There is a lot of press published about eBooks and eBook readers, some of these devices being tablets that can do many other things and others dedicated to the one job. The popular ones seem to be the iPad (of course), Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook.
All of them are capable devices, I am sure, with plenty of features and plenty of areas where they try to be different, to give that distinction that should make the public favour them over their competitors. But there is an area where they all seem to agree – DRM.
I think it fair to say that DRM in music has been somewhat of a fiasco, with various faux pas (the Sony root kit sticks in my mind as a particularly nasty one) along the way. Many (myself included) will not buy DRM crippled music and, partly because of this, it does seem that DRM in music is starting to die, or at least its ‘features’ curtailed. If I purchased a song I believe I have the right to listen to it on any device of my choosing, be it an ipod, other player, computer, etc. Cut it to CD and listen to it in my car? Why not?
But DRM in books seems to have far more potential for malice. If I purchase a book I am at liberty to read it and then resell it. There are numerous second hand book stores around the country / world: this is not a new concept. I can also loan a book to my brother (I just checked the license in a few of my books and found that this is not prohibited). An ebook is a different beast entirely.
It could be argued that the reason we are not prevented from reselling or loaning books is because they, the publishers, don’t know how to. Well that isn’t the case with ebooks. DRM means that we can’t resell or loan the books we have bought (though I believe the Nook does allow loaning of ebooks to other Nook owners, which is a nice start). But the restrictions placed on how I read a book I have purchased are very real.
Now of course I can see that there are some real problems book publishers have in this arena – a second hand book is clearly used and thus not as “nice” as a brand new book and should therefore command less money in the market place, unlike reselling an ebook that should theoretically command the same price effectively giving me a ‘free read’. But there are answers for this that could be used in place of the draconian “though shalt not” attitude. I just feel sometimes that content providers do stuff because the could, without thinking about if they really should.
broolz restrictions are very different in that respect. Share what you want with whom you want. Share as many files as you want. We hope this lack of restriction will be a breath of fresh air in the stifling world of DRM.
Dave
Your Cloud Your Way
September 1st, 2010
August 31st, 2010
I must admit I thought it would be broolz who stole that limelight, but it seems that Diaspora has taken that mantle with an impending launch…never fear though because we are close behind them with our launch- details to follow
Your Cloud Your Way
-Sean
August 24th, 2010
You who visit us regularly- and yes there are a lot of you now (thank-you!), have realised that sometimes I have a habit of going off, and talking about topics that very few of you may wish to read about, but, in a effort to be positive, I want to let you all know how grateful we are for your support and interest in our product. The “DOWNLOAD NOW” button is going to go green this week which means you can all start downloading again and spreading the word of broolz around your communities.
Today, in a conversation with an investor, we discussed the demise of Facebook- no, it hasn’t died yet, but believe me it will do in time. Just as Google has got too big for its’ boots and is now maligned as big brother, so too will Facebook. It may take a year or 2 but it will happen, and that is when our time will come….work with us, follow our trends and help us ensure that safe, secure and community based sharing remains a mantra for all!
Your Cloud, Your Way
-Sean
August 19th, 2010
Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you
Your Cloud Your Way
-Sean
August 2nd, 2010
We have long been voicing our concern over companies and individuals putting their trust in the cloud without first completely understanding the potential consequences. Here is a sobering reminder of some of the pitfalls of doing just that, written by the founder of a small company whose “business was toast” after doing just that.
Can you trust the cloud?
Sometimes, use of the cloud is a good thing – even a great thing. But surely it is better to have control over it.
Dave
Your Cloud Your Way
July 26th, 2010
I am not an “avid” gamer, but I do like to play the occasional computer game, typically of the fps genre (first person shooter). In my time I have played many of the greats – all the Dooms, Duke Nukem, the Unreals to name but a few and, more recently, Bioshock. Loved it. Bit scary in places, but loved it. I recently finished Bioshock and decided to progress to Bioshock 2.
Oh dear.
Now from what I have seen, the game itself seems pretty good – once I managed to get it running. The installer is a shocking mess. Because, once installed, I couldn’t see any shortcut icon needed to play the game, I located the launcher in the DVD and simply created a shortcut to it on my desktop. Having to do that is bad enough, but it gets so much worse.
I ran the game from this shortcut and it told me to enter in my 20 character key. 20 Characters!!!!! In this day and age!!! Anyway, I did so. It asked me to sign in to my MS Live account in order to continue. I did so and it told me to install an update. I did so. It told me to restart the game. I did so. It told me to sign in to my MS Live account in order to continue. I did so and it told me to install an update. I did so. It told me to restart the game. I did so. It told me to sign in to my MS Live account in order to continue. I did so and it told me to install an update. I did so. It told me to restart the game. I did so.
Do you see any patterns here?
I should note that once signed in to my Live account I had to then use a browser to set up my gaming profile. That is fine, but I had to do that via a browser rather than through the game – WHY? And here’s the thing. Though my default browser is set to Google Chrome, up pops IE 8 to perform this registration process. And the first thing it says is “you need Silverlight to get the proper experience” (or words to that effect). No, thank you Microsoft, I have never and will never install Silverlight, even by these back door means.
Awful.
Once I run the game from the DVD (rather than the shortcut) things improved – I only had to go round the loop once. Now I don’t mind having to install an update and restart – absolutely fine. BUT, having to type in a 20 character key these days is rubbish. There are better ways. I cannot believe that a company such a Microsoft, with its vast financial resources, have to resort to product keys for clearly dumb activation servers these days. I know they do this with their other software too – and that doesn’t make it right – but to inflict that pain on someone’s free leisure time is just wrong. Further, having to have a MS Live account and sign in to it for a game that I plan to use in single player mode is either daft or insidious. No thank you Microsoft. Obviously that rather ridiculous bug in its install process doesn’t help matters either.
broolz uses a much more benign and intelligent activation process – and we have a fraction of the resource Microsoft does. I know Microsoft are going all out to compete with Apple in terms of usability and good looks. Well, here is a message for Mr Ballmer. You won’t do it this way!
Dave
Your Cloud Your Way
July 13th, 2010
Although not related to broolz specifically, I always find it fun to see how Google try and try again!!
http://ow.ly/2a4yG
Your Cloud Your Way
Sean
July 1st, 2010
I have just been shown a very interesting website that I wanted to share.
There is an awful lot of talk these days about our energy consumption, and whether or not we can continue using energy at our current rate. Lots of research – and words – suggest there is a heap of energy out there in various forms for us to tap into and thus there is no real need to worry. After all, we can get energy from oil, uranium (etc.), coal, the wind, the tide, the sun and crops, among others.
This website contains 3 versions of a book (html, pdf and good, old fashioned paper: the electronic versions are free) that examines just how much energy the average UK citizen uses per day and how much energy could be feasibly generated by the UK. It has been written by David MacKay FRS, a Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge. Although it is a pretty hefty piece of work running to over 300 pages, it is well worth reading by anyone with even a passing interest in the planet.
Without Hot Air
Dave
Your Cloud Your Way
June 21st, 2010
I was recently standing in a queue at my local Sainsbury’s store about to buy some groceries. Nothing particularly spectacular about that – except for the fact that this was about to be my first time using their newly introduced self service system, the idea being you can scan the groceries yourself and they would presumably trust that you weren’t trying to steal anything as you did so.
Next to me was a middle aged lady about to do her shopping.
The queue soon cleared and I found myself standing next to this lady, both of us making our purchases. Having a programming background, I understand that computers are very adept at doing exactly what you program them to do … and nothing else. Thus I could quickly see that the computer in front of me expected me to swipe the items past its scanner and place those items in a bag on the scales to the side of the scanners. I started to do so and started making progress. However, the lady to my side seemed to be having problems. I didn’t enquire too closely, but several times I heard the phrases “stupid thing”, “this is broken” and “I’m not going to use this again” repeated at a volume designed to attract attention (which she received several times from various helpful staff).
I later reflected on this whilst on a train. I am sure that this lady would, if she mentioned it to her friends, elaborate on how stupid the computer she used was. If the computer had friends and was able to converse with them, I wonder if it would relate the same story but expressing its surprise at how stupid the lady was. On one hand, computers are made to serve us and should be programmed with that usability in mind. On the other hand, people expect more and more service for less and less money.
Ultimately, it all boils down to choice, and I am sure the lady will exercise that on her next visit by getting a checkout person to scan her purchases. But I do wonder: which of the two really was the “stupid thing”?
Dave
Your Cloud Your Way
June 18th, 2010
The market for collaboration software is massive. From Box.net to Jive and Huddle there are many thousands sharing documents and files, however we are convinced that they are using technologies flawed by design.
We are not so arrogant to claim that we know everything, but in this case we are sure that our P2P model is the right model for document sharing, as opposed to a client server platform. The reasons are simple really, our P2P model is secure, needs no network administrator, is faster and less expensive, and above all is easier to maintain. Think of some of the recent, highly publicised, cases where a laptop has been stolen or a CD sent in the post and lost. All that data is then available and was likely never encrypted. With our P2P model that’s not the case because you would never have to send a CD by post, or likely have to suffer the pains of recovering data with a missing PC, since it would have been backed up (and encrypted) to your community.
So client-server or P2P: the debate will continue but one thing is for sure, we still believe P2P is the right way- just watch us go!
Your Cloud Your Way
-Sean
