Re: kindle continues to zoom, hardware and software
any time amazon does a press-release, the crackpots come out and try to throw rocks. it's become an amusing thing to watch. the fact of that matter is that those press-releases are fraught with legalistic landmines. look at the "forward-look statements" fine print included at the bottom, which is required by the s.e.c. i'm quite sure they think about what they say, and spin it in a way that makes it sound as good as they can, but i'm also sure it's true. because the cost of saying something false -- even technically so -- is just too damn high. it just might get you sued, class-action wise. and, as jim points out, amazon says that e-books are kicking ass _across_the_board_. and that sounds rather unambiguous to me. further, if amazon was saying something that was materially untrue, don't you think the publishers would call them on it? i'm sure of it. after all, the publishers know the actual numbers on all these claims. and they're actively looking for a way to take amazon down a notch... yet none of them are disputing what amazon says. indeed, when the last press-release was issued, publishers confirmed that it was true... *** oh, and yes, some books from p.g. are being sold (or given away) on amazon. we have discussed this before. and if p.g. wanted to, p.g. could offer those books _itself_ and knock out the knock-offs. but nobody here has stepped up to do that. y'all just wanna bitch. and until you get up off your asses and _do_something_, nothing will change. -bowerbird
oh, and yes, some books from p.g. are being sold (or given away) on amazon. we have discussed this before. and if p.g. wanted to, p.g. could offer those books _itself_ and knock out the knock-offs. but nobody here has stepped up to do that. y'all just wanna bitch. and until you get up off your asses and _do_something_, nothing will change.
Some years ago I looked at this possibility but decided against wanting to work a mosh-up between Amazon's legalese and PG's legalese. Not saying that it can't be don't, shouldn't be done, or hasn't been done - search Amazon ebooks for "Project Gutenberg" What I decided to do instead was to set up my own website to support Kindles - since at that time PG refused to support Kindles. That site is freekindlebooks.org , and is still doing about 150,000 free downloads a month, in spite of actively trying to pass users back to PG now that PG offers reasonable support of Kindles. Also not counting all the people downloading books using "Magic Catalog." So, its not that "nobody did it." Its just that nobody did it exactly like you suggest it could done. I would think most PG volunteers, including yours truly, are actually not very interested in helping along the Amazon's DRM restrictions and Amazon's DRM restrictions website - even if we *are* fans of the Kindle reader hardware itself. Personally I am willing to buy books in copyright with DRM. Not willing to help support DRM on out-of-copyright books.
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall. . . ." Please, Mr. Bird, look in the mirror before you write this stuff. I can't count the times I have asked you to do something that was a simple execution of what you said you were doing already, but a response from you turned out in effect to just continue bitching, you use your own word. I have warned you privately, now I will warn you again in public, if you don't DO something in the way of actually constructing new or improved eBooks and send them directly to me, I will stop what I have been doing to to protect you from yet again being off list with nowhere here to send your comments. Is there really any content in the message below besides bitches? Please. . .after all this time some CONSTRUCTION. . .please. . .! Michael On Mon, 25 Oct 2010, Bowerbird@aol.com wrote:
any time amazon does a press-release, the crackpots come out and try to throw rocks. it's become an amusing thing to watch.
the fact of that matter is that those press-releases are fraught with legalistic landmines. look at the "forward-look statements" fine print included at the bottom, which is required by the s.e.c.
i'm quite sure they think about what they say, and spin it in a way that makes it sound as good as they can, but i'm also sure it's true. because the cost of saying something false -- even technically so -- is just too damn high. it just might get you sued, class-action wise.
and, as jim points out, amazon says that e-books are kicking ass _across_the_board_. and that sounds rather unambiguous to me.
further, if amazon was saying something that was materially untrue, don't you think the publishers would call them on it? i'm sure of it. after all, the publishers know the actual numbers on all these claims. and they're actively looking for a way to take amazon down a notch...
yet none of them are disputing what amazon says. indeed, when the last press-release was issued, publishers confirmed that it was true...
***
oh, and yes, some books from p.g. are being sold (or given away) on amazon. we have discussed this before. and if p.g. wanted to, p.g. could offer those books _itself_ and knock out the knock-offs.
but nobody here has stepped up to do that. y'all just wanna bitch. and until you get up off your asses and _do_something_, nothing will change.
-bowerbird
participants (3)
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Bowerbird＠aol.com -
James Adcock -
Michael S. Hart