On Tue, 2006-04-04 at 15:55 -0400, Bowerbird@aol.com wrote:

first, i've never been too fond of .pdf, not just for its technical flaws (which can be surmounted), but also because adobe strikes me as awfully predatory.

This may have been a problem in the past but I don't see it anymore. Anybody can make an application for viewing PDFs without having to ask permission from, or pay royalties to, Adobe and the format has been standardised by ISO. So, I think it's not necessary to be afraid of Adobe as a predator in this instance.

compounding that these days is _sony_, which will be releasing a reader-machine (which uses e-ink) in the next few months, one with major support for the .pdf format.

This is a good think, isn't it?

i don't care to provide sony a tool that will enable them to scarf much of the p.g. library to prop up their machine, not when p.g. itself ignores the .pdf...

wholesale conversion of unformatted p.g. e-texts into quality .pdf e-books available only through the sony store is not something that i want to foster.

so i'll probably hobble the capability, so it cannot be used in a "production" type of environment -- most likely by refusing to make more than one .pdf every 4 hours. unless someone can suggest a better way to handle this?

First of all, the books we're dealing with here are public domain. If Sony wanted to raid PG's library, then I'm sure it would and I doubt that any volunteers would have a problem with that, given PG's stated goals. If you're worried about your tool being used to create PDFs which will only be available through Sony's store, why not just create the PDFs yourself and add them to PG? That way, people will always have a free avenue if they want. I went through much the same kind of thought process a few days ago when I found a book which I'd contributed to PG being sold as a Trade Paperback complete with an ISBN number. I must admit, I had some uncertain feelings initially, but then I came to the realisation that this is what the public domain is all about. It's about competition. I worked on that book with no expectation of getting money for it. I did so because I thought the book was worthy and because PG was worthy. It makes no difference to me if somebody then goes on to sell the book. Clearly anybody who bought a copy from that vendor either didn't know about PG or were just willing to pay money to get a physical copy of the book. So, returning to the point at hand, the tool you're creating is yours and you're entitled to do whatever you like with it. However, the world will be a better place if you don't hobble it and give PG some lovely PDFs into the bargain. I'll thank you for it. Cheers, Holden