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> Not having print copies of a writer’s work is a big mistake. This is an important thing. People rave about how the internet gives almost everyone immediate a
by DemocracyFTW2 2y ago
> Not having print copies of a writer’s work is a big mistake.
This is an important thing. People rave about how the internet gives almost everyone immediate access to so many thing, but flip a switch (or stare helplessly as a major CME is hurtling our way) and it's all gone for some amount of time or forever.
Did the proprietors even consider and try to sell those many hours? If nothing else they could've auctioned files for private use. No-one there to make a quick buck that way?
- miloignis 2y agoHaving it digitally on the internet does not mean that switch flip can take it away, having it encumbered by DRM means that. DRM free ebooks would/will never just disappear! I attempt to put my money where my mouth is and buy DRM free whenever possible, and consider carefully buying at all if no DRM free copy exists.
- DemocracyFTW2 2y agoYou didn't understand me. Computers need electricity, when that electricity is switched off, the entire collection of works becomes inaccessible. This can be a short-term outage or it can be a longer one in case of e.g. a natural disaster. And it's not true that "ebooks would/will never just disappear"; if you don't proactively care for the health of your storage media, they will fail; from an archival point of view most storage media will almost certainly fail in short order (years, decades at most). I have piles of CDs, floppy disks and hard disks lying around but I am not confident I can access all the data. Rather, I'm sure only a fraction of the files will still be readable.