tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455700514377143758.post8905482991322668905..comments2024-03-28T07:00:06.844+00:00Comments on Now Appearing: Yo, ho, ho and a boxful of books!Brian Clegghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12723555872580740773noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455700514377143758.post-64840817121626500432009-04-09T10:25:00.000+01:002009-04-09T10:25:00.000+01:00I probably shouldn't say much here, but I've had p...I probably shouldn't say much here, but I've had problems with one of these sites in my professional capacity. They pirate stuff, and when you contact them they are niceness itself and say, yes, they'll remove stuff but in the meantime bludgeon you with a lot of legalese which takes a lot of time and effort to get through. I guess most authors wouldn't havee the time, resources or speclaized knowledge to fight them, and so they get away with it. My feelings about this are not printable.cromercroxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09963551114404818534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455700514377143758.post-17743065559347460042009-04-07T15:53:00.000+01:002009-04-07T15:53:00.000+01:00David - I've no problem with people offering free ...David - I've no problem with people offering free samples (I do this with all my ebooks) - or even the whole book for free. It's when someone else makes it freely available that it's an issue.<BR/><BR/>Although at the moment it's not a huge problem, these scanned books are usually readable in ebook readers, and as they become more common, so the problem will grow.Brian Clegghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12723555872580740773noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455700514377143758.post-56602098220867045762009-04-07T15:51:00.000+01:002009-04-07T15:51:00.000+01:00POSTED FROM AN EMAILHi,Feel free to add this email...POSTED FROM AN EMAIL<BR/><BR/>Hi,<BR/>Feel free to add this email to the comments section if you like.<BR/> <BR/>For an alternative view about "piracy" and ebooks I would recommend reading Cory Doctorow. He sums it up nicely in his book "Little Brother", the biggest problem for most authors seems not to be piracy, but obscurity. You may think his views are rather extreme, but for a site which appears to be able to make "giving away" work, try http://www.baen.com/AboutUs.htm. I tend to agree with Cory Doctorow. There are an awful lot of books out there and the difficult thing is for them to catch my attention (this is where sites like yours, of course, come into the picture). Putting up a chapter on a web site free of charge is a good way of marketing a book. Most people still prefer reading a book on paper rather than electronically so making an electronic version available free can perhaps lead to more sale rather than fewer. (The only statistics I have seen on this are from Baen books, and they seem to think it is worth it).<BR/>The one thing I do not want to see is publishers going the same way as the music industry and penalizing their readers. I have already suffered in this respect - I bought an mp3 tune from a website with drm and can no longer play it as I have switched computers and have lost the original order. I also bought a textbook on thermodynamics for my Palm, just to see if electronic books were something for me. Again, I can no longer access it for reasons unknown. This means that I will NEVER again buy anything with DRM - twice bitten, thrice shy!<BR/>Lastly, in case you are wondering, I personally would never download a pirate copy of anything that I would have otherwise considered paying for. In fact I think I can claim that I have never downloaded any pirate copies of mp3 files/software/or indeed books. I do borrow books from the library though! (and listen to the radio) <BR/> <BR/>Regards<BR/> <BR/>DavidBrian Clegghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12723555872580740773noreply@blogger.com