Just a note for those that might have missed it…I’m one part of a three part post over at TechSource on the Kindle 2 and libraries. I’m pointing it out mainly because of the fact that I did the very first, I think, video for TechSource, showing off the Kindle 2’s Text-to-Speech feature. Go take a look, and let me know how you think it came out.
I asked on Twitter, but thought I’d ping the brains of all 3 of the people that read me here. I’m shortly in the market for a new TV, finally upgrading to HDTV after our 37″ Toshiba of a decade or so is losing it’s picture.
So: who’s bought an LCD HDTV in the last few months that they really like, and WHERE did you buy it? I’ve gotten two recommendations for the Vizio 42″ LCD, but so far I’ve only found it for sale at one place online, Target. Love to find it somewhere with free shipping…
So: What TV do you have that you love, and where did you procure it? Under $1000, please, and 40-42 inch or so LCD. 1080p preferred, but 720 acceptable if there’s a cost/savings analysis there that makes sense.
Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails, recently said this in a Wired interview:
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t think music should be free,” Reznor says. “But the climate is such that it’s impossible for me to change that, because the record labels have established a sense of mistrust. So everything we’ve tried to do has been from the point of view of, ‘What would I want if I were a fan? How would I want to be treated?’ Now let’s work back from that. Let’s find a way for that to make sense and monetize it.”
How’s that for a customer service mantra? Try that for your library: What would you want, if you were a patron? How would you want to be treated? Work back from that, find a way for that to make sense.
I’m in the middle of writing a book about Mobile Technologies and Libraries, and am researching libraries providing mobile-specific services of all sorts. I came across the University of Virginia’s Ebook Library, and decided to take a look at what they are offering. It’s a very old ebook collection, with the original Etext division starting in 1992. Here’s the part that made me scratch my head…it’s in their Access and Conditions of Use:
While many of these items are made publicly-accessible, they are not all public domain — the vast majority of the images, and a number of the texts, including all of those from the University of Virginia Special Collections Department, are copyrighted to the University of Virginia Library, for example, and a number of other texts are still copyrighted to their original print publishers and made available here with permission.
I have no qualms with the texts that are copyrighted by their original publishers, and that UVA got permission to use. My eyebrows raise at the bit about “including all those from the University of Virginia Special Collections Department, are copyrighted to the University of Virginia Library…”
Really?
I had my suspicions here…it’s not like the UVA Special Collections Department are writing books, right? After look around, I found this text: Po’ Sandy by Charles W. Chestnutt. Published in 1888 in the Atlantic Monthly in New York, it is clearly in the public domain in the United States. But there it is, in the front matter:
Copyright 1999, by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
Looking around just a bit, it looks like this shows up on all sorts of texts that UVA digitized. My favorite is The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, completed in 1788 by Franklin but the particular version republished by UVA was published in 1909 by P. F. Collier & Son Company in New York. Also, without any doubt, in the Public Domain in the US. It also has the note:
Copyright 1999, by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
What gives UVA the right to claim copyright on these texts? They couldn’t have legally digitized them if they weren’t in the Public Domain at the time of their digitization, and changing the form of something doesn’t give you the right to claim a copyright, especially on the bits that make the work up. Even stranger, they aren’t just claiming copyright, but including a EULA!
By their use of these ebooks, texts and images, users agree to follow these conditions of use:
- These ebooks, texts and images may not be used for any commercial purpose without permission from the Electronic Text Center.
- These ebooks, texts and images may not be re-published in print or electronic form without permission from the Electronic Text Center. However, educators are welcome to print out items and hand them to their students.
- Users are not permitted to download our ebooks, texts, and images in order to mount them on their own servers for public use or for use by a set of subscribers. Individuals and institutions can, of course, make a link to the copies at UVa, subject to our conditions of use.
Really? Is UVA asserting rights here that they just do not have? Not permitted to republish? Only if there is a copyright concern…which I think that UVA is asserting incorrectly here. It’s possible that there is some piece of copyright law that they are leaning on for these claims, but on the face of it, this seems like over reaching. Can anyone explain to me how they could possible have legitimate copyright claims on things that they didn’t create and are beyond the time limit for copyright protection in the US?
This week, ebooks were all over the tech news, and there were at least two huge announcements. Well, one announcement, and one not-so-secret launch coming Monday.
The announcement was the Google Book mobile service, which gives users access to 1.5 million books from the Google Book scanning project OCR’d and formatted for mobile screens, like those of the G1 and the iPhone. In one fell swoop, Google has made these platforms the home of the largest electronic book library in the world…the Amazon Kindle store currently has 230,000 books, while Project Gutenberg has just over 100,000.
The upcoming announcement is that almost certainly on Monday, Amazon will announce the Kindle version 2. Leaked photos make the v2 look sleeker, more updated, and with much better physical form-factor. What I’m most excited about is the possibility of v.2 of the software, which better UI and possibly more features. As long, of course, as the software is ported back to the original hardware.
Are these the things that will finally push ebooks firmly into the public consciousness? Time will tell, but I can hope.
This is just awesome. I love the details in the reporting, like the fact that it takes 2 hours for the newspaper to download! Shows how far we’ve come.
Also, I <3 acoustic couplers.
If you aren’t listening to YLNT, you’re missing some of the funniest stuff on the web. Their brand of humor is in the John Hodgman dry-and-absurd style. I hadn’t realized that they were now doing videos! Here’s an example of their humor…I love this stuff.
“The Noises Rest” from lonelysandwich on Vimeo.
Just published a new post over a ALA Techsource about Alternate Reality Games. If you don’t know what they are, or just want to see who I think is doing good stuff with them in LibraryLand, go take a look.
My recent article in NetConnect, Stranger Than We Know, is garnering a little attention online, although I haven’t heard any feedback directly. I’d love to know if the digiterati think I’m just wildly off base with some of my crazed ramblings.
Mentions thus far in:
Finally got my slides up on Slideshare…got to say, I love Slideshare a lot, but the fact that it won’t take Apple Keynote files is just wrong. If you use Keynote, you have to export as a PDF, and upload it.
In any case, here’s the Slideshare. You can download the PDF from them as well.