posted
I only download Brttany Spears songs from p2p....and damnit I have yet to send her to the poor house. Maybe it will be the next mp3 I download....
::shuffles off to download Oops I did it again for the 58th time ::
Posts: 70 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I was about to make fun of them for not updating their website, but 30 seconds of research revealed Arthur as still being alive. I SO thought he was dead. 87 years old, what a life.
Posts: 70 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
MP3s are only technically OK if you are the one that made the MP3 from your own copy of the media. Even if you download the exact same version of the MP3 that you own, it's not legal.
Harry Potter is another example of this for me when it comes to books. I have every US version of the book in both Hardcover and paperback, I have every UK version of the book in paperback, and I have the first 4 of the Japanese versions in Hardcover. I also own the UK Audio Versions. I also have downloaded each of the books in a format that works for my Palm. They have never been released in any eBook format. Technically, even though I have paid my share of money to Schoolastic and Bloomsbury (as well as the audiobook people), the versions that I have on my Palm are not legal. Because I do feel the author has gotten plenty of money from me, and though I understand the legal aspects, I don't feel that I'm doing something immoral.
Some books are just so darn big too! I'm a returning college student and I've purchased the math book I'm going to be using for the whole year. I need it in class daily but it's just too much to carry. My solution was to take it to a local copy store and have them cut off the spine of the book and re-bind it into three books -- one for each term. I made sure to place the right answer key in the back for each one. When my teacher first saw it, he thought I had copied the book. Then he noticed the color printing and that the book was still on the same size paper. It ruined any chance of selling it back to the bookstore, but it's much easier on my back now.
Posts: 8 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
what would've happened if you did copy it? Tell you to buy a new one? HA! I got all of my programming books and software for free, thebooks from my cousin who dropped and the software from my college. So I saved about... 1500$ in books and software.
Posts: 1567 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Well, I'll admit that we download pirated books. We do it all the time. I can even justify it. Well, not morally, of course, but . . .
It's difficult to get fiction here. The biggest bookstore in the country finally carries books by OSC, but nothing written in the last 5 years or so, and it's an extremely limited selection. As in, oh, maybe 100 titles total for science fiction/fantasy/horror combined. If we could get more fiction, we'd buy it. We're obsessed with books, and we're willing to put our money where our mouth is. Between the two of us, we have probably 3 thousand paperbacks. Then there are the hard covers.
When I lived in Canada, I was known for buying - and reading - at least a dozen paperbacks, sometimes two or more - a month. Fiction is my drug.
Being a third world country doesn't make the prices on books or movies any cheaper. We have to pay the same price that's charged in the US or England, despite the fact that the average Sri Lankan earns 1/35th of what the average American earns. (Okay, we're not average, but that's beside the point.)
Everything here - almost - is pirated. Sure, paperback fiction is probably the exception. I say probably because I don't actually know for a fact that it's a legal edition. DVDs, well, I finally found one store that sells legal copies of movies. They carried a total of about 50 movies. And it took me until a month ago to find the one and only source in the country for legal software, including MicroSoft products. Even the MicroSoft office here doesn't sell legal MicroSoft programs.
What else is there to do here other than read the same books over and over and over and over again? Well, okay, I do it anyway, even more so with my favorites, but still . . .
I need to be fed! I need my fix of fiction! I can't live without it!
Sure, condemn me. Or provide me with a reasonabley diverse source of fiction. (And yes, I know, no one's picking on me. Just had to throw in my 5 Rupees, adjusted for inflation.)
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I was about to make fun of them for not updating their website, but 30 seconds of research revealed Arthur as still being alive. I SO thought he was dead. 87 years old, what a life.
Yeah, he's still alive and kicking. The tsunami didn't get him, either, but it did destroy one of his dive shops.
He's very much alive and kicking, and very stuck on himself. Fahim's interviewed him 4 times for various magazine and/or newspaper articles. He's quite the local legend.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I'm a touch behind here in the thread, having moved on to who is not dead yet and Sri Lanka.
On the topic of lending, I am a first hand example of the strength of expanding your reader base through borrowing.
My dad straight up gave me his copy of Ender's Game when I was younger. It was something he did. If he finished reading a book a few times that he thought I would like, he would just give it to me. Coming from a somewhat poor family, where I couldn't get things on my own very often, it was always a treat. I had that copy for about 12 years before giving it to a friend, who then loaned it to his girlfriend, who has yet to give it back.
Now, it would appear from that viewpoint that I have taken quite a bit of money from OSC, but actually, it was that initial gifting that has lead to me owning eight of Mr. Card's books. My friend, who had a bit more disposable income when I gave him my copy, went out and purchased as many books in the series as he could. As far as I know, his girlfriend has been keeping up with the stories of Ender's jeesh as well.
Beyond all of that, I had to get myself a new copy of EG, which my girlfriend has read, and although we don't need two copies in our collection, we hope to have children one day, who I would like to pass the books along to. When that happens, I'll have to have backups for myself.
All in all, sharing is good. I can't count the amount of authors that I have reveled in because of my dad. Makes me want to do something nice for somebody too.
Posts: 12 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
No, I havne't met him. Um, yes, the country is geographically small, but it has a population of 20 million. C'mon!
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote: Yeah, he's still alive and kicking. The tsunami didn't get him, either, but it did destroy one of his dive shops.
He's very much alive and kicking, and very stuck on himself. Fahim's interviewed him 4 times for various magazine and/or newspaper articles. He's quite the local legend.
I'm getting this Col. Kurtz in the jungle god complex picture in my head... I hope it hasn't progressed like that.
Posts: 70 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
Icky - good idea, but nah. I'd rather buy the actual paperback. And I will, as soon as I have the opportunity. I don't like reading ebooks - it's hard on my eyes. I would much much much rather have the paperback. Except for all the room they take up. We're probably going to Dubai in a couple of months, and believe me, I'll be looking then. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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comment on, " my whole career exists because PEOPLE LOAN BOOKS TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY"
After my brother let me read his Ender's Game I went out and bought all the rest of the Ender books, all the Shadow books, all the Earthbound books and several Alvin books.
Posts: 169 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
THe only books I download are dungeons and dragons books, mainly because theres such a vast, expensive (30 or forty dollars a book) amount of it that I can't keep up even when I do buy them regularly. I did try and download Shadow of the Hegemon and read it online but I just quit halfway through because my eyse hurt from staring at the darn computer screen.
Plus, it just felt too weird to be reading such a good story when i couldn't physically carry it around with me, so I bought it instead.
Posts: 13 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
i just bought and finished the book and i wanted to know if anybody knew if this is the last book in the series because at the end you never find out what happens to bean
Posts: 1 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Why buy books? Because they smell better than my computer screen. Plus, they become obsolete much more slowly, dont get lost when the electricity sneezes, and are easily tradeable in foreign countries.
I'm one of those people that spends considerably more of my income on books than food. I enjoy the way books spread out, get lost and found, and overall, endure (barring fire, flood, or puppy teeth). I measure my life by the books I have read and the memories connected to them. I'm just not ready to trust that memory album to a computer. I want my anchors to be concrete, dustable, and loanable.
I dont think I could handle downloading books because I would then be forced to read them on my computer screen or fumble with many loose sheets of printed unbook. Plus, if I downloaded my books, I wouldnt have an excuse to spend hours browsing through book stores.
The internet provied amazing access to, well, almost anything. I think its good to have the content of books available online, but only insofar as it doesnt damage the publishing world's ability to be profitable and support the authors who write these wonderful works. We need to find a balance between being superconsumers and parasites.
Give me downloadable music any day, but I want my books bound and bought. Call it an donation to Starving Students Feeding Starving Writers.
posted
First, Sorry about resurrecting thing thread, but I saw it referenced in another more current thread.
But on to my point, does anyone know i fthere is a good method to buy foreign language versions of OSC's books? Whenever I am brushing up on my Russian I like to read books that I have read a bunch of times because it facilitates learning vocabulary. Of course I have seen places on Russian websites where you can read the text, but as OSC said, having it in print format is much better. I would absolutly love to have a couple of OSC books in Russian to complement my Russian Tolkien collection and Korean Harry Potter. So if anyone knows of a way to get them sort of trying my luck with a Russian retail website (or if you know of a reputable Russian retail website) let me know.
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(And yes, I know, no one's picking on me. Just had to throw in my 5 Rupees, adjusted for inflation.)
