On Sun, 29 Nov 2009, David H. Rothman wrote:
You are SOOO far behind the times, all of this is old, not news.
Uh, Michael, it's the SECRECY that's a big angle here, beyond the usual mischief. Why should proposed copyright treaties be treated like national security secrets? Just Google around a bit:
Duh!!! Don't you remember how SECRET the 1998 US Copyright Act was when it passed? I'll bet you didn't even KNOW it was passed for weeks or month afterwards! Biggest political smokescreen. . . . You really don't remember anything about it, do you??? As for this new treaty, I've been on it for quite a while, it's not news.
http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=secret+copyright+treaty
No small number of news organizations see...news.
As for disrupting this list, keep in mind that out of the blue, without my attacking anyone, Bowerbird launched a strike on me and wants to do this every
Talk about "out of the blue" you said you weren't going to waste more time.
Thanksgiving. Great for holiday cheer, huh? I defended myself. You sided with PG's resident troll, the clown who has been kicked off his share of lists. A
I don't side with anyone, particularly either of you two.
little Orwellian. Or is this list instead the Planet of the Trolls? The Apes--no, I mean the Trolls--set the tone? Bizarre. Meanwhile apologies to the Apes. They strike me as far, far more civil than Bowerbird.
Sounds more Orsonwellian to me. . . .
I'm happy to write up PG's better side, but I gotta say, Michael, you're doing a pretty efficient job of alienating people without my tolerance of your, er,
I'm not worried about alienating you or your cadre of friends, I just call them as I see them and you don't like my consistency. Stop wasting time with old news.
eccentricities. Some potential friends of PG may put themselves in my place and not reach out to you. Horror of horrors, a few of those you alienate might even have money. The tone of the PG volunteer list just might be one reason why PG is unfortunately so bleepin' cash-strapped. All this craziness might also scare away potential participants with first-rate ideas for PG. Which counts most--Bowerbird's rants or your mission to digitize books in the public domain?
Money, money, money, money. YOU go for the money, OK? First rate ideas for PG will carry their own weight, without having to carry the weight of all your gold.
As for ePub, I've already said that it's fine great for PG to offer many formats and let 'em slug at out. You can do that until the end of time, and in fact I'd prefer this.
Then please do, and stop contradicting yourself, and everyone else.
But ePub is the one that Sony and B&N are gearing up for, and the one that even Amazon might in time offer as a Kindle-format alternative. This took years to achieve. It's unfortunate that rather than helping the standards movement, you've just been sitting on the sidelines. You could still have worked toward standards while offering many formats.
"Took years to achieve?" Sony, Amazon and Google combined maybe add up to 10 years. Duh! They could all drop their current eBook programs like hot potatoes if things don't go their way, without even a business plan blip. However, I think, as I always have, that eBooks are going to be so extraordinarily HUGE that it will carry them all along. . . .
OK, enough. Now get back to the stuff I like--PG's mission.
Give the most possible books to the most possible people. Let me know when Sony and Amazon and all the rest of them have combined for their first million seller. Then I'll tell that we gave away that many copies of just one book in a single month. . .several times. . . . They are only making a dent in the commercial world, not in the world of eBooks in toto.
David
TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home http://www.teleread.org