sideways look! Was: USA: Online book-sharing service

[Dawes, Stephen]

Hi Janina and the group,
I am missing something here.
When I made the initial post, I commented on the money issue, to which Janina provided some good feedback on. 
But what I am confused on, is that initially Napster allowed me to download MP3 files from all over the world, and not a central location. Meaning, if Gina had a MP3 I was looking for, I would get it from her, and if Amanda had another tune that I wanted I could get it from her, ... From what I am hearing, this is not the case with the shared book service, and thus my confusion. They say it is like napster, so why aren't the books that each member likes on their own machine for the sharing?


Steve Dawes
PH:  (403) 268-5527. 
Mailto:  sdawes at gov.calgary.ab.ca 



-----Original Message-----
From: Janina Sajka [mailto:janina at afb.net]
Sent: 2002 March 14 9:07 AM
To: speakup at braille.uwo.ca
Subject: Re: sideways look! Was: USA: Online book-sharing service 


Gina:

Part of the rationale for putting BookShare up is based on what you just 
described. You gave the cost of having a title prepared for you. It sounds 
like an expensive effort. Yet, if someone else, somewhere else needs that 
same title, without a service like BookShare, they'd have to incur the 
same expenses all over again. 

The people who are behind BookShare, are the same people who gave us 
Arkenstone products up to the point that Freedom Scientific bought 
Arkenstone. In fact, the money from that purchase went into putting 
BookShare together--along with some other projects at 
http://www.benetech.org. It had to. Arkenstone was one of those 501(C)3 
nonprofitI wrote you about the other day. By U.S. law, the money from the 
sale of Arkenstone had to go to another nonprofit and not into people's 
pockets.

So, the point of this story, is that these former Arkenstone and now 
Benetech people are on to what you've described. They've seen people using 
technology to meet their needs. And, they've seen many people scanning the 
same title independently, at great expense, with no ability--except 
happenstance--to share with others who need that title. Ergo, BookShare.

Is it nabster? Not really. U.S. Copyright law allows any individual who is
blind to take published content and make it accessible for themselves, or
to get someone else to do it for them. And, it allows agencies whose
mission is to make published information accessible to publish to blind
users without asking anyone's permission. So, maybe nabster copied the
U.S. copyright law's provisions for blind people. Maybe it's that other
way around.



 On Thu, 14 Mar 2002, Georgina wrote:

> Hi
> 
> Although, this aspect is off topic, I thank those who have attempted to
> clarify these matters.  But I do feel that there is an important issue
> of us giving up control and just following the majority that we need to 
> consider.
> 
> The pricing is a very important one.  I as a student paid support
> workers to scan and correct books and Jernal articles.  Because books
> vary so much its difficult to find an average but the following costs
> were quite common during the pas five years of my studies:
> 
> The book would cost twenty pounds.  A support worker would take six
> hours being paid five pounds an hour to scan it.  If I was lucky, they'd
> correct the majority of errors in ten hours at five pounds an hour.
> Thus this twenty pound book has cost one hundred pounds to access.
> 
> Gena
> 
> 
> 
> >You also receive 50 cents credit per each book that you apply the Basic
> >Publish procedure on.  Do 100 of those per year and you cover your
> >subscription.
> >
> >I suppose they don't think that all persons will participate in this effort
> >and perhaps if so, they will enact different requirements.
> >I don't have a lot of time to scan books at the moment but in time I will
> >for various reasons.   believe in the longrun, it will be a worthwhile
> >service provided it will be able to thrive.
> >
> >Amanda Lee
> >
> >Alexandria, VA
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Ann Parsons" <akp at eznet.net>
> >To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> >Sent: Tuesday, March 12, 2002 8:11 PM
> >Subject: sideways look! Was: USA: Online book-sharing service
> >
> >
> >Hi all,
> >
> ><smile>  Gena, it is my understanding that if you contribute books,
> >you get $2.50 knocked off your next year's fee.  So, if you scanned 20
> >books, then your next year's subscription would be free.  the money
> >should go to pay for the server and so on.  I don't know about
> >salaries for other stuff.  I think this is a worthwhile project, I
> >just wish it were slightly more accessible.
> >
> >Ann P.
> >
> >--
> >Ann K. Parsons
> >email:  akp at eznet.net ICQ Number:  33006854
> >WEB SITE:  http://home.eznet.net/~akp
> >"All that is gold does not glitter.  Not all those who wander are lost."
> >JRRT
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
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-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org


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