What kind of Idiot thought changing the text was OK ?

(Reaction to the "brand new idea" http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2013/06/13/new-drm-promises-to-ruin-a-good-ebook-in-the-name-of-protecting-it/ for watermarking ebooks by changes in the text)

There's DRM and DRM.

First one, you usually find out at Amazon's, Apple's and othere places is "Encryption based DRM", meaning, the reader needs a key of some sort to read. Usually this key is hidden inside of the readong platform.

Secondly, there's "Social DRM", where the ebook's content is changed to add information about the customer who purchased it, without locking anything. The ebook can be transferred, transformed, trans-formatted, without losing the personal identification.

Social DRM (aka Watermarking) schemes exist for a long time, some of them complicated and difficult to get rid of, other much more simple.
And hackers have so far NOT widely published solutions to bypass them as they did for encryption based DRMs.

Why ? because when they talk about DRM being bad, almost all of them are talking about Encryption based DRMs.

If you go and look at the major "anti-DRM tools" provider, you'll find out that they explicitely CHOOSE not to remove personally information, as they provide the tools for Personal use of the books and not for widespread dissemination. They EXPLICITELY don't touch the personal information already contained in the Encryption based Kindle DRMs...

All I'm saying is "Social DRM" doesn't have the same rejection as Encryption DRM has.
(http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192138)
And solutions already exist for Watermark. with I guess the same (if not lower) cost as Encryption based DRMs.

Just, big resellers don't use them. (some small ones DO).

What is proposed in the new scheme, is a new way to hide the personal information. While clever, it has NO respect for the authors.and readers (readers are accustomed to that though... DRM are widely used after all), and it adds NO additional value to existing schemes (such as http://www.booxtream.com/  (not afiliated in any way) or simply "home made" watermarks).

My only (and paranoïd) fear is that this IS published as a way to paint Social DRMs with a black mark and have authors/publishers flock towards encryption based DRMs again...

Review : STRAT by Tara Maya

Tara Maya is one of the first Self-Published authors whose books I've read, mainly her "Unfinished Song" series, which I've reviewed in the past too. Tara also had a guest post here, regarding barriers to international sales for ebooks. A great guest post BTW...

 So when she forwarded me STRAT, her latest Military SF book, I jumped on the occasion to read it.

I'll be quite short, since, unfortunately, I was a little bit disappointed. Not that it isn't good, just not on par with Tara Maya's best. The action is quite good, the tech has quite a few interesting twists, as does the plot. 

Unfortunately, I've had troubles relating to the hero, even if he's quite likeable. 

And also a small thing that just  bothered me along : the place of women in the story. I find they have too passive a role. Not in the background or anything like that, but they simply don't have much effect. 

Well, I give 3.5 stars for that one. And trust Tara will do better next time.

En cours de déménagement...

Je vous ai parlé de e-lire.fr , cette communauté francophone sur la lecture numérique qui se crée en ce moment ?
Ben j'ai décidé d'y emménager. En tout cas, au moins la partie francophone de mes billets.

Pour l'instant, seuls mes nouveaux billets, qui vont être postés là bas. Mon premier y est déjà : Le Libraire et l'ebook (partie 1).

A terme, peut-être y transfererais-je mes anciens aussi. On verra...

Par contre, mes billets en anglais vont rester ici. Et ceux en bilingue ? Je trouverai un moyen.

Voilà, c'était la nouvelle du jour.

Nouveau forum lecture numérique : e-Lire.fr

Il y a un certain temps, j'ai tenté de fédérer les lecteurs numériques francophones autour dans un forum ... lire-numerique.fr Après des débuts prometteurs, ca a tout simplement foiré, sous la pression du spam d'abord, puis tout simplement par manque de commentaires et participants.

Mais depuis quelques jours, j'ai pris connaissance d'un nouveau forum, qui me semble bien mieux parti : e-Lire et que puis-je dire si ce n'est que l'eau y est chaude et transparente, que les cocotiers balancent sous le vent des alizées et qu'il faut bon y discuter autour d'une boisson alcoolisée ou non (Thé ou Café d'ailleurs ?)

Alors si vous voulez, venez vous joindre à nous...

DRM Status : Amazon shows them.

Just to point out that I saw today something that I wasn't waiting anymore :

The DRM status can be found out for ebooks on the Amazon stores I checked out, including the FR, UK and DE ones.

Not clearly, just like it was always on the Amazon.com website.

A clear progress from my POV, which I DO acknowledge. 

Remaining sticking point before I return to their stores : the exclusivity clause on the Select program.

Review : The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata

I don't remember how "The Red: First Light" came on my radar, but I remember distinctly having thought: "Military SF ? From one of the Book View Cafe writers ? Nice !"

Now, for you who don't know about Book View Cafe, it's a cooperative publishing effort among authors across all genres, from science fiction to romance to historical to mainstream. They sell direct (or through big retailers) the ebooks from its member authors, new works as well as backlist. All that at good prices and without DRMs.

So, I added it quickly on my Wishlist, and bought it when I saw an other plug by Kristin Kathryn Rusch.

Now, as is usual on my blog, I won't dive into the description of the book's protagonists and on the story, but try and remain evasive to avoid any potential spoiler. Let's say that while the writing style is good, where the book really shines is in its themes and tech. Set in a near future, dominated by corporations, coo-petiting by greed of money and power, the tech has yet to reach the complete and widespread acceptance of implanted technology. Likewise, possibly since the story centers around a soldier, the civilian life doesn't seem as alienated as in good-old cyberpunk. So, while near cyberpunk, it's not there, yet.

Military, it is completely, with battles and powered armor. But here, the classical equipment got at last a much needed refurbishing, with technological items straight from the geeks catalog : integrated communications, drones etc. Not only that, but the author explores some of the implications, from a psychological POV as well as their use on the field. I'll miss this arsenal now, when not present in other Mil-SF books, always wondering why it's not there. It makes so much sense !

While we don't get much into the people's psychology, they don't seem cartoonish. The same can be said of the hero whose leading motivations are left mostly untouched and unexplored. I missed a more accentuated link or comprehension. I surmise the author has good reasons to write it that way and get some of them, but still, I find it missing.

That last point is the only one that kept the book "really good" instead of "Great", and I think it's followup could well grab the five stars. But this one stays between 4 and 4.5.

Celcius 451

Celsius 451 : Température à laquelle fondent les liseuses ?

Depuis que Ray Bradbury l'a écrit, on sait tous que 451 degrés Fahrenheit est la température à laquelle le papier brûle. Fahrenheit 451 c'est aussi une de mes grandes claques de lectures de SF, et sans doute aussi un des points de construction de ma conscience de militant livresque (y compris numérique).

Parmis les choses que j'ai gardé du livre, il y a un respect des oeuvres, évidemment, mais aussi de l'objet en lui même, en tant que média du texte.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bibliothek_kalocsa.jpg

Déjà, avant 451, j'ai été éduqué dans le respect de l'objet : on ne corne pas les pages, on n'écrit pas dedans... Mais avec cette lecture, c'est une nouvelle dimension qui commençait. Au delà de la conservation de l'objet pour moi-même, s'y ajoutait la Postérité. Mais l'objet livre avait alors une posture presque sacrée, et c'est donc avec remords que je vivais alors ma passion de la lecture.

Soigneux, je ne le suis pas. Combien de livres laissés trainer dans ma voiture, combien rongés par l'humidité dans la cave, où je n'avais pas de place pour les ranger correctement. Culpabilité.

J'aime le livre, l'objet. Mais je ne le mérite pas.
Alors la lecture numérique, je l'accueille à grand pas. Plus besoin de culpabiliser quand je trouve un livre trop lourd ou encombrant. Plus de soucis de rangements ou de galère pour trouver ce livre que j'ai peut être gardé tout au fond, là bas...

Quand à la postérité, qu'on se moque ou qu'on critique, je ne permets pas à quiconque qui apposerait des DRMs ou proposerait du streaming uniquement de me donner de leçon.

Plus de maltraitance, de culpabilité, c'est tout simple, il ne me reste plus que le


Lire.