

Nookd - tch
http://villagecraftsmen.blogspot.com/2012/05/nookd.html

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eclipxe
I was an engineer on the Nook team. It isn't possible for the device software
to change text of books.

Most likely the author or conversion service took the Kindle edition, ran a
search and replace for 'Kindle' and there you have it.

~~~
tlb
The device software reads data from flash and renders it in pixels on the
screen. It is absolutely possible for it to modify the text as it does so.

~~~
tchebb
I would assume that eclipxe meant that the software shipped with the Nook does
not allow for on-the-fly text modification. Even if it did, this is the only
occurrence of text substitution that has been seen, so the fault still lies
with the publisher.

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swdunlop
This actually points to a risk that Barnes and Nobles, Amazon and other
content stores are susceptible to: users who assume that they edit their
content like a traditional publisher would or should.

This was a 99c purchase of a public domain work that was probably reformatted
by someone who didn't care enough to check their work. This work was then
publicly criticized by a consumer who didn't care enough to check their facts,
either.

~~~
ojbyrne
There has always been similar things with books. I remember being warned away
from el-cheapo Shakespeare collections, etc.

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ja27
The 99-cent War and Peace I see on their site is published by a third party,
Superior Format Publishing. Could they not be the ones that search-and-
replaced "kindle" with "nook"?

~~~
nathanm412
From their site (<http://superiorformatting.com/>), it appears that's not the
only problem they are having (from their site):

Some of Our Titles

Whoops, looks like there was a problem get the book data from Amazon. Please
try again in a moment

Whoops, looks like there was a problem get the book data from Amazon. Please
try again in a moment

Whoops, looks like there was a problem get the book data from Amazon. Please
try again in a moment

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why-el
I have the kindle version and it looks fine. And why are they paying for
copyright-free material? They can get a nice eBook version from Project
Gutenberg.

~~~
jgfoot
But remember that War and Peace was not originally written in English, and the
quality of translation matters a great deal. With Russian literature
especially, the quality of translation varies widely, and some of the best
translations into English are still copyrighted. A bad translation might
faithfully reproduce the text's literal meaning but badly mangle the literary
elegance that made the book so acclaimed in the first place. I'd rather pay
$14 for a good translation than spend 1100 pages regretting being cheap.

~~~
why-el
I agree, but I think in the case of Tolstoy, or even Dostoevsky, the best
translations also have their copyrights expired, since they were written
usually few years after the works were published. I read a French version of
Anna Karenina (Recommended by the way) once in hard copy, then reread the
Gutenberg version, and to me the literary differences were minimal.

~~~
duaneb
I can't speak for Tolstoy, but the Gutenberg version of Dostoevsky was
atrocious compared to the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation. FOr a more modern
example, Simone de Beauvoir's first translation was by an unskilled botanist
who happened to know french and english. A recent translation came out that is
night and day compared to the original, but it will enter public domain some
fifty years later.

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monatron
Is the authors implication that in the digital nature of ebooks the ability to
manipulate text becomes easier? Regardless of medium isn't this always a
possibility? Whether it happens at the publisher and then printed on dead wood
or otherwise -- to me it seems like one in the same?

~~~
excuse-me
It's rather harder for some government/publisher/web search company to modify
the hardback copies on my shelf to airbrush Trotsky out of the pictures.

With an eBook all it takes is a click by somebody at Amazon

~~~
glesica
This is a good argument against DRM and e-book-related cloud services but not
really against e-books generally. I own a Nook and have never bought a locked-
down e-book, so the publisher really can't edit the copy I own short of
breaking into my computer.

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bishnu
Stupidity like this only hurts the long-term goal of making printed books
something only hobbyists are interested in (like vinyl records), but what's
the solution? Data integrity regulation from governments? Or will the markets
take care of it?

~~~
goostavos
It worries me that one day hard copy books will be viewed as a hobbyists
endeavor..

~~~
bishnu
It worries you that people will read more? That people will read more varied
things? That authors will get better compensation? That self-publishing will
become a much more viable model for literally millions of authors?

Man you worry about some weird stuff dude.

~~~
aiscott
Hard-copies endure. Digital, not so much. Checkout Jordan Mechner's recent
archaeological expedition to retrieve some source code of his from 25 years
ago (Prince of Persia). It was nearly lost, and that is only 25 years!

The digital world is ephemeral.

~~~
ctdonath
Atlanta is enjoying an exhibit ("Passages") of a very large collection of very
rare Bibles. From fragments of early/original texts (ex.: Dead Sea Scrolls) to
definitive works (first-run King James Bible) to remarkable renditions
(illuminated works) to unusual associations (mother-of-pearl encrusted cover
Bible given by (!) Yassir Arafat) to notable errors (Wicked Bible, named for
the single typo "Thou shalt commit adultery"), the soon-ending exhibition is
for this thread a testimony of the importance of physical copies.

Per that last example, consider that the "Nooked" _War and Peace_ could be
considered a "great typo" someday sought after by collectors - except that,
being ephemera, the digital copy will either be lost or copies unverifiable
due to ease of replication.

I certainly appreciate the benefits of e-books. At the same time, physical
presence carries a lot of meaning beyond just content. Alas for those notable
books lost in a sea of bits...

