Not All Bits

Dan Messer ~ Barefoot cyberpunk librarian

Library Technology. eContent. Circulation. Open Source. Snark.

Censorship: You’re Just Making Yourself Look Stupid

I was reading this story linked from LISNews about how the director of Brevard County Libraries decided to pull Fifty Shades of Grey from their collections because “…the library does not ‘collect porn’ and that the book did not ‘meet selection criteria.’” It seems that every time one of these issues comes up where a library decides that a book is sinful or obscene they always point at their collection policies and use them as a shield. That’s fine, but the thing is that these policies are only as good as the people practicing them and, usually, it’s really easy to poke holes in them.

So for a bit of an experiment I headed over to the Brevard County OPAC.

Other than her BDSM outfit, this picture of Rihanna has little to do with Fifty Shades of Grey. That's why I used it.

Now, keeping in mind that E. L. James’ book on sex, love, and chains is supposedly porn. That’s the very word the Brevard County Director used to describe it. Meanwhile, their collections also contain:

Censorship never makes one look intelligent because there’s no way to apply it equally. There will always be exceptions that anyone with any intelligence can point at and ask “Well if X is bad and needed to be pulled then why do we have Y and Z? Aren’t those the same things?” Keep in mind, those results above are just me searching around and trying some run-of-the-mill things that I normally search for when this stuff comes up. Meanwhile, I wonder what kind of violent books and movies they have on their shelves? I’m sure there are more than enough to make all of this look even sillier.

Moreover it really disturbs me that the majority of the library’s customers seem to want this, yet the director decided that they will not fulfill that need because, I guess, the book conflicts with policy. See, I’m not a businessman, nor will I ever be, but it seems to me that one of the ways you keep the library in the minds of your users is to give them the things they ask for. I’m going to tell you, I’ve read Fifty Shades and I was marvelously unimpressed. There’s far better erotica out there but, dammit, this is what people want to read right now. And the director will force them to go elsewhere to get a copy. That’s okay, people remember being forced elsewhere and next time they want to read something, they’ll just go elsewhere first, since that’ll save them the time and hassle of dealing with the library.

It goes to show you that there’s only one way to win in the censorship game and, as it happens, it’s the same way to win a thermonuclear war — don’t play.

Abandoning DRM Is Good, But Not Good Enough

With the announcement that Tor and Macmillan will be the first major publisher to abandon DRM, we start to see the very same thing from publishing that we saw in music ages ago. See, music was dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century and music companies were forced to reexamine their business models. Now, while suing people seems to still be part of their business model, they’re not going after people who downloaded an MP3 album from Amazon and then dared to put it on both of their iPods.

While Wiley, well known for publishing the For Dummies series of books, is hell bent on following the fool hardy, and quite frankly, freakin’ stupid litigation model that’s done naught for stopping music and movie piracy, Macmillan’s tap-out here signals what should be the beginning of the end.

Big music learned this after years of losing millions to frivolous lawsuits against people they couldn’t even put names to. To this day, movie companies are suing John and Jane Does and Unknowns and losing in many cases because they still cannot prove who was behind the keyboard of a computer that may or may not have been downloading something in a manner that may or may not be illegal. Litigation aside, DRM doesn’t do anything it’s supposed to do.

Does it protect the so-called rights holders? No.

Does it protect the artists? No.

Does it assure that customers have the best experience when they buy or use a service protected by DRM? No.

Does it provide a method of thwarting piracy? No. Even if a method of DRM does thwart piracy, it’s incredibly short lived. Most DRM seems to be cracked within a week, if it even takes that long.

All DRM has ever done is hurt the consumer, the ones who actually pay for the content. If DRM were effective, it’d make the content better for the paying customer and impossible for the pirate. As I just said, it doesn’t do any of those things.

Someone at Tor or Macmillan finally understood this and my hat is off to them. I will soon have the “luxury” of reading a Tor book on any device I want at any time that I want to do so.

But that’s not enough, and it’s not going far enough, and dammit as consumers and especially as librarians, we need to demand more.

I don’t mean we need to demand that all major publishing firms ditch the absurdity that is digital rights management. That should be a given. What we need to demand runs deeper than that and it runs right to the very core of their shortsighted and asinine business model.

We need to demand an end to this licensing nonsense.

When you bought a book, you own it. You own all of it. You can do whatever you want with it. You can read it, sell it, give it to a friend, commit a capital crime with it, whatever. It’s your book because you bought it. Problem is, that’s not how it works with eContent. You haven’t bought an eBook, you’ve purchased a license to use the content of the eBook in a manner agreed upon by you and the content provider.

What?

Folks, I just wrote that damn sentence and even I don’t understand it. I bought what now? A license? But I have licenses. See, I have a driver’s license right here. I have an old concealed carry license here. Oh look! Here’s a fishing license! I should go snag something out of the lake soon. And you know what’s odd about all those licenses compared to the “license” I obtained when I “bought” the eBook?

They all have my signature on them.

I paid money for all of these licenses, including the eBook license. All of them have my name on them and my signature which verifies that I have the license, that I understand the terms and use of the license, I understand what the license means, and it marks the license as mine and no one else’s.

Except for the eBook license. It doesn’t have my signature. I can’t hold it. I don’t have a hardcopy of it. Heck, I don’t even have an eBook license that bears my name. I’ve got nothing. So what license did I buy?

Chances are, you're reading this caption in my voice. ~Inigo Montoya

I didn’t buy one at all. I bought an eBook, not a license. In the end, what I’m saying is that “licensing” eBooks isn’t really licensing. As Inigo Montoya once said, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” So if it’s not licensing, what is it?

Simple, it’s a scam.

It needs to stop. Scamming people and libraries with these “licenses” isn’t helping anyone, not the publishers, not the purchasers. No one is protected by them because, as we’ve seen, they’re broken trivially, in seconds. No one is making money off them. Worse yet, no one is benefiting from the content, and if no one is benefiting, what’s the good?

Cyberpunk Librarian – Episode 004 – Why Not the Library?

The Cyberpunk Librarian returns with a show that’s a little different than the others in that we’re not talking tech and software, but philosophy. In all the ideas you hear about for combating piracy one thing seems to be left out. After all, if it’s illegal to copy it, why not just, you know, check it out?

Download Episode 004

Or listen right here!

Show Notes:

The Oatmeal – I tried to watch Game of Thrones and this is what happened.

The Ihnatko Almanac

The Ihnatko Almanac – #24: The Big Edit

Music featured in the show:

Solidified by Gramatik

Illusion of Choice by Gramatik

Both are available on the album #DigitalFreedom - Download now from Pretty Lights Music! (And toss some money their way as there’s some awesome music on that site!)

Next Podcast Coming Soon!

Hi all!

I have to apologize for the delay in the next episode of Cyberpunk Librarian. It’s been a crazy few days at work and, quite frankly, I’ve had time to do everything with the show except record it! I’ve got notes, show notes, postings, and all that ready to roll. I’ve got music on tap and all that, but snagging an hour or so in a quiet room with the laptop, mic, and headphones? Yeah, just hasn’t happened.

I should have CP episode 004 ready to roll by the end of the week and posted on Monday, if not before.

Sorry for the delay. As Strong Bad once said, it’s been crazy-go-nuts!

Dan The Download Guy – Google Calendar, It’s for my patrons too

Dear Dan the Download Guy,

Can I set up an appointment with you to help me learn how to download eBooks and stuff to my iPad/Android/Kindle/Kindle Fire/Sony/Pandigital… ?

Signed,
eReader in Need

—

Of course you can! Here’s my calendar, pick a time that I’m working and not in a meeting and we’ll get you on my schedule and on my calendar!

How many of you out there use some kind of calendar app for scheduling yourself and your work stuff? Two years ago, I didn’t need a calendar app. I knew what I was doing and when. Now, well, I’m on committees, have podcasts to record, people to meet, and other things to do. If I don’t use a calendar or a calendar app to keep track of that stuff, I’m going to miss something.

Like millions of others, I use Google Calendar because it really fits my needs and my workflow. I can pick it up on my Android phone, my iPod Touch, the iPad, any computer, and so on. It’s a great tool for helping me remember what the heck I’m doing, when I’m doing it, where, and with whom. Thing is, it’s not just for me, and I suggest that your calendar isn’t just for you.

I’m in the business of helping patrons learn how to use their eReaders. I’ve become a go-to person for inter-branch eReader support and I’ve actually had patrons from other branches show up at my branch because they want my help. It’s a simple process, they email me, we set up a time, and then we meet. Thing is, how do they know when I’m available?

Easy, I send them a link to my calendar.

Look, I’m not a very exciting guy. I don’t live a very exciting life. The things on my Google Calendar are, likewise, just as unexciting as anything else.  Here, take a look. I tell  you, it’s absolute Thrillsville.

What this does is connect my patrons right to my schedule. I tell them to pick a day that I’m working and a time that I’m not in a meeting. From there, it’s pretty easy to get things on the desk schedule (and my calendar).

So far, this entire idea has worked splendidly. There’s no “Well, Thursday is bad for me, what about Friday?” back and forth in emails or on the phone. It minimizes the time between “I need help” and “Hi! I’m Dan! Let me help you with that!”. If you’re using Google Calendar and setting appointments with, well, anyone, I strongly suggest this strategy.

Now, if you’re not sure how to make this happen, here’s a quick step by step.

  1. Bring up your Google Calendar.
  2. On the left, under My Calendars, select the calendar you want to use. You can even create a new one if you want to have a calendar specifically for this kind of thing. Next to the calendar you select, there’s a drop down. Click Share this Calendar.
  3. Check Make this calendar public and, if you like, check Share only my free/busy information (hide details). What that does is show your appointments as “Busy” and not what the appointment actually is. I have no problem showing what I’m doing, but that’s me and not you!
  4. Click Save and you’re taken back to the main calendar page. Now do step 2 again, but this time select Calendar settings from the dropdown.
  5. Near the bottom of the settings page, you’ll see Calendar address: and there’ll be three icons next to it for XML, ICAL, and HTML. I get the link from the HTML icon and that’s what I send to patrons.
  6. Check the link in a browser where you’re not logged into Google to make sure you’re sending out the calendar you think you’re sending out.