This brings me to the matter of archiving.
One thing that
this thread has made very clear to me is that
convenience of access does not
mean security and stability
of archives. Not within the electronic domain.
Not in the world.
A single instance confirmed me in
my suspicious of ebooks. When Amazon was starting up its ebook system, they sold
several thousand copies of a book which they did not have copyright clearance to
sell. This was pointed out to them by the irate publisher. Overnight, the book
vanished from the ebook readers of all those that had purchased it (and their
accounts were credited with the $1.50 they had spent). It would be very easy to
do the same thing with a list of "prohibited" books.
All control over the content of
your electronic book reader at all times rests in the hands of the distributor,
not yourself.
I prefer my cumbersome, difficult
to move, physical library (including my copies of several books that are no
doubt on some prescribed list or another).
In the Name of
Thoth,
Sam
Wagar
