also, if a big electromagnetic pulse hits, ebooks will disappear. On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 10:29 AM, raghu <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 11:55 AM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: >> raghu wrote: >>> It is not certain that you will be able to access the ebook that you >>> buy today in say, 10 years time. >> >> why? I can convert my old WordStar files into Winword format. > > > All kinds of reasons. More generally digital archiving is fraught with > all kinds of difficulties, intellectual property regimes being only > one of them. > http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERM0164.pdf > > Specifically for ebooks I can think of the following list of possible > problems. > > 1) Ebook formats are not open - they are encrypted and you need > licenses for each device you plan to read it on. Which entity > administers these licenses? Will they be in business 10 years from > now? 50 years? > > 2) Format conversions are never completely loss-less. And every time > you do a conversion you lose something more. This is perhaps more of > an issue for digital art and multi-media but even for books it is > relevant. > > 3) What happens if you can no longer afford to keep buying the latest > fancy ebook reader every few years? > > 4) If you cannot recharge your ebook e.g. if you are in a place > without a reliable power supply, then it is useless. > > 5) More generally you do not really own an ebook you buy the way you > own a copy of a regular book. Your ability to access the ebook is > always contingent on the ubiquitous availability of an elaborate > technological infrastructure. In that sense it is also environmentally > a lot more destructive than the dead tree version. > > 6) You cannot (easily) share or give your copy of an ebook to someone. > > etc. > > -raghu. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
-- Jim Devine / "Living a life of quiet desperation -- but always with style!" _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
