eBooks and publishers
- From: Michael Stutz <stutz@[redacted]>
- Subject: eBooks and publishers
- Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 10:03:09 -0400
"Leslie Evans" <lbevans@[redacted]> wrote:
> I was surprised at the flame letters I got from the venerable Michael
> Hart, and Michael Stutz.
Please don't take what I wrote about "eBooks" as a personal flame. It
wasn't! Putting down eBooks as a concept, sure -- I'll do that any day
(but once in public is probably enough; it's too easy a target for
habit).
Yes, I dislike that word and everything it represents. And when that
backwards trend attempts to invalidate the good work and ideas that
are now happening with online books, well, then it is time to raise a
voice and raise it loud. Especially on an online books list. But
actions are better, and I say that archives like ipl.org and the books
they hold will be available and useful long after those lame eBook
file formats and contraptions are exhibit pieces in computer kitsch
museums.
> Should etexts be limited to high class literature that
> is out of copywright, i.e., 70 years old?
Absolutely not. While I would like to see more 20th century literature
released from the grips of their jealous guards and put online, I'm
more interested in contemporary, 21st century books -- and our ability
to publish and share them in electronic format.
I'm not against commercial publishers at all. As a matter of fact, I'm
_for_ them -- though the aim of their electronic offerings have been
much less than stellar. Yea, they're into the dirt. Which is where
they belong ... I mean, what is it all about? Do any of them _know_,
or use computers every day to read and use electronic texts at all?
Where are the ideas? Where is the vision? Why publish anything "e-" at
all, if its beauty and utility doesn't increase a hundredfold over a
codex? They do not know! No big publisher has got it, or gets what
it's all about -- except maybe Jason Epstein. Now the first great
corporate publisher who _does_ get it, and does something right with
it, will probably quickly become the first great publishing empire of
the new century. If that game is, in fact, the one that is still being
played.
So anyway, don't take my heated voice & opinion as anything personal
at all ... this list seems like a nice place and I'm glad to have
found it -- don't want my difference of opinion to make it a boxing
ring.