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By LuYu

drmprotestModerator’s note: Thanks, LuYu—you’ve flattered all of us. Briefly, here’s my own thinking: Hardware dev would be too complex, too expensive even with a fund-raising campaign, but I love the idea of  stepped-up open source efforts to code user-friendly software, not just for reading but for creation in, say, .epub. Perhaps NAEB-style groups could work with programmers to offer software customization help to the more open-minded hardware companies. – David Rothman

By LuYu

With all this recent debate about Kindle and its strengths and weaknesses, I think the time has come to say, “Put up or shut up.” This is not an attempt to be insulting or be a troll.

It is a simple fact that we, the e-book reading community, have a ton of opinions about what an e-book reader should be and what it should not. And we have the power to actually do something about it.

An e-reader of our own

TeleRead is one of the main centers for information about e-books, and TeleRead’s David Rothman has long talked of the possibilities of inexpensive e-reading devices.

Who better, then, than the TeleRead regulars to design the hardware and interface for the ideal e-book?

The goal: Just something that works—without DRM-style controls

As a as a community, have been relying too long on corporate businesses to produce our devices. They want control; we want freedom. They want DRM; and we do not want impediments. They want us to be ignorant; we want to learn and share.

Businesses are concerned about keeping people from using competing products. We just want something that works—and will not stop working when Microsoft or Sony (or whatever the next crooked company that comes along is) goes out of business or changes its business strategy. The TeleRead regulars are more than capable of designing and bringing to life the ultimate e-book reading device.

GPLed software already on nearly all e-book readers

Thanks to Richard Stallman‘s vision of free software, most, if not all, of the software is already available. In fact, nearly all of the e-book readers today are running GPLed software exclusively. In classic UNIX fashion, all that is needed is a few people to stitch the parts together. If the various e-book community websites do not provide the requisite volume of information, why not Ask Slashdot?

The hardware also exists. If E Ink were not enough, OLPC has gotten Chi Mei to develop a display technology that is the best of both worlds: static monochromatic with low or even negligible power requirements in ambient light and backlit with color in the darkness. There is no doubt that the OLPC project would benefit from its display technology getting cheaper, nor is there doubt that Chi Mei would want to produce more displays. Gumstix, the company that makes the computer that powers the E Ink development kits, makes powerful but tiny custom motherboards which run like a desktop PC.

Searching via Firefox plug-in

As for the books, many solutions exist, and sophisticated conversion and search software would be nice, but for the time being, a simple Firefox plugin that would search for and download e-books to a desktop computer or the device over a USB connection would probably be sufficient. This would be especially true if the device supported multiple formats. Such a plugin could easily be written before any hardware release took place as the development cycle for Firefox plugins is comparatively short.

Finally, there is the money problem. Unfortunately, even the most benevolent endeavors are often held up by this arbitrary representation of value. Hopefully, this is where the e-book community and the net in general can come to the rescue. Donations could pay for the development, and preorders could pay for the production. If Wikipedia can get millions in donations, why can such a project as this not get a few thousand? Maybe the EFF or some other open legal organization could even help us get a patent or two (hardware, of course).

Victory if the big corporations start imitating us

If the big players start competing with us, we will have won. They can make the devices, and pay for their development as well. The OLPC forced a new class of cheap PC to be created. Why can we not force a new class of DRM-free e-book readers to exist?

Or we could create a device that remains compatible with the OLPC and increase the OLPC‘s attractiveness by creating more devices that work with it (and more devices that do not fall under the pall of MS’s proprietary shadow).

It has been evident for some time that e-books are not the problem, the design of the devices is. Is it not time we did something about it? $50 to $100 devices are possible with today’s technology. Let’s have David Rothman put our money where his mouth is. So, let’s do it. Somebody start a Sourceforge or Freshmeat project. Let’s collect some cash. Let’s build prototypes — at the very least — of our dream machines.

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luyu About LuYu (source of the avatar) and his beliefs: “I have been argumentatively opposing DRM and overzealous copyright advocates on the net for about six or seven years.  While I have long known about unreasonable copy protection schemes and limitations on software, especially video games, I was not shocked into writing and/or speaking on the issue until I was introduced to DVD region codes and CSS.  These led me to discover the injustice of the DMCA, and subsequent investigation convinced me that copyright has been broken in the US since the 1976 Copyright Act and in most other places since the Berne Convention when Victor Hugo’s monumentally imbecilic idea that artists ‘moral rights’ should trump the rights of everyone else was put into law.

“I believe the copyright monopoly privilege, in its current form, violates all individuals’ most sacred right — the right to Free Speech (without which, all of the promises of Liberal Government are meaningless) — and is an artifact of monarchical governments and feudalism.

“While I am not opposed to copyright per se, I am opposed to the current state of copyright to the degree that I believe abolishment is the most practical solution at this time.  The big media companies have demonstrated time and time again their unclean hands and bad faith by trying to extend the current unreasonable restrictions on information exchange and speech in general.  Their hostility toward education and Free Speech are crimes enough to warrant the revocation of all of their current privileges in all legal systems globally.

“I believe that any copyright laws should be tied to direct financial transactions for very limited durations — I consider 10 years to be the maximum reasonable copyright term.  The author should get a cut of any and all sales of a creative work.  However, indirect transactions such as advertising royalties or a cut of the sales at a restaurant that plays music for its patrons is wholly unreasonable and immoral.  If artists are so greedy as to ask for these things, they deserve nothing in return.
I also believe that neither ideas nor culture can be considered privately owned property, and that those who claim to ‘own’ information or use the term ‘intellectual property’ are stealing from me and from society in general.  I believe that books are a form of speech and that access to this speech is a Natural Right.  Participation in one’s own culture should not require payment.

“I believe that library systems worldwide have an obligation to defend these rights and to freely share all information that comes into their possession and defend the anonymity of anyone who comes to them seeking any knowledge for any reason. 

“I assume that now, after making these statements, I shall be firmly labeled a radical.  This justifies my paranoia with respect to big media and their evil lawyers—who have been so busy stealing people’s life savings of late.  As such, I must supply you with an avatar in place of a photograph.  For the time being I will have to be known as ‘a living, thinking entity who was created in the Sea of Information.’ If you are interested in my excessively modest attempt at changing things, you can visit my SourceForge project at LIBREria Project.  The site has quite a few of my opinions on it.  I have also made some long winded posts on Slashdot if you are curious.”

 
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