In an age where business dominates our governments and writes our laws, every technological advance offers business an opportunity to impose new restrictions on the public. Technologies that could have empowered us are used to chain us instead.
With printed books,
- You can buy one with cash, anonymously.
- Then you own it.
- You are not required to sign a license that restricts your use of it.
- The format is known, and no proprietary technology is needed to read the book.
- You can, physically, scan and copy the book, and it’s sometimes lawful under copyright.
- Nobody has the power to destroy your book.
Contrast that with Amazon ebooks (fairly typical):
- Amazon requires users to identify themselves to get an ebook.
- In some countries, Amazon says the user does not own the ebook.
- Amazon requires the user to accept a restrictive license on use of the ebook.
- The format is secret, and only proprietary user-restricting software can read it at all.
- To copy the ebook is impossible due to Digital Restrictions Management in the player, and prohibited by the license, which is more restrictive than copyright law.
- Amazon can remotely delete the ebook using a back door. It used this back door in 2009 to delete thousands of copies of George Orwell’s 1984.
Even one of these infringements makes ebooks a step backward from printed books. We must reject ebooks until they respect our freedom.
In the same way we all have rejected electronic music? Technology changes. The book you can buy but the copyright belongs to the author and the publisher, and you choose your medium. Pretty sure there are no Constitutional protections for how we read books or use their content.
Interesting concept, though.
(Source: azspot, via youmustfirstinventtheuniverse)
