Thread: electronic library : you can borrow Guy Lautard Book

Thanks for that, no good for me though, I'm a slow reader
Kryn

Guy would actually prefer that you buy it I think. They are not expensive, have lots of information in them and being a self publishing author he is losing money apparently to people who are posting his things on the net without paying for them. In fact, he was telling me that TMBR 4 is being delayed until he can work out some way to fight it.

Michael

Our local regional Council library has books like this.

That aside I have all 3 of Guys books and would dearly love to buy the fourth edition.

Grahame

Originally Posted by Michael G

Guy would actually prefer that you buy it I think. They are not expensive, have lots of information in them and being a self publishing author he is losing money apparently to people who are posting his things on the net without paying for them. In fact, he was telling me that TMBR 4 is being delayed until he can work out some way to fight it.

Michael

There is no way of fighting it so he might as well give up now & save himself a lot of aggravation in trying. DRM and similar is an open invitation to software people to have a go at cracking the code. I use a different approach personally; I just refuse to have anything to do with a 'publication' that purports to grant me less rights than I'd get if I bought the same thing in hard copy form. I don't bother with ebooks (but might have to change my mind when the boat is in the water).

I have all 3 of his previous books in hard copy and I'd certainly buy the 4th if he ever releases it. The only real defence against outright copyright violation like illicit digital copies is to make sure the hard copy is readily available at a price people are happy paying, and ignore the rest who'd steal pennies off of a corpse just because they could.

Even if you come up with an absolutely unbeatable DRM scheme, all that would happen is someone would scan in the paper copy using a high resolution scanner and upload the PDF.

This is a war that copyright holders & content creators *cannot* win, and I speak from the POV of a software developer with applications in current use, and a lot of code released into the public domain.

PDW

Hello,

At the moment I don't believe that there is anything underhanded or illegal about this electronic copy of Guy's book.

It has DRM on it and cannot be illegally copied - simply borrowed just like any other library book.

It is not a pirated scan that anybody can open at any time.

Many libraries lend electronic books and in a similar way to hardcopy books the authors should get some sort of reimbursement for the loss of sales due to the public being able to borrow the book.

I am sure that all authors would prefer the public to buy books rather than use libraries, I am also sure that nobody would ever buy all of the books they have borrowed

MichaelG - I suggest that if you know Guy you notify him of this copy and see if he is getting appropriate payment for the library copy. Would be interesting to see if he knows about it.

Regards

Bill

There isn't any DRM in general use that hasn't been cracked and the Adobe .acsm files are no different, as there's a basic flaw with all DRM schemes in that at some time, the content has to be made available (decrypted) so the end-user can view it.

Australian libraries are part of the Public Lending Right scheme, where authors do get paid for the library use of their works.

Of course, the USA chooses not to be a part of this scheme so authors have no legal right for compensation from any American library use.

As the Open Library is run from the US, no, the author is getting no payment. If he is an American author, feel free to add an #irony tag.

I don't know how others use their Guy Lautard books but the last thing they are for me is a "one pass read".
There's way too much detail to remember it all and I wouldn't want to be copying the recipes out in either electronic or paper.
These books are like a cross between a reference and a browser.
I'm in the shed and remember- Ah Ha Guy has something to say about X so I go get the books.
These books also make lots of trips to the little house, or other times here and there.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/The-Machinists-Second-Bedside-Reader-by-Guy-Lautard-/321413204245?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_15&hash=item4ad5b84915

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

There isn't any DRM in general use that hasn't been cracked and the Adobe .acsm files are no different, as there's a basic flaw with all DRM schemes in that at some time, the content has to be made available (decrypted) so the end-user can view it.

Australian libraries are part of the Public Lending Right scheme, where authors do get paid for the library use of their works.

Of course, the USA chooses not to be a part of this scheme so authors have no legal right for compensation from any American library use.

As the Open Library is run from the US, no, the author is getting no payment. If he is an American author, feel free to add an #irony tag.

Thats interesting.

I had previously thought that in a litigious place like USA all authors would be getting these payments.

The book doesn't seem to be scanned, seems like a "proper" electronic version of the text controlled by DRM. ie you can increase or decrease the text size without changing the clarity and resolution of the text.

Somehow I got the impression that they were fairly careful with the legality of what they were doing as they are a subsiduary of this site https://archive.org/ which gave me the impression of being a serious solid respectable organisation, most of the things I've looked at there have been quite old and out of copyright.

Will be a bit more careful before getting stuff from these sites in future.

Bill

American society doesn't seem to do much to protect the actual content creators - ask any author who has had to deal with Hollywood accounting over a film adaptation of their work, or the actors who are suing New Line Cinema as despite the Lord of the Rings films making $6 billion dollars, the studio claims it made 'horrendous losses and no profit at all'.

I guess in the USA you have to be a big business to get any government protection.

Originally Posted by Master Splinter

There isn't any DRM in general use that hasn't been cracked and the Adobe .acsm files are no different, as there's a basic flaw with all DRM schemes in that at some time, the content has to be made available (decrypted) so the end-user can view it.

Exactly. My comments weren't in any way aimed at the legality or otherwise of what the OP was doing and telling us about, they were aimed at the thought that DRM actually has any intrinsic utility.

I fully understand and appreciate the desire of authors to benefit from and to some extent control the fruits of their labour. However, technology is what it is, and just as the printing press changed distribution of printed matter, making it available to the 'lower classes', digital technology is another one of those totally disruptive events.

My point is, if a small time author like Guy Lautard is going to hold out for a technological fix to stop people illegally copying his work, he's no longer going to be publishing anything, because it is *not* going to happen. The upside of it is, in theory authors like him no longer need to get books printed in minimum runs at a fixed cost, they can sell the electronic version directly. I have a number of electronic books on software development written by the people who developed the code (iText is a really well known one). When you buy a copy, they generate a custom PDF with every page watermarked at the bottom with the purchaser's name. Now, I know how to remove that, too, but why would you bother to save $20?

In short, the business model has to change. This is exactly what the distributors et al are fighting against, because they disappear with their outmoded way of doing business.

PDW

Originally Posted by PDW

...................<snip>

I have a number of electronic books on software development written by the people who developed the code (iText is a really well known one). When you buy a copy, they generate a custom PDF with every page watermarked at the bottom with the purchaser's name. Now, I know how to remove that, too, but why would you bother to save $20?

In short, the business model has to change. This is exactly what the distributors et al are fighting against, because they disappear with their outmoded way of doing business.

PDW

That's interesting.

Surely people who have the wherewithal, nous and general overall competence to write a book should be able to send a word processed document into a pdf program.

Why arent we seeing a change in the book industry with me buying the electronic version directly from the author ?

Roughly what would it cost for somebody to get a web site set up where Bill the punter buys the pdf straight off Fred the Author's web site and downloads it - no postage, no paper, no printing, no bookbinding ?

Surely I would get it cheaper and he would sell more books ?

I had a software package once (http://www.ps-sport.net/ergmonitor.htm) that was locked onto my laptop and could only run on the laptop - it scanned the hardware somehow and determined that it was running on the only machine it was allowed to run on when it was registered. Could that technology be applied to books as well.

Bill

Originally Posted by steamingbill

MichaelG - I suggest that if you know Guy you notify him of this copy and see if he is getting appropriate payment for the library copy. Would be interesting to see if he knows about it.

He knows about it now, does not get paid for it and was not happy.

Michael

Originally Posted by steamingbill

Surely people who have the wherewithal, nous and general overall competence to write a book should be able to send a word processed document into a pdf program Bill

I reckon that old Guy is well capable of the above and far more.My impression that any would be publishers would like to take the lion 's share leaving the bloke who did all the work with not too much to show for his efforts. While I admire his work very much it is fairly obvious from his website that he tries to maximize the income from his efforts.I don much about him outside of his books but think that the books and related website may be his only income.Naturally he would be very protective of it.

I can tell you that self publishing is a mugs game and unless you have big print runs you will not break even let alone make a profit.

Thats really the nub of the problem. With of all the Hobby machinists out there , how many of us have all of Guys books or at the very least the bedside reader series. I am like BobL ,I never go more than a week or two looking for an idea or a comment on how to ,in the books. The problem is lots of Hobbyists want the books but few are willing to pay $50 -60 Us for them.

The other problem is that Guy like the rest of us is getting on a bit and would have to be eighty something I reckon.

How many here would stump up for Bedside reader no 4?

Grahame