Idiotprogrammer Blog

Category: Ebooks

  • Sub-pixel Font Rendering

    Everything you wanted to know about subpixel font rendering (but were afraid to ask).

  • Texas Classic Literature

    Recently, I’ve been doing research on public domain fiction by Texas authors. I’m already committed to scanning two books for Project Gutenburg (a literary essay collection by Sainte-Beuve and Indulekha by O. Chandumenon). Indulekha is regarded as a one of the first Malayam novels ever to be translated into English and is considered a classic (a newer translation was published only last month). Surprisingly, a lot of books like that just haven’t made it to Project Gutenberg. Yes, the big names are represented on Gutenberg, and chances are that every single bit of writing by well-known authors are there (including their shopping list). Much less certain are literary works that went out of print or were never rereleased. Fortunately, the sophistication of online databases makes it easy to locate these kinds of books and to request them via Interlibrary loan (using the WorldCat international library database).

    From there, it’s just a matter of scanning, uploading and waiting for it to be processed by the Gutenburg proofreaders. (Here is a more complete description of the Gutenburg workflow ) The hardest part is just finding out what’s out there and what’s worth restoring.

    Two excellent reference guides to Texas Literature are: Classics of Texas Fiction by James Ward Lee and The 50+ Best Books on Texas by A.C. Greene. Here’s a small collection of online classic Texas texts. Imagine my sheer delight to find J. Frank Dobie’s annotated bibliography, Guide to Life and Literature of the Southwest completely online. And also Mike Cox’s series of book reviews and literary essays on classic Texas fiction. I don’t pretend to have any special background in history or any special love for Texas (I’d sooner be reading something by a Botswana author), but it’s hard to ignore the obligation to retrieve the literary souls of writers long gone from this world. If I as a Texas writer am not going to assume the obligation, then who is?

    Interestingly, some people are trying to scan books with digital cameras instead of scanners. Apparently, it’s better to use a tripod, turn off the flash and use external lighting. The quality of the OCR might be poor, but it’s within the realm of possibility.

  • What is Amazon planning? An ebook reader perhaps!

    Why has Amazon bought Mobipocket (a leading ebook reader software company and distribution channel) and booksurge (a POD company)?

    That’s what everyone in the literary world is wondering. Here’s my guess. Amazon wants to back, support and control a ebook standard not backed by Microsoft or Adobe. And the first step to doing this is selling a dedicated ebook device.

    If they weren’t going to champeon an ebook reader, why would they be so interested in ebook software? After all, they already offer ebook Microsoft Reader ebooks readable on PDA’s and cellphones. I can think of only two explanations: either they want to promote a nonMicrosoft standard for its own sake, or they plan to roll out a dedicated ebook reader for their standard. By controlling the hardware and software, they can also offer a platform for distribution which others can’t equal. Perhaps, like Netflix, they can offer exclusive content as well.

    Amazon’s challenge is finding a way to sell ebooks at the premium price. The only way to accomplish this is to promote a platform and secure customer lockin. Offering a mobipocket ebook reader is an easy way to do this. If Amazon promoted one ebook standard (and endorsed one device or a family of devices), it would be hard for consumers to resist. Before it can convince consumers to pay $10 per ebook, Amazon needs to do everything possible to get a non-PocketPC/MS Reader reader into their hands (and before the market indicates a preference for one ebook standard).

    Amazon should think about offering public domain works for free or next to nothing as an inducement to get devices into people’s hands and win reader loyalty. Owners of ebook devices are sophisticated enough to locate free content; a company that offers the right mix of free content with commercial content stands the best chance of standing out. As for me, I spend a lot of time on blackmask browsing through titles and reading comments. Amazon wants those eyeballs, and providing public domain titles would not poach off too much profits (especially if free sites are doing it anyway).

    One important reason to sell ebooks is to control resale. People can’t resell ebooks (not without difficulty anyway), so amazon will always be able to sell things at “new” prices regardless of how old the ebook actually is.

    Finally, it’s notable that amazon has gotten into POD with booksurge. I think they’ve recognized that self-publishing is going to overtake traditional publishing soon, and they want to get into it. (Amazon has a good infrastructure for setting up personal tipjars for example). Already Amazon took the lead in selling used books; if they charged people to upload/host ebook content, they could add a lot of value to the seller, buyer and the content creator (all at the same time!). It’s a fairly easy task to create content, upload it to amazon’s content management system and then output it in various formats (ebook, POD). If amazon doesn’t do it, somebody else undoubtedly will. Instead of being a company that sells book efficiently, they can become a bastion of self-publishing (in which they can extract profit from the content creator and the content consumer). At the moment there is a need for infrastructure that can receive, catalog and sell content in a standard way. All kinds of content, not merely content packaged by big publishers and copyright owners. That would be similar to the ebay business model, where the consumer brings the content to sell and ebay manages the commerce part. To close the loop, amazon needs to get a device in consumers’ hands capable of reading/playing their content. And Amazon needs to make sure that their content can’t be hijacked by someone in the hardware or software business. MS Reader, for example, could license its technology to certain vendors, or stop their support for Amazon content.

    Amazon has substantial potential as a ebook platform. What stands in the way?

    1. Big publishers could balk at putting things into amazon’s proprietary format (especially if Amazon’s commercial licenses become ridiculously expensive or proprietary). The publishers could easily get together to back one kind of competing ebook standard. The fact that Microsoft has deeper pockets for DRM investment stands as a compelling reason to prefer Micosoft over mobipocket when push comes to shove.
    2. Mobipocket could suck as an ebook reader. Developers and content creators have complained about compliance with the OEBPS 1.2 standard. Quite frankly, if Microsoft produced a Tablet Reader with better quality print and features, unless the price were significantly higher, it’s doubtful that Amazon could compete.
    3. Consumers might never migrate to ebooks. That has been the case up to now, and it still requires a cognitive readjustment. This may have less to do with technology issues than the recurring fact that ebooks cost nearly as much as the book they are supposed to replace.

    These are all reasons why Amazon’s gamble won’t pay off. On the other hand, amazon has a good brand name. Also, it is not wedded to traditional publishing in any way or to big publishing in general. Instead of publishing, Amazon can provide the tools for creating and selling content. It is in a better position to harness “micropublishing” and “self-publishing” than big name content distributors.

    From my standpoint as an independent content creator, I worry that the Mobipocket Publisher program will be priced out of range of individuals. Right now it’s priced at $150. It probably is in Amazon’s interest to keep the mobipocket standard proprietary and yet open (like Adobe and PDF). But will they continue to keep the price relatively low?

  • Creative Commons Licenses: Doubts and Questions

    Consider this case of mixed content: If an ebook chapter contains 12 stories that are CC attribution noncommercial and 1 story that is copyrighted, (but reprinted with permission,) do I as distributor have the right to say that the ebook (i., the “collective work”) is creative commons? My guess is that it has to be described according to its most restrictive license. If so, having mixed content defeats the purpose of using creative commons licenses in the first place. You’d have to convince authors/publishers that CC attribution noncommercial licenses are sufficient to protect present and future commercial interests.

    Let’s look at the commercial clause in the CC attribution noncommercial use license:

    You may not exercise any of the rights granted to You in Section 3 above in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation. The exchange of the Work for other copyrighted works by means of digital file-sharing or otherwise shall not be considered to be intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation, provided there is no payment of any monetary compensation in connection with the exchange of copyrighted works.

    The three issues I see are:

    1. Does cnn.com have the right to post a poem with attribution-noncommercial CC license on its home page? What about Time-Warner rewrapping that same poem in a “free” ebook on AOL’s
    online channels accessible to members only?
    (Content may be free, but the distributor may still be seeking commercial advantage through advertising or memberships, resulting in indirect commercial advantage. The license says that it cannot be considered “commercial use” unless there is a payment in connection with the exchange of works. But that seems to contradict the first sentence of the same paragraph. The key phrase is “primarily intended.” What does that mean? )

    2. Are there situations where cc licenses can be revoked by the content creator? The license goes into detail about license termination, but I can imagine cases where even this could be disputed. I’m dealing with this now. I found a great graphic on flickr to use as a cover graphic for my ebook, and the photographer has put CC licenses on everything. No problem, right? But I have a strong feeling that the photographer didn’t intend to use CC, even through ignorance
    or honest mistake or (conceivably) a website error. In that sort of situation, I suspect artists have little recourse, but the courts will probably need to carve out exceptions where the licensing wasn’t made with the creator’s full knowledge and consent. Also, in an age where people click rapidly through online licenses and EULA’s, they can forfeit rights without realizing it.

    3. The third case concerns donations/tipping. Consider the case mentioned above. Suppose my ebook uses a graphic that is CC noncommercial attribution. I put the completed work (which is mostly my own work) and include a tipjar on the same page. If my ebook gets downloaded 2 million times and I receive $200,000 through my tipjar, does the person who created the original graphic have a legitimate claim against me?

    Donations are voluntary and not normally tied to sale of a product (although as I argued before, the donation model may turn out to be the only viable model for compensating people for creative content. So far tipjars have been pretty inconspicuous (if only because up to now they haven’t been particularly successful). But as they become easier to set up and as conventional distribution become more out-of-reach for the independent creator, donations (like “nagware”) will become more important to sustaining artistic endeavors. Content sites can be just as “nagging,” making it hard to distinguish between the two types of profit-seeking endeavors. Creative commons licenses don’t seem to anticipate the fact that the majority of compensation might come post-consumption rather than pre-consumption.

    These licenses will evolve over time, through court cases and more precise language. I am not a lawyer, but the CC licenses don’t seem sufficiently tested in the Courts to know what I can and cannot do. There still is a bit of risk in distributing CC content and labeling content as CC. On the other hand, there is also tremendous opportunity.

  • Ebook Reference Guides

    Here’s a link of ebook links (which I’ll be adding to over time). (more…)

  • Pre-1923 Books to Download

    Ever since I became aware of the significance of 1922 with respect to copyright, I’ve become very knowledgable about fiction right before then. U. of Penn has a nice list of what titles were hot in the decade before 1923. (Here, more books are listed by category). The links are to .txt and .html files, but it looks like blackmask.com has a lot of them in the various ebook formats. In the meantime, I’ve started reading Musset’s Confession of a Child of the Century, which fictionalizes his love affair with George Sand (whose books I’ve also downloaded to my reader) . This is the sort of book that one just never hears about! And Henry James wrote a critical bio of Musset–imagine that! (downloaded that too). (Update, Musset’s novel has been made into a film..starring Juliette Binoche. I’m speechless).

  • Depressing Thoughts While Reading an Ebook in the Bathtub

    Recently, when reading my ebookwise in the bathtub, I came across this startling insight by Lessig in Free Culture:

    What does this industry really want?

    With very little effort, the warriors could protect their content. So the effort to block something like the Eldred Act is not really about protecting their content. The effort to block the Eldred Act is an effort to assure that nothing more passes into the public domain. It is another step to assure that the public domain will never compete, that there will be no use of content that is not commercially controlled, and that there will be no commercial use of content that doesn’t require their permission first.

    The opposition to the Eldred Act reveals how extreme the other side is. The most powerful and sexy and well loved of lobbies really has as its aim not the protection of
    “property” but the rejection of a tradition. Their aim is not simply to protect what is theirs. Their aim is to assure that all there is is what is theirs.

    It is not hard to understand why the warriors take this view. It is not hard to see why it would benefit them if the competition of the public domain tied to the Internet could somehow be quashed. Just as RCA feared the competition of FM, they fear the competition of a public domain connected to a public that now has the means to create with it and to share its own creation.

    What is hard to understand is why the public takes this view. It is as if the law made airplanes trespassers.

    People with ebook readers acutely feel the closing of the public domain. The public domain closed after 1922, and it won’t have additions until the year 2018. For the years between 1998-2018, Americans will have to settle for pre-1923 content. Doing some calculations, I figured that if I continue reading until the age of 70, I will never see rock and roll music or Frank Sinatra going into the public domain during my lifetime (even though they became popular a decade or more before my birth).

    Reasonable people have said that the damage is already done, that at best we can hope for a registration system that allows orphaned unclaimed content to revert to the public domain. That, I’m afraid, is not good enough. We need to cancel the Sonny Bono Act, and if necessary, put the content between 1923-1929 (which would have reverted during 1998-2004) back into the public domain. When artists made deals with record companies or publishing houses, they expected ownership to last for 55 years. Then it became 75 years. Then 95! It is fundamentally unfair to artists to renege on the government’s guarantee to artists about the timeframe when their content is going to revert.

    As Lessig has pointed out, the harm is not of missing Disney’s early content; nobody cares about that. The real harm is the unknown obscure writer or singer whose novels or music from 1923 has gone out of print long ago. Forcing these works to wait an additional 20 years before these works can be rediscovered is just a human tragedy. Nobody is making a profit off it, and nobody is willing to figure out a way to make it publicly available.

    Here’s an answer (which admittedly is not an ideal one). Public domain advocates need to put a bounty on certain works and certain authors and offer copyright holders a token amount (certainly under $500) to free their works irrevocably. Maybe libraries need to do that. A library needs to adopt a writer from the 1920’s and buy the licenses. Of course, that costs money, and perhaps library systems could work out some sort of barter arrangement with copyright holders instead of paying cash. But we can’t rely on copyright holders anymore to preserve our cultural content.

    Just to make it personal, when downloading ebooks, I was thrilled to rediscover works from the 1910’s and even the early 1920’s. Anatole France, Max Beerbohm, Knut Hamsun. But it depresses me to no end to know that the well of all American culture will run dry until 2018 to appease the Disney corporation.

  • Review of Ebookwise 1150

    Here’s a review of ebookwise 1150 by Brad somebody. The reviewer runs the ebooks-on-the-web weblog. I am thrilled by ebookwise although I have not tried to download from the ebookwise site. Here’s an fictionwise support group. Quite frankly, I have been flipping about the blackmask free ebook site. Just for yuks, here’s a discussion about the strangest book you’ve ever read. For me, it was Huysman’s Against Nature. Here’s an online collection of people photographing their bookshelves. Stay tuned.

  • My Ebook Reader

    At David Rothman’s excellent suggestion, I went ahead and bought the eBookwise-1150 Reader for $99. That doesn’t include the cost of the CF memory card ($50ish) or the Reblibrarian software($12) to convert content from different formats. GEB eBook Librarian Site software ($15), which provides an easy interface for downloading free ebooks and converting ebooks from one format to another.

    With thess conversion tool, you can now convert html, rtf, txt and doc files to the native .IMP and .RB file format and even migrate non-DRM ebook formats into .imp and .rb formats. (Oh, in 2 weeks, I’ll know all about this).

    My only complaint is the content library client doesn’t exist for the linux desktop, but I’m already resigned to using the software on a work computer (the only purpose is to put content onto your memory card). But free sites like Blackmask and Project Gutenberg should provide enough content to make me happy.

    Interestingly, although having the ability to put hundreds of ebooks on a flash card would be nice, one of my primary uses would be putting programming reference material and books (available as html pages free on the web) on the ebook reader by converting them to the ebookwise-friendly format. As a technical writer, it raises the question about why most documentation is rendered in the ebook-unfriendly PDF format.

    So I’ve found a form factor for the ebook reader I want…and at a reasonable price, and a minimum amount of conversion hassle. I’ll be very interested to see how I actually use it. Quite frankly, I have enough paper books to keep me busy for a long time; what sort of reading activities will be convenient. Also, I’m curious about the quality of the type and the usefulness of the battery. I could be using this device a lot.

    As an aside, let me mention that Teleread is an indispensable read for anyone interested in the future of literature. In addition to staying current on the compatibility wars and hardware products, Rothman is the only person I’ve seen on the net with more radical and extreme ideas about copyright than I do (although you can also find top-notch postings on Corante’s copyfight weblog.

    The next step for me is buying a PDA over the holidays, and as stated before, I’ve leaning toward the high-end Dell Axim x50v or the HP ipaq 4705 if the price falls quickly enough.