realize that people got into writing cuz of the money.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Well, depends how much writing you want out of a writer. You know those big 18th century novels? They exist because the public paid to read them.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
There’s a big difference between doing it “cuz of the money” (which you make sound so whorish), and being willing to work twice as hard for very little, but doing it anyway because it beats being someone’s slave.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Pardon me, Roland, for making it sound so dirty. That was not my intention.
Now i feel like a whore/slave. Stuck working for the man.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:12 am
“Whorish?” Like that.
In the interest of maybe selling a few books, may I invite you to the launch for my new novel The Violets of Usambara (Cormorant Books) tonight
6 p.m.
Paragraphe Books
2220 McGill College
Montreal
Hélène Dorion’s Days of Sand (translated by Jonathan Kaplansky) will also be feted.
And then again next week, we’ll drink to Violets alone in Mile End where part of the book takes place (the other part is in Burundi)
7 p.m.
Wednesday April
Librairie L’écume des jours
125, St. Viateur West
Mile End
Montreal
Would be nice to see some Book Ninja fans.
Mary
March 25th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Well obviously I didn’t mean YOU, Monica. Still, there is nothing wrong with writers who expects to get paid. Writing may have its own rewards, but it’s still work.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:06 am
thanks, Roland. Good thing I’m not offended easily.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Dammmit. I woke up yesterday morning and promised not to be a dick on bookninja, but look what happened.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:31 am
ah, you did ok. It comes from the heart, so it can’t be all bad. Fight the good fight, Roland. You’re not a whore.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:34 am
I make that promise every day, Roland. It’s a fool’s game.
March 25th, 2008 at 10:53 am
It’s a little early for all the whore- and dick-talk, isn’t it?
March 25th, 2008 at 10:56 am
At the risk of interrupting the warm fuzziness that seems to have co-opted this thread (cough*circlejerk* cough – there, I’m feeling much better about the thread already), doesn’t it really depend, Roland, on what one considers “writing”? I mean, if you’re looking for small, perfect, deeply-felt literary fiction to fuel a life of limos, blow and supermodels, no, that’s not apt to happen. But if one is willing to stoop to writing for money (gasp!), via reviewing, journalism, work-for-hire, etc to support ones art, a decent-enough living can be carved out with a little effort.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:19 am
No, it doesn’t depend on what kind of writing (I woke up making no such promise ;) it’s all work.
The issue here isn’t really copyright or license or any of that, it’s who gets paid for their work. You can lend an e-book all you want, you just have to lend the book “reader” too. The thing is, that reader costs hundreds of dollars. Well, Cory Doctorow should be more concerned about that. There’s no reason for fifty cents worth of mass produced plastic to cost two hundred bucks. Oh, I know, he’s going to say it’s because of all the R&D that went into it — well, that same amount of R&D goes into EVERY book read on the damn thing. Say those book readers cost twenty bucks – that seems reasonable and pretty much the same as a book. Len ‘em all you want.
Sure, I like the idea of writing as some noble activity, somehow above the messy world of “commerce,” but why just writing? Why just art?
March 25th, 2008 at 11:26 am
But what if you write small, perfect, deeply-felt literary reviews?
I know from experience that such a line barely pays for the thick-rimmed glasses.
(You dick-whore.)
March 25th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Nathan, you may have just stumbled upon the next great Zen koan — “But what if you write small, perfect, deeply-felt literary reviews?” is right up there with “What is the sound of one hand clapping.?”
And John, I do realize this conversation started with licensing and e-rights and the like, but it quickly (somewhere between responses 1 & 2, I think), got into the issue of money for writing overall… And in that context, sure, it’s all work, and it’s all writing. That was my point, or one of them. The overall point was that, yes, writing CAN pay the bills, but perhaps not all writing…
March 26th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Mary, if Montreal weren’t so far from where i am, i’d be there.
March 26th, 2008 at 6:33 am
Mary, I hope it went well last night. I’m looking forward to contributing to the financial success of your new book at the Mile End launch!
March 26th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Thanks Anne and Monica.
It went very well–lots of smiling faces and some books sold, too.
Don’t feel whorish at all for self-promoting either.
See you next week, Anne
Mary