An extraordinary day of BoingBoing blogging... first check out Why Publishing Should Send Fruit baskets to Google by Cory Doctorow. Here's a taste:
Some day, electronic texts will substitute for print books: the convergence of superior technology and an audience raised to read off-screen will make treeware editions into luxury items and white elephants, the way that oil-paintings are today. It's certain to me that books will be largely represented as bits in the near future. It's likewise certain that bits will never, ever get any harder to copy than they are today. From here on in, barring nuclear holocaust, bits will only get cheaper and easier to copy, period. Anyone who thinks bits will get harder to copy is either not paying attention or kidding himself or kidding you.
It's not all valentines for Google at BB today; Chairman Cory also has Google Video DRM: Why is Hollywood more important than users?, and there is Xeni Jardin's up-to-the-minute coverage of Google protests by Tibetan exiles.
On a related issue, BB points to a great rant on John Battelle's Searchblog, Never Poke a Dragon While It's Eating:
Until the person leading this country values human rights over appeasement, and decides to lead on this issue, we're never going to make any progress. Congress can call hearings, and beat up Yahoo, Google and the others for doing what everyone else is doing, but in the end, it's not GYMA's fault, nor, as much as I wish they'd take it on, is it even their problem. It's our government's problem. Since when is China policy somehow the job of private industry?
Amen, brother!
Working on a rundown of a few dead tree magazines... will post when ready!
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