E-Book Buyer’s Guide to Privacy

January 12, 2010 · Posted in Privacy, eBooks · View Comments 

cc image courtesy of practicalowl on flickr

Thinking about an ebook reader? Concerned about ebooks and privacy? Just curious? The EFF’s E-Book Buyer’s Guide to Privacy v1.1 has answers to questions like

  • Can they monitor what you’re reading?
  • Is the device ONLY compatible with books purchased from an associated eBook store?
  • Can they keep track of book searches?
  • Can they keep track of book purchases?
  • With whom can they share the information collected in non-aggregated form?
  • Can they share information outside the company without the customer’s consent?
  • Do they lack mechanisms for customers to access, correct, or delete the information?

Post to Yahoo Buzz Post to Delicious Post to Digg Post to Facebook Post to MySpace Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

Simon & Schuster and Hachette Book Group to Implement Embargo on eBooks

December 10, 2009 · Posted in eBooks · View Comments 
Sony Reader, Nook, Kindle

Sony Reader, Nook, Kindle

What a disappointment for those who wake up Christmas morning to find that Santa left an eReader in their stockings! Publisher Simon & Schuster has announced it will delay the ebook publishing of 35 titles* coming up next year. Publisher Hachette plans to implement a similar embargo for new titles.

I have to agree with the Eric Garland quote in the WSJ

“In the Internet age you don’t enjoy the same degree of control,” said Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, LLC, an online media measurement company in Beverly Hills, Calif. “You can’t create artificial scarcity by withholding content in one form and making it available later.”

This is a step in the wrong direction. I understand the book publishing industry’s desire to control ebooks is based on fear of piracy and lost money.  This attempt to tighten control wont help, in fact it may drive piracy to develop sooner and spread faster. They need to take a closer look at what happened to the music industry and acknowledge they will not be able to control ebooks the way they hope. The sooner they do that the sooner they can start working with ebooks in a successful way.

On a personal note, while I do look longingly at the Nook, I’m still waiting to buy a device. I believe I should be able to load an ebook I purchase onto the device of my choosing, I don’t care where I buy it or if I check it out from the library.

By the way PC World put together their list of Why E-book Readers Make Bad Holiday Gifts before this embargo announcement.

*I couldn’t find the names of all 35 titles, but it does include “Point Omega” by Don DeLillo,  “Courage and Consequence” by Karl Rove and “House Rules” by Jodi Picoult

Recommended reading:

Post to Yahoo Buzz Post to Delicious Post to Digg Post to Facebook Post to MySpace Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

Vooks = Books + Online Video = Tranliteracy

November 16, 2009 · Posted in Transliteracy, Video, eBooks · View Comments 

A vook blends the text of a book with video into one story.  I’m fascinated by this new this new multimedia approach to books.  I have no idea if it will be successful, I can’t really see the appeal for fiction, but for something like a fitness or other how-to books I can see having a video as an advantage for demonstration.  Think of all the how-to videos on YouTube. You get the advantages of text and video in one.

Part of my fascination is due to the great example of transliteracy this provides. It is providing information through multiple media formats. We often see text in videos or on images.  We are used to seeing videos embedded on websites and blogs. This does seem like the next logical step. But I wonder if it will really take off, maybe for a small market

I’d like to see this affect ereaders, they can display text and images, and we are all waiting for color, why not video too?

Post to Yahoo Buzz Post to Delicious Post to Digg Post to Facebook Post to MySpace Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

Will Libraries be Able to Loan the Nook and eBooks from Barnes & Noble?

October 21, 2009 · Posted in eBooks · View Comments 

Will Nook and Barnes & Noble play ball with libraries?  Librarians have been trying to figure out a way to lend Kindle titles and Kindles since they were first available. But its complicated and Amazon hasn’t given any indication they want to work with libraries. Yes there are libraries doing it but they do not have Amazon’s official blessing.

But the Nook and Barnes & Noble might be different. They might be willing to officially give libraries permission to loan Nooks & their ebooks.  Why?

  1. They have already built in 2 week loaning and borrowing
  2. Loaning can be made to a variety of devices – Mac, PC, iPhone, iPod Touch, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, or Windows Mobile (soon).
  3. You can load ebooks from your public library onto The Nook*
  4. Barnes & Noble has a history of work with libraries.

*All signs point to yes as Barnes & Noble has adopted Adobe® Content Server but none of the players have specifically addressed this issue.

Post to Yahoo Buzz Post to Delicious Post to Digg Post to Facebook Post to MySpace Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon

Next Page »

  • Popular Posts

  • Libraries and Transliteracy
  • How to attribute a Creative Commons photo from Flickr
  • Why I'm Over People Twittering Conferences, Meetings, etc
  • What is a librarian’s day like?
  • Library usage will go up during a recession - management are you really prepared?
  • Libraries Think Twice About a Facebook Page
  • Twitter Updates

    • RSS Libraries and Transliteracy Blog

    • Archives


    • Feel free to quote blog posts and link back to the site. Please do not copy my entire post on your site. Thank you
      Creative Commons License

      Technorati Profile
    • Subscribe via email

    • Meta