Inebriated bibliophile

[kestrell]

I'm finding adding Kindle ebooks to my Amazon wishlist dangerously intoxicating. No, really, I experienced an actual physical sensation which felt kind of fizzy, and then I realized that it was the first time in a decade that I didn't have to worry about the time it would take to scan and edit each individual book. This feels pretty amazing.

Comments

Re: UD Rocks

[jesse_the_k]

I totally agree with the "interface as a second language." I learned on cursor-oriented word processors, and I often curse as I have to use the fricking mouse. Where's my handy "next sentence" command when I need it? Of course speed is no longer of the essence, so I'm trying to learn to relax and let it take as long as it takes.

Google Books has adopted the Adobe DRM system, so that's a perfect storm of access fail.

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalpublishing/2010/12/google-ebooks.html

As far as access-talk with no access-provision, I agree Google gets the prize. They just added several more languages to their terrible "auto-captioning." WHY BOTHER! What use is a system that is less than 75% accurate, and that only with a white speaker. Their site CSS suppresses type enlargement -- yes, I ask the browser to enlarge the type and I see it for half a second and then it shrinks back to its original size. Aiiiieeeee.

Not only will there be a tidal wave of baby boomers, but the millenial generation of AT users who grew up with access in schools will -- I hope -- be willing to Make Loud Noises.

I don't have the details re: when a book enters the public domain. In general: each country has its own rules. Thanks to intense pressure from Walt Disney, the length of copyright has been repeatedly extended in the 20th century.

Ooooooh -- thanks for asking. Here is a nifty table summarizing length of copyright in comprehensible detail:

http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm