Research resource

Anthony said:

The ability through Amazon to look inside many of their books seems to me an awesome research
tool. For example there was a recent thread in which the OP wanted info about bouillabaisse; I
went to Amazon, looked up the Oxford Companion to Food and was able to bring up the piece on
bouillabaisse. Maybe this is old hat to some of you, but it was the first time I'd used it and I
was amazed!

The ability to search actual book contents on Amazon.com is a fairly new feature. It became
available two or three months ago. From what I have read in the news, many book publishers are
against the idea. I do not blame them. I suspect this feature will either end entirely or be paired
back soon because it does really violate copyright laws, in my opinion.

In article said:

Anthony said:

The ability through Amazon to look inside many of their books seems to me an awesome research
tool. For example there was a recent thread in which the OP wanted info about bouillabaisse; I
went to Amazon, looked up the Oxford Companion to Food and was able to bring up the piece on
bouillabaisse. Maybe this is old hat to some of you, but it was the first time I'd used it and I
was amazed!

The ability to search actual book contents on Amazon.com is a fairly new feature. It became
available two or three months ago. From what I have read in the news, many book publishers are
against the idea. I do not blame them. I suspect this feature will either end entirely or be
paired back soon because it does really violate copyright laws, in my opinion.

How is this different than what happens every day in bookstores? People walk in, pick up books and
start reading. You could argue that computer access allows easier copying. But a customer could also
circumvent copyright by bringing a digicam or pocketable scanner into a bookstore.

The main differences for the Amazon store is (a) the convenience factor, and (b) that users can
perform computerized searches within the texts of the books. Maybe that poses new issues for
copyright law.

--
Julian Vrieslander

<[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

The ability to search actual book contents on Amazon.com is a fairly new

feature. It

Quoted message said:

became available two or three months ago. From what I have read in the

news, many

Quoted message said:

book publishers are against the idea. I do not blame them. I suspect this

feature

Quoted message said:

will either end entirely or be paired back soon because it does really

violate

Quoted message said:

copyright laws, in my opinion.

Tough call for the publishers. Not that much different from being able to browse in a bookstore and
those of us who read will most probably want to own the book anyway.

Julian Vrieslander said:

In article said:

Anthony said:

The ability through Amazon to look inside many of their books seems to me an awesome research
tool. For example there was a recent thread in which the OP wanted info about bouillabaisse; I
went to Amazon, looked up the Oxford Companion to Food and was able to bring up the piece on
bouillabaisse. Maybe this is old hat to some of you, but it was the first time I'd used it and I
was amazed!

The ability to search actual book contents on Amazon.com is a fairly new feature. It became
available two or three months ago. From what I have read in the news, many book publishers are
against the idea. I do not blame them. I suspect this feature will either end entirely or be
paired back soon because it does really violate copyright laws, in my opinion.

How is this different than what happens every day in bookstores? People walk in, pick up books and
start reading. You could argue that computer access allows easier copying. But a customer could
also circumvent copyright by bringing a digicam or pocketable scanner into a bookstore.

The main differences for the Amazon store is (a) the convenience factor, and (b) that users can
perform computerized searches within the texts of the books. Maybe that poses new issues for
copyright law.

That is a fact. Saw a man cribbing notes on recipes from a book in CostCo recently. Laying them into
a PDA. Wonder how many times someone has done the same using a phone and leaving the recipe as a
message or a a voice memo.

jim

Julian Vrieslander said:

How is this different than what happens every day in bookstores? People walk in, pick up books and
start reading. You could argue that computer access allows easier copying. But a customer could
also circumvent copyright by bringing a digicam or pocketable scanner into a bookstore.

People have to actually visit a bookstore in person, find the book they have in mind, sit down, and
read through it. Online, this can all be done from one's home and many people can review the
contents of the same book at the same time. In a bookstore, the browsing is limited to the number of
books the store has in stock and browsing more than a few minutes is also not permitted in many
bookstores.

Quoted message said:

The main differences for the Amazon store is (a) the convenience factor, and (b) that users can
perform computerized searches within the texts of the books. Maybe that poses new issues for
copyright law.

Yup, and not to mention that browsing via Amazon.com makes books available to a wider group of
people. Copying text illegally from what's online also becomes trivial, such as copying a recipe
from a particular cookbook.

Anthony said:

Tough call for the publishers. Not that much different from being able to browse in a bookstore
and those of us who read will most probably want to own the book anyway.

Actually, it is very different in a few ways. Most importantly, illegal copying of text from a book
becomes easy via Amazon.com's new search feature. One can sit and write down selected parts of a
book from a bookstore, but that requires time and effort.

Quoted message said:

Anthony said:

The ability through Amazon to look inside many of their books seems to me an awesome research
tool. For example there was a recent thread in which the OP wanted info about bouillabaisse; I
went to Amazon, looked up the Oxford Companion to Food and was able to bring up the piece on
bouillabaisse. Maybe this is old hat to some of you, but it was the first time I'd used it and I
was amazed!

The ability to search actual book contents on Amazon.com is a fairly new feature. It became
available two or three months ago. From what I have read in the news, many book publishers are
against the idea. I do not blame them. I suspect this feature will either end entirely or be paired
back soon because it does really violate copyright laws, in my opinion.

They would have to have the publishers perission to print any part of the book, especially
electronically. I worked for a bookstore that did this (Computer Literacy Bookshops, BTW) to some
extent, but only the tables of contents. Even for that we had to get the publishers permission,
otherwqise it was clearly illegal.

If Amazon is making portions of books avaiulable electronically, they obviously have the publishers
(or copyright holders) permission. There's no way around that and I'm sure Amazon wouldn't
flagrantly violate copyright laws like that.

Is tere an example of a particular publisher that has vcoiced opposition to their works being made
available in this fashion?

BTW: I have the Oxford Companion to Food and it's an excellent book. Lots of info here not available
anywhere else on the net.

-sw

"Steve Wertz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The ability to search actual book contents on Amazon.com is a fairly new

feature. It

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

became available two or three months ago. From what I have read in the

news, many

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

book publishers are against the idea. I do not blame them. I suspect this

feature

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

will either end entirely or be paired back soon because it does really

violate

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

copyright laws, in my opinion.

They would have to have the publishers perission to print any part of the book, especially
electronically. I worked for a bookstore that did this (Computer Literacy Bookshops, BTW) to some
extent, but only the tables of contents. Even for that we had to get the publishers permission,
otherwqise it was clearly illegal.

If Amazon is making portions of books avaiulable electronically, they obviously have the
publishers (or copyright holders) permission. There's no way around that and I'm sure Amazon
wouldn't flagrantly violate copyright laws like that.

Exactly! Amazon isn't exactly Kazaa. This is a major and public company; they wouldn't put up
content like this unless they had permission.

I've played with this feature a little. It's not available on all books, and typically only brings
up a handful of page at time when you do the word search. For most reading purposes, this little
feature would make it a pain.. They do have the table of contents and indexs, which IMO, is nice to
see before you buy.

"DRB" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Exactly! Amazon isn't exactly Kazaa. This is a major and public company; they wouldn't put up
content like this unless they had permission.

I've played with this feature a little. It's not available on all books, and typically only brings
up a handful of page at time when you do the

word

Quoted message said:

search. For most reading purposes, this little feature would make it a pain.. They do have the
table of contents and indexs, which IMO, is nice

to

Quoted message said:

see before you buy.

I agree. Its main use would be for reference books so publishers of others probably don't have much
to worry about.