Didn’t see how they are going to verify that you own the physical book. Amazon has a similar program but it’s based on physical books you’ve purchased from them. Does this require the same?
I’m BitLit’s developer, so happy to answer any questions. The way it works is that you have to take a photo of your name hand written onto the copyright page. More here: www.bitlit.com/how-it-works/
So it’s similar to Kindle Matchbook, but doesn’t require that you bought the paper book through Amazon, nor do you have to have a Kindle as your eReader… the ebooks we deliver are compatible with all devices / reading apps.
[quote=“peter_hudson, post:3, topic:48644, full:true”]
I’m BitLit’s developer, so happy to answer any questions. The way it works is that you have to take a photo of your name hand written onto the copyright page. More here: www.bitlit.com/how-it-works/
[/quote]Well, you’ve just guaranteed I’ll never use your service; I despise writing inside of my books - it makes them feel like they’ve been defaced.
Yup the true bibliophile probably won’t want to write or put a bookplate in their book. But that’s our deal with publishers – we’ve got to provide them assurances that somebody can’t walk into a bookstore and walk out with a free ebook. No harm, no foul, if the app isn’t for you.
Seems like you could photocopy and sign the copy
But doesn’t the physical copy of the book also carry with it rights to the media? Why pay twice (even at a discount)?
Like when you physically own a CD, rip the music, and scan it with a service like Google Play Music - it grants you access to its cloud-based digital copy without you having to pay a dime extra.
Yes there are ways you can try to game the system… an acetate sheet and an overhead projector pen come to mind. But there are probably easier ways to cheat and get a free ebook that start with Bit and end in Torrent.
This gets into an interesting area of copyright law around “format shifting”… your rights to format shift media depend on what country you live in. The NYTimes ethics columnist weighed in on this issues a few months ago.
Part of what we’re trying to do at BitLit is to make the idea of buying “content” not “embodiment” more normal in the world of books. And to be fair, the majority of the ebooks that we offer are free… when we talk to publishers they generally agree that if somebody has bought the print book they should get the ebook without having to pay again. Some publishers think there should be a small up-charge… and that’s ok with me too as long as it’s nominal. In a way you could look at the bundled ebook price as an alternative to building a DIY Book Scanner.
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