It occurs to me that for all of the years that teachers have been photocopying parts of books to share with a class that they have in fact been abusing someone's copyright. It is a difficult issue to decide who actually owns a book, even a hard copy. You may own the material that it is made from but someone else still owns the words that are written inside. So I think that the issue of compliance with copyright by the academic world is a bigger issue than just e-book use.
Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2011 06:17:52 -0800
From:
[log in to unmask]Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Academic ebooks
To:
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Aloha,
On 11/5/2011 10:41 AM, janet ifimust wrote:
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Is that the case, if the ebook has been stored elsewhere? Amazon
can delete something from my kindle - but if I have managed to
store it elsewhere, surely they would not be able to access it
there? On a pen drive, for example?
There are a range of possibilities here, depending on both
technical matters and an ereader user's willingness to go
beyond the letter of registration and warranty and digital
rights agreements.
Ereader--wireless--devices check in with their hosting servers
whenever they are able. Periodic check ins may even be required
for the ereader device to function easily in the hosting network
(that is, too long without a check in may lead to having to
reset the device and/or re-register back into the network).
So if the user wants to get ebooks from the edistributor,
the ereader has to stay more or less updated in the hosting
network. And the ereader device is reminded again and again
to search for files that are not supposed to be accessible by
the device. And get rid of them.
Edistributors cannot get at files user's store on separate chips
or drives. But users probably need to access those files with
ereaders intentionally set to an off-line status, if the files are
out of compliance with the edistributor's conditions in any manner.
And swap memory chips holding out of compliance files for
chips holding in compliance ones. Or take some other steps
to keep out of compliance files away from technical scrutiny.
Or users have to use other devices, like computers.
Reading and using the ebooks gets cumbersome. Users need
to swap chips in their ereader devices. Or switch among different
devices to access different (in compliance or out) files.
Ereader users who pay less attention to the strict requirements
of warranties, user registrations, and digital rights agreements
can, of course, find ways to use their devices in ways the
edistributors and authors and digital rights holders do not like.
Right now, I think that it's an open question how the academic
world looks at any out of compliance use or access of e-materials.
But I believe that, in cases involving physical printed materials,
the
academic world upholds in compliance use and access.
Musing Users Have One Set of Needs & Expectations,
Workplaces, Authors, Publishers, & Distributors Have Others!
Rose,
Pitch
