Comments on: ‘BookFob: eBook on a keychain’: Thumbs down! http://www.teleread.com/2006/05/29/bookfob-ebook-on-a-keychain-thumbs-down/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:18:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Branko’s Weblog » Blog Archive » A book with a complex installation procedure http://www.teleread.com/2006/05/29/bookfob-ebook-on-a-keychain-thumbs-down/comment-page-1/#comment-74663 Branko’s Weblog » Blog Archive » A book with a complex installation procedure Sun, 13 Aug 2006 01:32:11 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4941#comment-74663 [...] At the Teleread blog, where I blog, regular visitor Roland Rohde was talking about the troubles he had with DRM, and in the run-up to his story he casually remarked that: “[the book] had a rather complicated installation routine, I can’t exactly remember what I had to do to get it working“. [...] [...] At the Teleread blog, where I blog, regular visitor Roland Rohde was talking about the troubles he had with DRM, and in the run-up to his story he casually remarked that: “[the book] had a rather complicated installation routine, I can’t exactly remember what I had to do to get it working“. [...]

]]> By: pond http://www.teleread.com/2006/05/29/bookfob-ebook-on-a-keychain-thumbs-down/comment-page-1/#comment-59044 pond Tue, 30 May 2006 12:23:59 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4941#comment-59044 Actually, I don't mind this one so much. What this company is trying to do is to replicate the 'ownership' rights of a physical book, in the digital domain. That is, it allows for the model that you can go to a kiosk/vending machine and buy a fob. Then you own the fob, and none of the 'intellectual property' so called, encoded on it. You can share the fob, resell it, rent it, lend it out -- though there's nothing to say the company won't take back those options in some future version of the software. I do like that there are many alternatives being explored in the whole ebook realm. I'd like to believe that in time these will all shake out and that we readers will determine the format (open, please) and drm (lite or none, please) and fair use rights (yes, please) we will end up with. In the end, I expect that all creative works will gravitate to open or creative commons types of licenses. Currently copyrighted material will never go out of copyright, but it will become increasingly irrelevant as more and more artists publish openly, and more and more readers prefer, then insist, on creative commons, open texts. As for copying and breaking the keyfob, I wonder if it would be as simple as taking a screenshot of the displayed pages, then running them through OCR... I wish the app were html-based, or java, or flash, something that would be usable on more devices, and not just MS-Windows PCs. Actually, I don’t mind this one so much. What this company is trying to do is to replicate the ‘ownership’ rights of a physical book, in the digital domain. That is, it allows for the model that you can go to a kiosk/vending machine and buy a fob. Then you own the fob, and none of the ‘intellectual property’ so called, encoded on it.

You can share the fob, resell it, rent it, lend it out — though there’s nothing to say the company won’t take back those options in some future version of the software.

I do like that there are many alternatives being explored in the whole ebook realm. I’d like to believe that in time these will all shake out and that we readers will determine the format (open, please) and drm (lite or none, please) and fair use rights (yes, please) we will end up with.

In the end, I expect that all creative works will gravitate to open or creative commons types of licenses. Currently copyrighted material will never go out of copyright, but it will become increasingly irrelevant as more and more artists publish openly, and more and more readers prefer, then insist, on creative commons, open texts.

As for copying and breaking the keyfob, I wonder if it would be as simple as taking a screenshot of the displayed pages, then running them through OCR…

I wish the app were html-based, or java, or flash, something that would be usable on more devices, and not just MS-Windows PCs.

]]> By: Roland Rohde http://www.teleread.com/2006/05/29/bookfob-ebook-on-a-keychain-thumbs-down/comment-page-1/#comment-59040 Roland Rohde Tue, 30 May 2006 12:07:07 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4941#comment-59040 yep...I downloaded a file, but this was just the "carrier" file which then had to be "extracted" somehow (don't ask) to get the final, DRM protected PDF that I could then read...but can't read anymore. Something like an activation routine. I could live with a simple pssword, but this stuff is far too weird for me...and I'm no computer noob... yep…I downloaded a file, but this was just the “carrier” file which then had to be “extracted” somehow (don’t ask) to get the final, DRM protected PDF that I could then read…but can’t read anymore.
Something like an activation routine.
I could live with a simple pssword, but this stuff is far too weird for me…and I’m no computer noob…

]]> By: Branko Collin http://www.teleread.com/2006/05/29/bookfob-ebook-on-a-keychain-thumbs-down/comment-page-1/#comment-59037 Branko Collin Tue, 30 May 2006 11:23:07 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4941#comment-59037 "[the book] <i>had a rather complicated installation routine, I can’t exactly remember what I had to do to get it working</i>" Excuse me? “[the book] had a rather complicated installation routine, I can’t exactly remember what I had to do to get it working”

Excuse me?

]]> By: MobileRead Networks - BookFob - cripple DRM on a chain http://www.teleread.com/2006/05/29/bookfob-ebook-on-a-keychain-thumbs-down/comment-page-1/#comment-59033 MobileRead Networks - BookFob - cripple DRM on a chain Tue, 30 May 2006 10:00:09 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4941#comment-59033 [...] The BookFob device must be attached to the computer to verify ownership of the e-book content. Entire documents or sections of the document can be password protected to insure an additional layer of security. In addition to passwords, the documents can be set to expire after a certain number of days or number of times accessed. This technique allows an author to distribute promotional material or full books for a limited time before making the content unreadable. Another important security feature of our e-book reader software is the ability to distribute books that are not printable as well as the ability to disable the copy and paste features. Since these documents are complied into the reader, this insures that no one will be able to hack or copy the contents unless the author approves. That's exactly what we've craved for ages: crippled e-books that can expire, are not printable and have the copy and paste feature disabled - provided that you are using Microsoft Windows, because otherwise the reader won't work at all. And if this isn't enough to make fresh milk sour, check out their BookFob Library, where you can buy excellent public domain books such as Around the World in 80 Days, assuming that the "buy it now" link would actually work. PS: It seems David of Teleread fully agrees that this is a gadget we could easily live without. [...] [...] The BookFob device must be attached to the computer to verify ownership of the e-book content. Entire documents or sections of the document can be password protected to insure an additional layer of security. In addition to passwords, the documents can be set to expire after a certain number of days or number of times accessed. This technique allows an author to distribute promotional material or full books for a limited time before making the content unreadable. Another important security feature of our e-book reader software is the ability to distribute books that are not printable as well as the ability to disable the copy and paste features. Since these documents are complied into the reader, this insures that no one will be able to hack or copy the contents unless the author approves. That’s exactly what we’ve craved for ages: crippled e-books that can expire, are not printable and have the copy and paste feature disabled – provided that you are using Microsoft Windows, because otherwise the reader won’t work at all. And if this isn’t enough to make fresh milk sour, check out their BookFob Library, where you can buy excellent public domain books such as Around the World in 80 Days, assuming that the "buy it now" link would actually work. PS: It seems David of Teleread fully agrees that this is a gadget we could easily live without. [...]

]]> By: David Rothman http://www.teleread.com/2006/05/29/bookfob-ebook-on-a-keychain-thumbs-down/comment-page-1/#comment-59023 David Rothman Tue, 30 May 2006 08:27:12 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4941#comment-59023 As usual, Roland, you're right on target. I can't stand e-books that I can't read on a PDA or the tablet I'm using. Shronk, neat observation! LOL. David As usual, Roland, you’re right on target. I can’t stand e-books that I can’t read on a PDA or the tablet I’m using.

Shronk, neat observation! LOL.

David

]]> By: Roland Rohde http://www.teleread.com/2006/05/29/bookfob-ebook-on-a-keychain-thumbs-down/comment-page-1/#comment-59017 Roland Rohde Tue, 30 May 2006 07:09:21 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4941#comment-59017 Let me tell you something about DRM... I just had a pretty nasty experience there unfortuantely. I bought an ebook (DRM PDF) a while ago, it was the prologue to the last Wheel of Time book by Robert Jordan. It had a rather complicated installation routine, I can't exactly remember what I had to do to get it working...well...whatever. Now I did a bit of hardware related stuff with my computer, created a RAID array and had to reinstall WindowsXP. I backuped my files to another drive of course. Now I was going through my files and found the ebook, wanted to open it and...NADA...nothing works. I have found no way to use this file anymore. Maybe there is a way and I haven't found found it yet? The book was cheap, only 2-3$ because it was only the prologue...a sort of appetizer before the real paper-book came out. If this book had been 10 or 20$, I'd be really really angry right now... as it is I'm not so sure whether I'll get a PDF ripper (assuming there is such a program) and kill the DRM to revive the file or just search the p2p for it. I'm really willing to pay for my books, but if I can get better value for nothing (unprotected ebooks "illegally") than I can get for money (DRM books that stop working and don't tell me how to reactivate them) then it really isn't a hard decision... Concerning this Memory Stick thing up there...I'm sure it's fine if you want to read your books sitting in front of the Computer, but if -like me- you like to read in bed or on the couch, you'll have a hard time since i don't think that monster will work with any of the upcoming eink readers, PDAs or the Nokia 770 Let me tell you something about DRM…
I just had a pretty nasty experience there unfortuantely. I bought an ebook (DRM PDF) a while ago, it was the prologue to the last Wheel of Time book by Robert Jordan.
It had a rather complicated installation routine, I can’t exactly remember what I had to do to get it working…well…whatever.
Now I did a bit of hardware related stuff with my computer, created a RAID array and had to reinstall WindowsXP.
I backuped my files to another drive of course. Now I was going through my files and found the ebook, wanted to open it and…NADA…nothing works. I have found no way to use this file anymore. Maybe there is a way and I haven’t found found it yet?

The book was cheap, only 2-3$ because it was only the prologue…a sort of appetizer before the real paper-book came out.
If this book had been 10 or 20$, I’d be really really angry right now…
as it is I’m not so sure whether I’ll get a PDF ripper (assuming there is such a program) and kill the DRM to revive the file or just search the p2p for it.
I’m really willing to pay for my books, but if I can get better value for nothing (unprotected ebooks “illegally”) than I can get for money (DRM books that stop working and don’t tell me how to reactivate them) then it really isn’t a hard decision…

Concerning this Memory Stick thing up there…I’m sure it’s fine if you want to read your books sitting in front of the Computer, but if -like me- you like to read in bed or on the couch, you’ll have a hard time since i don’t think that monster will work with any of the upcoming eink readers, PDAs or the Nokia 770

]]> By: shonk http://www.teleread.com/2006/05/29/bookfob-ebook-on-a-keychain-thumbs-down/comment-page-1/#comment-58979 shonk Tue, 30 May 2006 00:02:58 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/?p=4941#comment-58979 <blockquote>Granted, the stick handily contains an e-book-reader program and supposedly can work with any Windows PC. But what if you want to use another program? I’m not sure if BookFob allows that. And how about use on linux desktops, various PDAs and other devices without the right Bill-blessed OS?</blockquote> Irony of ironies, in the image the BookFob is resting against an Apple mouse. Well, it's not really that ironic, given that it's a pretty badly Photoshopped image.

Granted, the stick handily contains an e-book-reader program and supposedly can work with any Windows PC. But what if you want to use another program? I’m not sure if BookFob allows that. And how about use on linux desktops, various PDAs and other devices without the right Bill-blessed OS?

Irony of ironies, in the image the BookFob is resting against an Apple mouse. Well, it’s not really that ironic, given that it’s a pretty badly Photoshopped image.

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