Book People Archive

Re: Part 2 of PDF, DRM, and "open" formats

as an "overview" on your message about formats, and the
shades of gray when we consider how "open" they are,
it might be instructive to look again at the paper-book...

specifically, ink-on-paper in a bound volume of pages.

this format -- this form-factor -- is wide open.

and when i say wide open, i mean _wide_ open.

in terms of shades of gray here, there are none.

some people say -- and i agree with them, completely --
this wide-open nature of the p-book is what has made it
our premiere vehicle for knowledge across many millennia.

according to this philosophy, if we settle for _anything_
less than "wide open" in the sphere of digital books,
anything less at all, we will be handicapping ourselves
_significantly_, and _unnecessarily_.   totally unnecessarily.

why do that?

i'm serious.   why do that?   why even _think_ of doing that?

we have learned from our wide open books
that wide open books are the best way to learn.

indeed, what cyberspace offers us that seems _especially_
attractive to me -- perhaps the very best thing about it? --
is that it lets us to take the "wide open" nature of the codex
and explode it exponentially by plugging it into electricity...

we can now take a book and send it around the globe
at the speed of light.   we can now take _every_ book and
put it in that trajectory.   we can weave all our knowledge
and blanket the planet.   surely i'm not the only person who
realizes this is a tremendous gift of amazing proportions,
one that will transform the world and every person on it...

and surely i'm not the only person who is going to _object_
when some other person tries to hobble this precious magic,
tries to take the brilliant white light of this revolutionary gift
and sully it with shades of gray.   no way.

it's wide open, or we fight.

now, if you wanna continue analyzing all the shades of gray,
because it's intellectually stimulating or something, have at it.

but understand that there is no room for "negotiation" here.
we're not gonna let you, or anyone else, "lock up" the books.
if you try to lock up books, we will unlock them.   it's that simple.
if you try to lock up ideas, we will set them free, and laugh at you.

it's wide open, or we fight.

-bowerbird