

Author John Birmingham on eBook Piracy - Tsagadai
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/blogs/blunt-instrument/avast-ye-scurvy-dogs-here-be-my-answer-to-piracy-20120528-1zegt.html

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grannyg00se
DRM is seriously still happening? How hard would it be to setup some software
that inspects the video driver output and copies it after each page turn? Or
if not at that level, some kind of device that takes a scan of the display,
OCRs it, and saves all the scans into a new, unlocked PDF.

I can understand some of these players being hell bent on having control of
their product even after they sell it to someone else, but it seems inevitable
that it will not last.

If you sell me a painting, you can't expect to stop me from taking photos and
copying it. Or if I'm a painter, I may even modify it and resell it as a fork
of your initial design.

Seriously, who (within a certain age bracket) has never copied a friend's
audio cassette?

~~~
roel_v
Please show me the software to not only do OCR, but also that will reflow
these what are essentially bitmap-representations of books (or, at best, 'PDF-
like representations') to a format such as epub which is required to get the
full 'e-book experience'.

For the record, I've tried my hand (and failed) on software to do just this.
It's a Hard problem, Hard in the CS and engineering sense, and sufficiently
hard that I don't see it happening reliably in the first years, and there is
to the best of my knowledge no software available that even comes close. To
anyone who is going to suggest Calibre, please don't, lest you make yourself
look like you know nothing about the issues I'm talking about.

~~~
bornhuetter
> To anyone who is going to suggest Calibre, please don't, lest you make
> yourself look like you know nothing about the issues I'm talking about.

Can you please elaborate on this. I've never tried, but I thought Calibre
could strip the DRM from kindle ebooks. Or do you mean that Calibre can't
handle the general case of arbitrary DRM (via OCR methods)?

~~~
roel_v
First, Calibre doesn't do OCR (at least not the version that I last looked at,
maybe a year or so ago). But then still, even if it would, having a bunch of
OCR'ed pages doesn't make an ebook. Any eventual conversion software would
have to strip page header and footer material, recognize chapter titles and
paragraphs, etc.; and for technical books it's a magnitude worse still - it
would have to recognize sidebars, images, multi-level chapter headings, ...

Converting a pdf into an ebook (by ebook I mean: epub or similar formats, I
recognize that that is a fairly narrow definition of ebook; some people call
scanned jpg's an 'ebook'), even without accounting for DRM or OCR, is Very
Hard. PDF is only page layout, it doesn't have any semantics; ebooks are build
around semantic markup (otherwise you can't make an automatic ToC, or reflow
pages when the user increases font size, for example).

My point is: there is no software (to the best of my knowledge, and I've
_looked_ ) that can convert bitmaps into their equivalent 'ebooks'. So, it's
not quite as easy (actually it's so much harder so as to approach impossible,
save from manual conversion) as the GP would make it seem.

~~~
bornhuetter
Thanks for the clarification. I agree that converting a BMP to a properly
formatted eBook is next to impossible without at least some manual
intervention (or using an expert system based on manually constructed book
templates).

I do wonder how far Google has got with their internal software - and if they
care at all about formatting, or just the text.

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shadowmint
Reading this sort of thing makes me want to go and buy this guys books.

I own perhaps a dozen books I've bought from amazon, and it vexes me
continuously that they come drm locked and I can't do simple things like, swap
them to a different device. I've regretted it every single time.

These days I get the free sample off of amazon, and if I like the book I go
out of my way to find a way to get it DRM free, or buy a physical copy.

~~~
Tsagadai
I suggest you do, his books are awesome.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birmingham>

~~~
tallanvor
Funny thing... I didn't recognize his name, but the first book of his Axis of
Time series was available for free when I got my first Kindle. This can be a
great way to introduce people to an author or series, and I've bought books by
an author based on the free one I got.

Unfortunately for Birmingham, Weapons of Choice just didn't convince me he was
a great author, or at least not one that I want to spend more money on right
now. Of course, I haven't pirated his books either, but the only reason I've
ever done that is if the book isn't legally available electronically.

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_feda_
The author is a little contradictory in that he seems to simultaneously hold
up drm as an author's last stand against piracy aswell as freedom denying. But
I think the contradiction is just his own conflictedness about drm. He has to
make a buck somehow, and if drm is the only way in this day and age then it
might be his only option.

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damian2000
One of the most rational discussions of piracy and DRM I've ever read.

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robryan
If ebooks are currently priced to cheaply at some point you would expect the
content produced to slow down, at which point prices would rise because books
that people want aren't being made.

I assume this author is trying to have it both ways, letting amazon sell their
stuff cheap and get some volume while trying to make a far better margin off
the Australian market.

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nailer
John Birmingham's publisher, where you can buy his DRM-free books:
<http://momentumbooks.com.au>

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iRobot
I am one of those people who have been "corn-holed" over the last 30 years and
I seriously don't care how many publishers or retail outlets I put out of
business by buying electronically.

The Internet selling model is here to stay and as long as the artist or author
gets their fair cut for creating the work, the model is fine by me. The fact
this author is tied to his publisher is between him and the publisher and not
my problem.

I've read some rubbish by established authors with ridiculous e-book prices
and some fine stuff for $0.99 by authors quite happy with the e-book format,
Amazon does not need to apologise to anyone IMHO in fact I'm preparing my
first book for publication with them later this year, I doubt I will make much
but I have a day job and the Karma value will be immense, I suspect this is
the feeling of a lot of authors (yes there is a lot of shit ebooks to wade
through but its worth it when you find a gem!)

If there isnt an ebook and the price is too high I go to the library or dont
read it (seriously how many people would seriously read a photocopied book)

~~~
pemulis
_I'm preparing my first book for publication with them later this year, I
doubt I will make much but I have a day job_

I've been working with an author-run e-publishing group for the past few
months, and this is an attitude I see a lot. I understand where it comes from,
but it's not really good for readers or the literary ecosystem. Amazon has no
real stake in any of the books they publish. They own the platform that sells
all of the content, so as long as they're selling _something_ , they're fine.
There are no publishers giving books the criticism and support they need, and
no passionate booksellers to promote them to readers. If even the authors
don't care if a book sells, where does that leave us? I don't know. But I'm
going to keep buying traditionally published books until someone figures it
out.

~~~
hessenwolf
He's just preparing himself emotionally in case it flops, is my guess. (or
she) (and maybe that's what I do)

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_feda_
"They are all available on the torrents. For free. Go out and steal them now
if you want. Call it ‘copying’ and argue the semantics if you like. Just don't
expect me to be your friend anymore or, eventually, to write another goddamned
book. I’m not a complete idiot. I got better things to do with my time than
give away free tricks."

I was entirely on the author's side up until he said this. He deserves to be
paid for what he does, but if he isn't willing to do it for free if that's the
only way, then he probably shouldn't bother.

~~~
josephagoss
Whoa, are you sure about this stance? No creative task should ever be done
unless your willing to work for free?

By your logic, I would be condemned to waiting tables for the entirety of my
life whilst providing every line of code I write for free.

I don't think this is fair to people that want to pursue a creative path in
life.

