greg said:
> What announcement?
well, he said chuckling out loud, i guess that answers _that_... ;+)
search twitter -- always the very best way to see how the gossip-vines
are misinterpreting the news -- for "overdrive gutenberg", and see...
the two biggest descriptors are an "integration" between overdrive and
project gutenberg, which is sometimes described as "a partnership"...
you can thank paul biba at teleread for the "integration" blooper, but
i'm not sure which poor comprehender kicked the "partnership" meme.
on the one hand, i hear michael saying "they are doing our job for us".
and i can see that side of the coin. still, i can also see the other
side,
which is that they're being paid a ton of library money to "do that job".
do you know that some publishing houses are charging libraries some
tremendously outrageous prices for e-books, via overdrive as vendor?
and i don't mean something like $30 for an e-book when the p-book is
$30, which would be shocking enough all by itself, if you think about it.
nope, i mean more like _$120_ for an e-book, when the p-book is $30.
and they'll order dozens of copies of one of these high-priced e-books!
all because "patrons are requesting these books, in the e-book format."
but i'm guessing the patrons do not know they are being ripped off so!
overdrive is doing this highway robbery.
and now they're using free p.g. e-texts as a come-on to lure libraries;
to make them feel like they're getting more bang for their big bucks...
do you really want to be in bed with a robber baron? does having an
"integrated partnership" with a thief like this sound like a good idea?
michael hart, maybe it's time for you to do the distribution job yourself.
-bowerbird
