Book People Archive

Re: Fwd: Re: response to Jeff

On Thu, 22 Mar 2001 Kellscraft@[redacted] wrote:

[Massive Snip]

> > 
> > The humanity is in the content. . .not the form. . . .
>            
> 
> 
> > > My "real" books never "crash", I don't have to wait for the pc to "boot 
> > up", 
> > > and I don't have to download them.
> > 
> > Your books get lost, borrowed, and will eventually fall apart, and can't
> > be corrected easily, either by you, the author, or the publisher.
> > 
> > Etexts are always there, easy to quote, copy, or give to a friend,
> > and you don't have to worry about returning them.
> > 
> > Michael S. Hart
> 
> Michael:  I know you have bit of an irreverent bent here so I accept some of 
> your concepts in the vein you have stated them.  Let's get serious here.  

Yes, I am often irreverent, I think when God comes back S/He will rip out
all the gold and silk and other riches from the various temples and off the
bodies of the temple bosses. . . .

However, I *am* quite serious, I just don't go in for the high falutin'
ways of talking about it because I don't want to limit my audience only
to those who would read such formal dreck.

> What happens when the net crashes?

That's why I continually advocate local storage.

With CDR/W disks at well under $1, and a drive I bought for $25, used,
I don't have to worry about storage. . .and with 80G drives for about
$250, there is hardly even any reason to burn CD's other than for backup.
The entire Project Gutenberg collection wouldn't take up 10% of one of
those drives, even with TWO copies of EACH .zip AND .txt file, including
the Human Genome. . . .

> What happens when support dries up and your site is unavailable?  

That's why we have so many sites and volunteers, all independent.
It would take a MASSIVE effort to bring all our sites down at once,
but I still advocate local storage, just for when your own local
gateways go down.  We have had sites on every continent for over
five years. . . .  Another goes up at least each month, on the average.
             
> What happens when countries or companies pass laws 
> or set standards that limit access to certain book sites over others?

Another reason to have local storages. . .I have often mention the
idea of "electronic book burning."
  
> 
> This is not, and never has been an either/or situation.  It is about 
> understanding what we are really doing with our efforts.  Let's just hope 
> we've thought this out far enough ahead and keep fighting to have access to 
> both books and electronic media.  Don't forget, I also publish public domain 
> books to the web.  I put them there because I want to encourage people to 
> read, and personally, I hope people take advantage of the print button on 
> their computers when viewing these sites and then disseminating the print 
> copies to friends and families.

Perhaps we could put them on Project Gutenberg for you and your readers.


Thanks!

So nice to hear from you!


Michael S. Hart
<hart@[redacted]>
Project Gutenberg
"Ask Dr. Internet"
Executive Director
Internet User ~#100