But lets see the Positive side: Now the Nazis wont have to burn thousands of books, saving tons of co2 in their Plan to take over the world with propaganda. So, yay for the envoirment I guess
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That’s why Richard Stallman calls kindle the swindle.
Mr Stallman needs to be considered from all sides before deciding whether you’ll follow his lead. He’s not without some toejam.
Not sure what that means. He’s not Jesus. There’s no need to worship him! We can take the good and criticize the bad.
If you really want to worship him, though, he doesn’t mind if you’re his student or on the younger side …
OK, that’s a joke. In Stallman’s particular case he even substantiated his view on pedophilia with very good arguments (especially for something this socially contentious).
But I don’t think he ever wanted people to follow his lead.
In Stallman’s particular case he even substantiated his view on pedophilia with very good arguments
No, he didn’t, because none exist. Don’t defend pedophiles.
I’ve seen your wrong opinion, but without arguments it’s useless.
I haven’t looked at or held or otherwise directly perceived a kindle in many years now, but when I did it was insanely easy to just pop any old file into a converter and slip that onto the kindle and pirate and read as you like. Did they put a stop to that with some proprietary nonsense?
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Now? As if they were so ethical all those decades before.
You know what they say about the best time to plant trees. It applies to many things.
It has been time for that, long ago. Why did you have to wait for everything to go south?
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Self hosting your email server, are you? How many hours a month does that take?
I use Tutanota for my email
So, Google before the IPO.
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Did Google ever offer an open source client for the email?
A hosting provider always has the ability to change what’s on their infrastructure. The Kindle store is no different.
As it happens, they’ve been doing this for years. For example, the price you set as an author is not fixed nor is how it turns up on the page or how and when it’s promoted.
The standard ebook format is essentially a zipped up series of text files.
Source: I sell my “Foundations of Amateur Radio” ebooks on the Kindle store
Its just a bitter taste, thinking about how a few companies can lay words into the mouth of people they did not even say, years after they died
I would rather just have them Ban the books, because then you can see how they are manipulating the information you see.
Hell, I’m surprised the publishers aren’t up in arms about it.
Amazon is changing copyrighted works.
Increasingly more often Amazon is the publisher.
Does Amazon have permission to change what’s in your book though?
Copyright prevents them from making derivative works and if they change your text without your permission, that’s a clear copyright violation.
I don’t know how licensing deals work with Amazon but I’m guessing if they are doing this en mass, there is probably some provision in their contract.
The bigger question is do they care. At worst they get a slap on the wrist by the US government. At best they get to control the narrative and have books like having history books on their platform talk about how the the Allies first striked Nazi Germany because they were lifting the country out of economic crisis and making the world a better place.
I doubt they’ll care or listen if EU says stop since they’ll just find a way around whatever they have planned to try and stop revisionist ideology from taking hold.
Source: I sell my “Foundations of Amateur Radio” ebooks on the Kindle store
And thank you for the reminder that I should go get a license before the entire system is so messed up that it wouldn’t be possible.
Well or it would be irrelevant because no one would care.
Either way!
Uh, title is a bit clickbaity, editorialized. Amazon isn’t changing books yet, they are planning to make it possible for publishers to do so, I think, and also recoking ownership. And the video is not great either.
Is there a text version of this?
Yes, I prefer to read over watching a video and being forced to go at someone else’s pace.
I truly hate this age of video where everything is either in incredibly long form with unnecessary cruft that can be pared down to a page or so of real information, or the video is so pointlessly short it’s devoid of real value and context. Sadly people just don’t want to read anymore
The changing the Books part hasn’t been archived in the Catf wiki yet, but the non downloadable books is already fully written
Amazon’s ebook store front (as well as the internet in general) is flooded with AI slop. The internet is a place where the signal to noise ratio is dropping rapidly.
Physical media is necessary. Especially books. Especially the kinds of books regimes might want to ban. When it’s time to rebuild, we’ll need firm ground to stand on, and physical books work as long as you can hold them.
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DRMless digital is great - I have a calibre library of thousands - but still more vulnerable.
Canticle of Lebowitz is a great post apocalyptic novel. After the nukes, Catholic monasteries preserve the ancient tradition of copying down manuscripts. Text doesn’t require any form of infrastructure.
There are also many texts/other media that are not available in any digital format. Obscure or older. For as much of an Information Age we are in, a lot of knowledge is being lost through neglect.
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Don’t use kindle? They aren’t the only ebook provider
it blows my mind that people buy ebooks when Libby is free.
Seriously. Anna archives, libby. There are so many open source projects out there for the ereader community
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In some Star Wars book, of the period between PT and OT, there was a similar moment, but I don’t remember details. Context - it’s described as some slow transition, while the Republic of the Clone Wars had military censorship and many freedoms curbed, after the war supposedly ended and the Empire proclaimed, it legally and procedurally was mostly the same and the military limitations were in part lifted. So there were protests and attempts to use legal mechanisms, with such funny events.
1984 - Get away from everything GAFAM does
It would be nice if that stuff worked more like git where yeah maybe the release version gets changed but you can always work back through the history to see earlier versions.
Not git specifically but just deltas from one version to the next instead is replacing the whole thing with a flattened text.
Like wiki articles.
Yes, but you say it like the Author himself changed it.
In the specific Example, the book is from before 2000 and the author is long dead. That book is a piece of culture now, displaying the writing style from a place in time where it was normal to discriminate against people. By changing a book, regardless of if it was actually amazon or just some manager that bought up the rights for the book, it is manipulating the Past. Amazon should not allow to do such things
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Oh I didn’t think I implied that at all. Certainly didn’t mean to. I was just commenting that making cultural artifacts that can be revised into delta-based distributions instead of flat is useful for many reasons. But it’s no benefit to the corps and most users don’t care so of course it won’t happen.
OK, tanks for clarifying that
Yes, it would be great.
Is that what the “you can’t download your shit anymore” is really reaching at?
There are other ways to buy books, I don’t understand why so many people have a boner for Amazon. It feels like Stockholm syndrome to me. I’ve never bought a single book from Amazon, not one.
Kindle just works
I can read a book in a series, finish it, buy the next one and it’s ready to read before I’ve gotten a new cup of tea.
Lol. This is the exact same on…checks notes… every single other platform I know of. I have a kobo sage and it’s the same, except that kobo runs on Linux and they don’t lock their system. You can literally “jailbreak” it and still get updates from them. They also don’t lock their books with encryption like on kindle so they lock you in. IMHO, there is 0 reasons to buy a kindle now, period.
I’ve tried the Kobo store (sold my Kindle and got a Libra 2 Color), but the selection is a bit lacking.
Some books just don’t exist there, which means I can’t just click and buy the next one from the Kobo UI.
You can buy those books (if possible) from the publisher directly and load them onto your Kobo via a computer.
@penquin @lepinkainen Kobo also comes preloaded with overdrive so you can get books from the library as well. The wait can be quite long though - but if you have enough on hold that doesn’t really matter too much
Does overdrive have only audio books or regular books, too?
@penquin probably depends on your library but mine has plenty of normal books on there.
Yep, but it’s not something I can do with one click on the sofa, which was my original point
@lepinkainen @penquin Kobo has a basic browser so you probably could. I downloaded a few copyright-free books from standardebooks.org directly onto my Kobo the other day.
I have a kobo sage and it’s the same, except that kobo runs on Linux and they don’t lock their system.
It runs on Android which runs on a Linux kernel. And Android is a tad bit too heavy for the kind of hardware the vendors tend to give e-readers, if you do anything outside the book-management-and-reader app. It’s more open than Kindle, sure (i could even flash Lineagos on my Leaf, since the stock ROM had weird translation and apps), but if you just want an e-reader and maybe Nextcloud sync, i’d recommend PocketBook over everything else.
I’ve searched everywhere and nowhere does anyone mention that kobo runs android. It runs an actual Linux based OS, not android. I know android uses the Linux kernel but that is not the same as an actual Linux OS. It doesn’t matter anyway, their shit is wide open and you can do whatever the hell you want to you kobo
Ok, “Android” is a certificate and requires, among others, Google Play Services and Store. Kobo doesn’t have that, so my that’s the issue. But it’s a AOSP-based vendor ROM, same as Kindle’s, so my point with performance still stands and battery is bad too. At least compared to PocketBook’s, which run plain Linux and last a month.
That’s not unlike the experience on my Kobo Elipsa 2e.
How is that Elipsa e2? I wanted to get it, but I discovered that it had a low PPI 227 and held off. I have eagle eyes and I hate seeing pixels. lol… so I got the sage fantastic device, but I want the 10" screen so badly.
I have not been at all dissatisfied with its clarity. I bet on a LCD or OLED screen the DPI would be noticeable, but not on an e-ink display.
Thank you. Do you have another kobo with higher DPI that you can compare it to? I’m very weird when it comes to this. I can see pixels very easily and then would never be able to focus anymore. lol. I can’t even use anything but 4k screens on my laptops and PC, that’s how bad I am.
Sorry, no. No other e-ink devices at all.
No worries. Thank you
You’re thinking like a techy, put yourself in the layman’s shoes.
The Kindle was a pretty big deal as the first widespread e-reader. My tech-challenged mom got one and she loves how easy it is to get a book and have it there.
Given that this change won’t really affect her, she probably doesn’t care. There’s a lot more people like my mom than you or I.
The reality is that Amazon is the most convenient way to buy a lot of things, and as a result, people will put up with a lot of bullshit.
I genuinely try to buy things locally before I start looking online. It’s increasingly difficult even for common items. The big box stores are shifting to branded only retailers. Where I used to be able to go to any hardware store and find a similar spread of items available, Lowe’s, home Depot and Menards all offer their own lines of tools to varrying degrees. Menards is the worst about it, but they’re all doing it.
Less common items are being phased out in stores, going to online order only. Where in the past you’d have your choice of just about any brand of thing you could think of in any store in any major town, now you’re lucky to find certain things at all. And if I’m going to have to order it online anyway, Amazon has the best return policy.
Hobby or specialty items are easily marked up 300% locally. And you have to go to that specific store, which may require a fucking membership just to get an only marginally hyper inflated price. It’s fine if it’s one thing I need right now but I’m not going to pay for the privilege of shopping at a hobby shop. I’m at Costco every week and I’m salty about that membership. Jack Tanner’s Leather Emporium isn’t even getting my email address.
And frequently on Amazon it’s not just the same thing, it’s the exact same fucking product. Likely shipped to the hobby shop from Amazon. I get that these guys need to make a living, but bro, have a little respect for modern consumers. I’ll pay a premium, I’m not signing up for anything and I’m not paying triple the price.
And even if you are resolved to buy online, and you try to go to the branded website to buy the specialty thing, Amazon has it, they have free shipping, and they’ll get it to you tomorrow. But if you go to Rockler’s website they’re going to charge you 10-20 dollars to ship a single item, unless you spend more money, and it’ll take two to three weeks to get to you.
I’m sorry, Amazon fucking won. Even if I say I’m willing to eat the cost, pay the shipping, pay a premium, and I’m willing to wait for the stuff I order, I’ll even make an account at every shady ass website I want to order from and give all of them my payment information, regardless of how much I trust their security, because I know Amazon is a horrifically evil company, I’m a drop in the fucking bucket. So are you and anyone reading this.
It’s just too fucking convenient. Too many competitors are cutting off the tail to try to keep up. They’ve won
Except we are talking about ebooks and none of what you’ve said applies to them. Amazon did not win in the ebooks department, as there are many other better platforms out there that don’t fuck their people.
What you’ve written is true, but none of it applies to ebooks.
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I’m constantly on the lookout for European alternatives. Are there any EU alternatives to Amazon?
You can even buy books directly from publishers. Recently I wanted a hardback copy of a book and it was out of stock, backordered, or absurdly high priced on all the big popular online places. Ended up ordering it for MSRP from Penguin Random House direct.
Dude, literally. Lmao. I once had an author himself give me a link to his book to buy it. The freaking other himself. For our older parents and non-techy people, I understand using and sticking to amazon, they most likely won’t even notice any of Amazon’s bad practices, but young folks who are techy? Come on, you know better.
I paid for (the license to view) the books already, so I’m getting epubs from z-library without the slightest bit of moral pain.
I could do the calibre decryption thing, but meh.
Same boat man. ‘OK I’ll throw a few schmeckles in because the author does need the compensation, but i’m getting the actual book elsewhere.’
If I ever embrace my fate as a lonely housewife book author, I’m going to have a rough time, because the kind of people who would forever love me for producing my books and sharing them as free (with the option to donate) and the kind of people who buy lonely housewife books are two completely different circles and I wouldn’t be able to spend all the time necessary to ‘market’ myself online to get the books in the hands of people who want them, if I’m trying to spend that time writing.
Maybe what we need is an apparatus. A website where authors can share full-size books, users can vote on them, and if you like them enough you can give money to those writers.
I just don’t know how we’d get that, be able to allow any author to share their book, and still have quality control.
So… z-library? https://z-lib.gs
I bought a kobo recently (for the color screen) and have had to keep going back to my kindle to read smutty romance. All their newest decisions made me cancel my KU sub, and this has saved me from what I thought would be a drought.
Honest question, how is this different from the left doing the same? Take this for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl_revision_controversy
As an outsider, it seems the USA is currently in a culture war, and neither side minds burning & changing the books they deem offensive?
I’m all for the Trump hate, what’s happening there is insane, but the American left wing being bothered by books being changed seems pretty hypocritical seeing recent events…
A punchier example would be And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - the best selling murder mystery of all time - which was first published as Ten Little Niggers
Is indeed a fine example. Keeps raising the same questions: is it ok to rewrite books? We’re supposed to be outraged when maga does it, but it’s ok if we do it?
I mean it’s not an easy question to answer is it? How is my ideological position that ‘nigger’ is not acceptable and removing it makes the book suitable for modern readers any different from someone else’s ideological position that, e.g., ‘transgender’ is not acceptable and removing it makes whatever book suitable for modern readers?
@Hossenfeffer @racemaniac n*r is deemed a slur *by the group it is used about*. “Transgender” is not. Changing references to be more inclusive/respectful of a group is very different to erasing the existence of a group entirely.
Yes, I agree.
But surely you can acknowledge the possibility that some people believe transgenderism is an affront to god and an existential threat to children, or whatever, then their position is not dissimilar.
That’s the issue. What makes ‘this is offensive’ more valid than ‘this is dangerous’?
This is just another front in the war between religion and reason.
@Hossenfeffer well “this is offensive [to the subject]” is more valid than “this is dangerous [to the reader]” for one. A subject can’t choose what the reader thinks of them afterwards - they have to hope that the reader understands enough context to realise they are, actually, equally human. A reader, in contrast, gets to choose whether they agree with the premise. Otherwise history would have destroyed all copies of every religious book, or Mein Kampf or the Little Red Book or Das Kapital.
@Hossenfeffer as with everything it usually boils down to who has the power/control. An (adult) reader can choose what they read or how they interpret it, and can also often control what a child reads and how that child interprets it too. A subject cannot choose how they are read about, so it is up to the writer and publisher to control that message and reduce misinterpretation where possible. It’s a similar framework to cultural appropriation or “doing an accent”. Are you punching up or down?
Indeed, that’s why i hate it that so many people here are raging about this while it’s something both sides are doing…
I get all the Trump & conservatives hate, but sometimes this community is raging over something that’s just done by both sides… So being outraged about it is pretty hypocritical…
Have you, as a foreigner, been caught up by the American political-polarization bugtm!? Here are a few warning signs that you may be affected.
- Do you find yourself often injecting “left-wing” or “right-wing” into titles?
- Do you have a perceived notion that anything negative being said must involve a certain political party?
- Do you feel the need to bring Trump up in a post that has nothing to do with him?
- Do you find yourself in the comments blaming “sides” without having read the article or watched the video?
- Have you found yourself demanding answers or change that’s addressed in the post? (he literally brings up Dahl as his first example)
If you suspect that you or a loved one suffer from this syndrome, please turn off the devices and go outside.
The controversy you pointed out is about someone who was writing factually false information and feeding hate against people who should be covered under the freedom of speech. The ban happened during his life, and not years after he died. Therefore his works were not a peace of gone culture, but hate in the present of time.
If I follow your argumentation, that being that you should allow people write false information feeding hate against specific people just living their life in peace, you should be against censoring Hate speech against Lgbtqia+ people too, or the better question would be: where do you draw the line? At Jews? At queer people?
I have honestly no clue what you’re trying to say???
If you read the wiki page i linked, it’s about changing his books after his death, so not things about when he was still alive? Is also not about a ban? Did you even read the wiki? It literally starts with "Puffin Books, the children’s imprint of the British publisher Penguin Books, expurgated various works by British author Roald Dahl in 2023, sparking controversy. "
And you’re talking about hate against races, but the wiki talks about removing the word queer (which used to just be a synonym for strange), removing all kinds of gendered language (not sons & daughters, but children, etc…). So rewriting the books to fit your narrative.
My argumentation is simple: the right wing can’t change books, but the leftwing can? Both sides seem to be trying to rewrite history, that’s all. Whether what’s in the books is acceptable or not, who cares. If the book is no longer appropriate, don’t read it but complaining about the other side rewriting books seems hypocritical. That’s all. You can just not recommend books to readers and suggest more modern alternatives that are more appropriate, or read the old works taking in mind the era they were written in.
I am with you on this one. I do think it would be appropriate to have a disclaimer in the beginning, saying that these words used to have a different meaning, and that in the context of the time they were written they meant different things than today.
There is a German book where this is done that uses the N word for people of color.
This is the more appropriate way of handling this, because i am totally with you: we shouldn’t change what was written in books. If we start doing that, we destroy what authors have done, and in a sense we also edit history, because in this case we try to erase that these words were used in another context back in the days.didn’t know JK Rowling is into Lemmy now
Ah yeah, going for the insult rather than engaging with a difficult talking point…
I for sure hate trans people when i say it’s hypocritical to complain about the right wing changing books to fit what they view as correct, when the left wing is doing the exact same (strange… my point isn’t even about trans people it seems… how peculiar).
I haven’t even said that i have a problem with more gender neutral language, i just gave it as en example of what it’s about since the parent post was all about hate speech, (and there was some issue with that too in his childrens books, but afaik hardly any).
And i focused on that because OP made it sound as if just hate speech was being targetted, not rewriting old works to fit very left wing desires about how gender is mentioned.
But the question remains: if the right does it, it’s Nazism, when the left does it, it’s… <???> (at least totally not Nazism, because when we do something that we claim is blatant Nazism when the others do it, it’s ok, because obviously, we’re not Nazis, even when we do things that we call out as blatantly Nazism when others do it).
(and why am i trying to call this out: because i hate hypocrisy & polarization. It’s fair to disagree with that, but then calling it Nazism and being all wronged about it while the American left wing is doing the exact same, and then get’s called out the exact same by de maga idiots… That’s just stupid on both sides, and i’d prefer our side to be genuine and honest, and not be all offended when others do the same thing they’re doing)
1984 right here.
