Dean Fetzer has written up a great article entitled Words Want To Be Free and in it he offers his latest work, Death After Midnight, for free in eBook form. Be quick though because the offer ends soon. Thanks to Alison.
“I was given a heads up about an article by my lovely wife yesterday about eBook piracy which I found online and proceeded to read, slightly disturbed.
I wasn’t surprised when I read it. Much like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) represents music companies, the Publishers Association represents the behemoths of the publishing industry (not the authors) – the ones with the vested interest in making sure everyone pays for what they’re reading.
Their boss recently said that people buying eBooks don’t actually own the book. “When you buy an e-book you are effectively buying a licence to view a file,” says Mollet. “Yes you’re buying the manifestation of the work but what you can then do with that file is a separate question.”
Eh? I want to say something very rude here, but I’ve restrained myself. What a load of tosh. He wouldn’t argue that I owned the paperback or hardback in my hand. How is the electronic version (which is more often than not locked into my devices) any less mine than the dead tree version.”
This would be a great deal EXCEPT you have to create YET another login for YET another site to get it. Forget it.
Thanks to copyright, there is a difference between reading a physical book (which does not require the performance of an act restricted by copyright), and reading an eBook (which does) – so, yes, “buying an eBook” is actually merely purchasing a licence to copy the book for the purpose of reading it; the actual licence put forward by the publisher may dictate exactly how you are entitled to copy it, which could even entail a restriction on where you could read it, how often etc.! Some countries may have “fair use” defences or “fair dealing” rights which can trump such restrictions, but others (such as the UK) do not.
As such, as a result of digital technology, there may be far more content available, but, since copyright restrictions have largely kept pace with technological advancement, whereas use rights have not, we might actually be less able to exploit things which we “purchase” now than before – in an IP-centric world, it’s just the procurement of permissions from a rightsholder.