What will the transition between print and e-books be like? How complete?

[Athena]

@fusoya

I also just saw a story on CNN about how they are censoring Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn by removing all usage of the word nigger. It’s not clear if they retroactively sent out a censor patch to everyone who already installed those books, or if they’re just doing it for future purchases, but this is exactly what I’m trying to avoid. Regardless of whether or not you think it’s right or wrong to keep politically incorrect text intact, or decide what forms of fictional erotica are okay or not okay to read, that decision should lie with the reader, not the publisher. There’s a good reason my high school would make a celebration out of Read A Banned Book month (as opposed to other parts of the world who would celebrate BURN a Banned Book month instead), and Amazon sounds like they’re leaning toward the latter, in regards to their ebook availability.

To clarify -** Amazon.com is not censoring anything**. A publisher called NewSouth Books has published a censored version of Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, which is out of copyright. You can download a copy of the un-censored version of the book at Project Gutenberg
or buy many different editions (including the censored one, if you like) from Amazon itself.

Amazon has absolutely nothing to do with the censorship. They are not “sending out a censor patch” or anything like that, and to suggest otherwise without any proof is simply untrue.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@fusoya

I also just saw a story on CNN about how they are censoring Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn by removing all usage of the word nigger. It’s not clear if they retroactively sent out a censor patch to everyone who already installed those books, or if they’re just doing it for future purchases, but this is exactly what I’m trying to avoid.

If you can believe this, even for five seconds, you don’t deserve a book as good as Huck Finn. You should be condemned to Dan Brown forever.

:smack:

[DMark]

I can tell you that as a teacher, most textbook publishers are pushing eBooks. Lots of reasons - you can update them faster and cheaper, students will be able to have all of their books on one tablet and there are ways for them to make notations on the book (just like using a highlighter, etc.) and might even be somewhat cheaper in the long run.

I am predicting that in about 5-10 years tops, most of my college students will have the eBook version of their textbooks instead of schlepping around 15 pounds of textbooks everyday.

[Rysto]

@DMark

I can tell you that as a teacher, most textbook publishers are pushing eBooks. Lots of reasons - you can update them faster and cheaper, students will be able to have all of their books on one tablet and there are ways for them to make notations on the book (just like using a highlighter, etc.) and might even be somewhat cheaper in the long run.

If we’re talking about university textbooks here, I would suspect that the real reason that they’re pushing them is that there’s no resale market for ebooks yet.

[BigT]

@Exapno_Mapcase

If you can believe this, even for five seconds, you don’t deserve a book as good as Huck Finn. You should be condemned to Dan Brown forever.

:smack:

What? It is a true story. I hadn’t heard it dealing with eBooks, but it is true that a new, apparently unmarked version of Huck Finn is coming out with the word “nigger” replaced with “slave.”

I actually wish someone else would come out with an electronic paper eBook, because that feature the only reason I can see to have a device solely devoted to reading books. As it is, if I ever actually get an eBook (instead of just using my Game Boy), I’ll have to download from Amazon, and then convert the file to non-DRMed version before I would feel comfortable using it.

[pepperlandgirl]

@Rysto

If we’re talking about university textbooks here, I would suspect that the real reason that they’re pushing them is that there’s no resale market for ebooks yet.

No, but piracy will be infinitely easier.

[Sarahfeena]

@BigT

What? It is a true story. I hadn’t heard it dealing with eBooks, but it is true that a new, apparently unmarked version of Huck Finn is coming out with the word “nigger” replaced with “slave.”

It’s a true story that one publisher is releasing a censored version of Huck Finn. Amazon is not a publisher, and they are not involved with the censorship in any way, nor are they sending out a patch to sensor previously-purchased copies of the book.

[fusoya]

The story I saw on CNN mentioned that it would be print books, and the e-book sold through Amazon’s kindle store, which would have the changes made. The report did not say that they WOULD be censoring previously sold books through a “patch”, but I present another possibility of dabbling that they COULD potentially do. I mean, what if the publisher decided they wanted to change around a book that was in the kindle store? Would Amazon feel obligated to “automagically” update our collection, if we downloaded that title before the changes were made?

I can’t help thinking of that “N-Word Jim” scene from Family Guy. “No, that’s OUR word!”

[Athena]

@fusoya

The report did not say that they WOULD be censoring previously sold books through a “patch”

So you made that part up.

@fusoya

but I present another possibility of dabbling that they COULD potentially do. I mean, what if the publisher decided they wanted to change around a book that was in the kindle store? Would Amazon feel obligated to “automagically” update our collection, if we downloaded that title before the changes were made?

Once again, given the uproar that came after Amazon deleted two books that were illegally sold, I can’t think of any good business reason why Amazon would do such a thing, not to mention that books are copyrighted and anything beyond basic editorial changes (like correcting misspellings) usually result in a new copyright and therefore an entirely new edition of a book. But as you pointed out, if you’re worried about such things, it’s easy enough to sidestep all of these issues by simply not turning on the wi-fi/cell connection on the Kindle.

[pepperlandgirl]

@fusoya

The story I saw on CNN mentioned that it would be print books, and the e-book sold through Amazon’s kindle store, which would have the changes made. The report did not say that they WOULD be censoring previously sold books through a “patch”, but I present another possibility of dabbling that they COULD potentially do. I mean, what if the publisher decided they wanted to change around a book that was in the kindle store? Would Amazon feel obligated to “automagically” update our collection, if we downloaded that title before the changes were made?

I can’t help thinking of that “N-Word Jim” scene from Family Guy. “No, that’s OUR word!”

The only time a publisher would “change around a book” is when a new edition of the title is being released. And when publishers release new editions (of fiction or non-fiction) they aren’t doing it just for kicks and giggles, they’re doing it because they want to make more money on the title. Thus, they’d not look too kindly on any company or devise that would allow the consumer to have the updates for free.

None of your concerns have any relation to reality, except for the fact that a publisher somewhere (one of many that publishes an edition of Huck Finn since it’s in the public domain) is removing strong language. And that, as already pointed out, certainly doesn’t have anything to do with the price of tea in China, or the way ebooks are managed through a Kindle.