Miracle Jones - Slashdot User

Submission + - William Morris Comes Out Against Google Settlement (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Tuesday August 18, 2009 @07:29PM

Miracle Jones writes: "The William Morris Agency has come out strongly against the Google Book Settlement for its clients, citing the fact that the settlement creates a non-competitive marketplace for a whole new product (orphan books), in addition to containing provisions that will make it impossible for writers to remove books from the database after twenty-seven months have passed: "We believe that the license being given to Google to publish and display with impunity out-of-print "orphan" works (where the rights owner is unknown and estimated by the Financial Times to be between 2.8 and 5 million books out of 32 million books protected by copyright in the United States) will open the door to establishing Google as the most comprehensive database, potentially a monopoly, with unfair bargaining power.""

Submission + - Amazon Sued for Deleting Kid's Homework (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Friday July 31, 2009 @09:49AM

Miracle Jones writes: "Justin D. Gawronski, a 17-year-old-high school student, has filed a class action lawsuit against Amazon for deleting his electronic notes on the novel "1984" when they purged bootleg copies from the Kindle, a novel which he purchased electronically for his summer novel project. Gawronski and his lawyer are also seeking an injunction to keep Amazon from future deletions of purchased electronic property. Should lawsuits force companies into abiding by electronic property protocols, or are there better ways to protect ebooks from the dangers of "the cloud?""

Submission + - Harlan Ellison's Racist Freak-Out Over Mild Joke (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Monday July 27, 2009 @09:35AM

Miracle Jones writes: "After fellow fiction writer K. Tempest Bradford suggested Harlan Ellison was senile in a fake magazine cover for the new "Realms of Fantasy" relaunch, Ellison hit back with this rant, provoking widespread internet outrage, while calling on his fans to attack her: "She has dummied-up a truly insulting mock-cover of REALMS that is intended to be offensive to anyone who values my sixty years' work. Now: watch your step. She is apparently a Woman of Color (which REALLY makes me want to bee-atch-slap her, being the guy who discovered and encouraged one of the finest writers and Women of Color who ever lived, my friend, the recently-deceased Octavia Estelle Butler). And she plays that card endlessly, which is supposed to exorcise anyone suggesting she is a badmouth ignoramus, or even a NWA. Ooooh, did I say that?" Ellison has apologized to the target of his attack, but not for the manner. Not his finest moment."

Submission + - Amazon Apologizes for Deleting Ebooks from Kindles (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Friday July 24, 2009 @06:23AM

Miracle Jones writes: "Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has formally apologized to customers for deleting ebooks from people's Kindles: "This is an apology for the way we previously handled illegally sold copies of 1984 and other novels on Kindle. Our "solution" to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles. It is wholly self-inflicted, and we deserve the criticism we've received. We will use the scar tissue from this painful mistake to help make better decisions going forward, ones that match our mission. With deep apology to our customers, Jeff Bezos Founder & CEO Amazon.com""

Submission + - How to Keep Amazon from Deleting eBooks (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Tuesday July 21, 2009 @05:30AM

Miracle Jones writes: "We need a revolution in publishing technology, otherwise online bookstores like Amazon (and soon, Google) will have waaaaaaay too much power when it comes to the the ability to modify, control, and delete content. Here's one solution: ebook publishers should start selling ebooks as objects instead of downloads, packing every available edition and format of an ebook (there are 30 or so) onto a flash drive sculpture, in addition to audio files, cartoons, and any other bonus ancillary materials. The object will have value, publishers will profit, and the books will be kept safe."

Submission + - What will physical books in the future look like? (fictioncircus.com) 2

Submitted by

kev-san

on Friday July 17, 2009 @10:37AM

kev-san writes: "The Fiction Circus has posted an article regarding the future of physical books with the increasing market prominence of electronic books. The article discusses the possibility that USB drives embedded in sculptures and art objects might replace what we think of as physical books. How will the shifting world of publishing react to the idea that books might not retain their current physical form? What else will change if books become works of art rather than dust covers that shelter dead trees?"

Submission + - Selling Books as Flash Drives Inside Sculptures (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Monday July 13, 2009 @06:18AM

Miracle Jones writes: "From "Wunderkammer Seeds: A Fantasia": "Each sculpture in this bookshelf will represent a different novel or set of novels. These book sculptures will become the new iteration of the book cover. To truly own a book, one will own a physical curio that represents all the contents and ancillary materials, conveyed in three discrete dimensions, dimensions that cannot be erased, deleted, or altered. A talisman, disconnected from the net, that can be buried, stored, collected, hidden, and loved.""

Submission + - Espresso Book Machines and Book Piracy (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Tuesday June 30, 2009 @02:07AM

Miracle Jones writes: "Will the Espresso Book Machine be the tipping point that finally makes book piracy exciting? Would you be more willing to pirate books if it meant that you could run down to the copy shop with your .pdf and have a perfectly bound book in minutes for a pittance?"

Submission + - Should Google's Book Scans Go Up for Auction? (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Friday June 19, 2009 @11:35AM

Miracle Jones writes: "Everybody in the world is taking a long, hard look at the Google Book Settlement to determine if it is an antitrust problem or could be a civil rights issue. I propose that a good way to equitably solve the problem of orphan works while including everybody is to create a two-year long global rights auction. Anybody in the world could bid on the books that Google has scanned in order to drive up the prices for the rightsholders, and books that no one bids on will default to Google. This will split up the books to keep Google from simply controlling all of literature with one penstroke, and it will put the rights in the hands of those who truly want them. Additionally, it will make detractors put their money where their mouth is."

Submission + - Tor.com Launches Publisher-Run eBookstore (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Thursday June 18, 2009 @10:49AM

Miracle Jones writes: "The ubiquitous science-fiction-and-fantasy imprint "Tor" has launched an online bookstore that will be open to all publishers in order to compete with Amazon and Google. The Tor Store will sell paperbacks, comics, hardbacks, and ebooks to the last people left who take literature seriously: anti-authoritarian science fiction and fantasy obsessives. Right now, the store is offering 45,000 or so titles, with many more to come as publishers take advantage of Tor's clearinghouse for all things fantastic and imaginative."

Submission + - EU Will Investigate Google Book Settlement (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Monday June 01, 2009 @06:51PM

Miracle Jones writes: "Just as Google has announced that they will begin selling new books by 2009, the EU has announced that they will begin investigating the terms, conditions, and consequences of the Google Book Settlement, a class-action lawsuit that gives Google the exclusive right to publish out-of-print, in-copyright books without getting sued. Since America's "fair use" provisions don't apply in Europe, the EU is particularly concerned about the settlement: even though other American concerns such as the Internet Archive are now being frozen out of the settlement, European companies never even had a chance in the first place."

Submission + - Amazon Patents Brick-and-Mortar Storefronts (fictioncircus.com) 1

Submitted by

Miracle Jones

on Monday June 01, 2009 @10:49AM

Miracle Jones writes: "Amazon has filed a patent for little brick-and-mortar storefronts and won't tell anybody what's going in them. Professional analysts are speculating that they will be "pick up" centers, but it is more likely that these Amazon stores will be either Kindle dealerships or hutches for Espresso Book Machines."

Submission + - Apple Relents, Approving "Kama Sutra" iPho (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Sunday May 24, 2009 @10:28AM

Miracle Jones writes: "Apple has relented in the face of public pressure and has finally approved James Montgomerie's Eucalyptus iPhone app for sale in the Apple store, an app which will allow people to read "Project Gutenberg" books straight from their iPhones. The Eucalyptus app had previously been banned for obscenity because "Project Gutenberg" includes Sir Richard Burton's translation of the "Kama Sutra." The app will be available without content filters, despite Montgomerie's earlier decision to submit a version of the app that manually blocks the "Kama Sutra.""

Submission + - Apple Bans "Project Gutenberg" from iPhone (fictioncircus.com)

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Miracle Jones

on Saturday May 23, 2009 @05:08PM

Miracle Jones writes: "Apple has repeatedly banned an application for the iPhone developed by James Montgomerie called "Eucalyptus" because it allows people to read all the "Project Gutenberg" books for ten dollars, and because one of the books available is Sir Richard Burton's Victorian translation of the 2nd century Sanskrit text known as the "Kama Sutra." Montgomerie intends to manually block the "Kama Sutra" and resubmit his application, but should he have to do this? For instance, the (illustrated) "Kama Sutra" is already available for sale from both Stanza and eReader on the iPhone, so what exactly is Apple's policy here?"

Submission + - Apple Bans "Kama Sutra" from iPhone (fictioncircus.com)

Submitted by

Miracle Jones

on Saturday May 23, 2009 @08:57AM

Miracle Jones writes: "Apple has repeatedly banned an application from the iPhone developed by James Montgomerie called "Eucalyptus" because it allows people to read all the "Project Gutenberg" books for ten dollars, and because one of the books available is Sir Richard Burton's Victorian translation of the 2nd century Sanskrit text known as the "Kama Sutra." Montgomerie intends to manually block the "Kama Sutra" and resubmit his application, but should he have to do this? For instance, the (illustrated) "Kama Sutra" is already available for sale from both Stanza and eReader on the iPhone, so what exactly is Apple's policy here?"

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