Torrents

torrent: A large amount of something, especially water or rain; a heavy stream or flow. (Internet, file sharing) A set of files obtainable through a peer-to-peer network... -Wiktionary

This morning I followed a link, shared on Twitter by Kathy Ishizuka, which led me to a blog posting about Kindle e-book piracy.

Author David Carnoy explains:

"Over the months I've received news of the occasional blog post and tweets, but more recently I popped open an alert to learn that my book was being pirated--both as a separate file and part of two larger Torrents called 2,500 Retail Quality Ebooks (iPod, iPad, Nook, Sony Reader) and 2,500 Retail Quality Ebooks for Kindle (MOBI). I had the strange reaction of being both dismayed and weirdly honored that someone had selected my book to strip free of its copy-protection (DRM) and include as part of a collection of 'quality' e-books, many of which were from very good authors."

Since I am nothing if not inquisitive (a good quality for a librarian, no?), I immediately tracked down the Torrents in question. Both are hosted on a site called The Pirate Bay, which lists these stats:

• 4.924.558 registered users
  
• 29.869.780 peers (20.024.436 seeders + 9.845.344 leechers)
  
• 3.652.205 torrents

Visitors can search by genres: audio, visual, applications, games, other, or all. Their legal threats page lists a number of challenges and responses, but The Pirate Bay boasts that " 0 torrents has been removed, and 0 torrents will ever be removed."

In his posting Carnoy noted that "the rise of the iPad has spurred some of the pirating, but now the huge success of the Kindle is also leading to increased pirating... At the time of this writing, 668 people were 'seeding' the Kindle collection while 153 people were downloading it."

As a Kindle owner, I have made use of free e-book sites like ManyBooks, even downloaded free public domain and contemporary titles from Amazon. I also purchase items - the one-click shopping, which automatically delivers new e-books to my Kindle, is all too easy to use, a seductive option for a voracious reader.

I don't wish to own everything I read, however. Some books are a pleasant diversion, nothing I would pay for or return to in the future. Our local public library is, of course, a logical source for this type of material. However, the only electronic options there are audio books (which I don't like) and Overdrive e-books, which aren't compatible with the Kindle. New sites like Lendle, which claims to be "The easiest, fastest, fairest, and best way to lend and borrow Kindle™ books," may offer another alternative to buying items.

I haven't knowingly downloaded a pirated e-book, and I don't see myself transferring files via a Torrent for recreational reading. As this posting points out, not all Torrents are illegal (Facebook and Twitter use BitTorrent to distribute updates) , but "Be advised: if you are downloading music or software that you would typically have to pay for, you are likely breaking the law, thus putting yourself at risk."

There are other caveats to using Torrents.

"Several studies on BitTorrent have indicated that a large portion of files available for download via BitTorrent contain malware. In particular, one small sample indicated that 18% of all executable programs available for download contained malware. Another study claims that as much as 14.5% of BitTorrent downloads contain zero-day malware, and that BitTorrent was used as the distribution mechanism for 47% of all zero-day malware they have found." -Wikipedia

I'm not willing to risk copyright infringement and malware to access a few novels. Let the Torrent sweep through my social networking landscape; it won't be swelling my Kindle pool.

"The Mighty Hudson" by dmcordell

Me and My Kindle

I've had my Kindle for about six months now, but I've really just begun using it recently.

After a first "symbolic" purchase of The Complete Works of Jane Austen (all of her books are available for free online, but I wanted to make a statement), I didn't pick up the device again until I grabbed it to take on a train ride to Philadelphia. It's a fairly long trip, and I didn't want to run out of reading material, so I added a few titles to the Kindle and tucked it into my traveling bag.

The advantages of ebooks readers are many: they are lightweight, portable, easy to use and hold their charge for a long time. The fact that Amazon makes it so easy to buy books - one click, and my purchase is delivered to my Kindle electronically - is almost a disadvantage...certainly a temptation to an avid reader like myself! Fortunately, there are numerous sites that offer free downloads.

One of my favorite current author, Cory Doctorow, publishes his works under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license,

"which lets you share it, remix it, and share your remixes, provided that you do so on a noncommercial basis. Some people don't understand why I do this -- so check out this post if you want my topline explanation for why I do this crazy thing."

Doctorow is happy to post remixes of Little Brother ("A rousing tale of techno-geek rebellion, as necessary and dangerous as file sharing, free speech, and bottled water on a plane") as well as links to his novels and stories, via a blog.

Life with my Kindle hasn't been all smooth sailing. I found it necessary to reboot far too often, causing me to lose my place and my patience. A posting by Informania alerted me to the cause of the problem: my lovely green leather cover was the culprit. When contacted by phone, the customer service rep at Amazon pulled up my account information, offered a refund or an upgrade to the lighted model (which looks exactly the same, except for a retractable book light) and processed my order immediately. I didn't have to return the old cover; the new one arrived within a few days.

As I've said before, I don't feel that books are an either/or (paper or electronic) proposition. I still go to our local public library, continue to re-read old favorites from my bookshelf. The Kindle has just made it so much easier to carry and enjoy a personal library with me...to the table, to bed, or to more exotic locales.

Thomas Jefferson said, "I can't live without books." Well, now I don't have to.

It's NOT a Book...But It's Still Reading

While browsing the ALA fall graphics catalog, my attention was captured by a poster version of this trailer for It's A Book





It would appear, from the contents of the catalog, that the ALA equates reading for pleasure with the use of a physical book. The few computers pictured on posters or bookmarks were seemingly being employed for "research."

Although I'm a lifelong lover of printed books, I've just ordered a Kindle to use while traveling, fully anticipating that this device will increase my recreational reading rather than reduce it.

Are there lurking Luddites in the ALA organization? Shouldn't we be encouraging our students to read in any and every format?

Isn't engaging with literature what counts?


If any of you have the READ software, I'd love to see some posters of staff and students reading text via iPad, Kindle, laptop, or any other electronic device.