[bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare's Purpose in Your Eyes
- From: talmage@xxxxxxxxxx
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 09 Jun 2004 14:42:53 -0400
Hi Donna,
While I usually hate to do it this way, I think it would be easier for me,
if not for the others following this thread, if I took these 1 at a time.
At 12:24 PM 6/9/2004, you wrote:
Hi Dave,
First, let me just say that my side in our argument has been strongly
proBookshare, or I wouldn't be here. I believe fervently in equal access,
and I also believe that it's absurd for ten thousand blind people to all
have to sit and scan the same Harry potter novel, which is a big reason I
think that Bookshare is so important. That said:
I understood that you were probably pro
Bookshare, my comments were addressed to the sentiment by whoever made it,
that by being a member of Bookshare blind people are expecting a free ride.
1. If you lost books because of your own failure to back up your hard disk,
well that's your fault. *smile* You technically *could* still have those
books.
I didn't loose any books, as I said they are still on the shelf, what I
lost was time and effort.
2. It is true that sighted people can use the public library, but as I have
already pointed out, you only get the book for a week or so. That's very
different from getting to download something and keep it for the rest of
your life. So, according to your theory we should also only get to keep
Bookshare books for a couple of weeks.
I must have missed the point you made about keeping the hard copy books for
just a couple of weeks, but regardless of how long one is able to keep
print books with renewals and all, when a person goes to the library and
walks out with a book, they have in their hands a tangible object. It is
usually printed on paper, in ink, bound, etc. Aside from the intellectual
properties involved, there is a production cost, distribution cost,
maintenance cost, etc. When I download a book from Bookshare, all I
actually have are a number of positive and negative charged points on my
hard drive that is construed as intellectual property. If you are saying
that I must wipe my hard drive clean of these ideas prior to someone else
downloading the book, then I would submit that we will have to do like in
Star Wars and do a memory wipe of every person who reads a book when they
get done with it. Oh no, I shouldn't have remembered that name as it is an
intellectual property and copyrighted. Now, if you were talking about
circulating books outside of the framework of Bookshare, I would have to
agree with you.
I guess I would also have to say, that I wouldn't really have a problem
with deleting books from my hard drive after I read it, provided that
someone like the President, the Speaker of the House, God, etc. could
assure me that Bookshare will be with us for years to come.
3. I, too, purchase many of the books I scan. I have, however, and I know
others have as well, scanned and submitted books we have borrowed from a
library. Yes, the library *did purchase the book, but not with the intent
that thousands of people would be able to download copies of it for free.
I think we are getting hung up on technology here. Leave out the word
download and ask the question, When the library purchased the book, was it
with the intent that thousands of people within their system would read the
book for free? If the answer is no, then I would submit it was probably a
small library.
4. As to the cost of Bookshare, I scanned some books before joining, so my
original cost was defrayed. By the time I renewed this past year, I had
enough submission credits to cover my subscription, and will probably have
for next year as well. So, though I have payed for some of the books I
submitted, I have not had to pay directly for my Bookshare membership.
I think this comes down to a question of do you value your time? If you
have received compensation for your efforts, you are in fact paying for
your membership with time and effort rather than money, and yes, did you
claim it on your taxes?
5. Even if you choose to pay for you Bookshare membership, that money goes
to Bookshare. Neither the author nor the publisher get any of it. That
starts to look pretty significant if someone is downloading 100 books a
month.
There are a number of things in this one.
It would be just as significant to the publishers if someone went to the
library and signed out a hundred books a month, so I don't really see your
point here.
With Bookshare, just as with my local library, I don't know where the money
is allocated. I do know that there are a number of books produced in-house
at Bookshare, but I don't know the source of the books. I suspect you are
right and they are probably donations, but the bottom line is that unless
the publisher supplied the book directly, someone, somewhere bought that book.
By the way, where I lived in East Hampton prior to moving to Maine, the
library was a free library receiving its operational budget from donations,
grants, etc., so members didn't have to pay a thing to take out those
hundreds of books a month.
Dave
getting out the hornet spray (smile)
Donna
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