Ebook Ki(nd)lling, Amazon’s bug — or fraud? Nordics can fix it. Who decides?
We’re witnessing massive abuses of digitalization as-a-fraud. Or as-injustice. One-pager⁴⁴ of the solution, IndiviDUAL books.
In 2020 The Guardian noticed¹, that “Amazon knows more than just what books I’ve read”. The Big Tech CEO’s were caught² lying in the US Senate. Google³, Facebook⁴ are called to justice already. Should we wait years longer before ‘injustice’ is called ‘fraud’ in court? Can we prevent injustice, by fixing the ‘Amazon’s bug’, that is killing ebook, Ebook Ki(nd)lling?
Who decides who decides who knows²⁴ how-to-fix it? BookOfOne³⁴ fixes it.
It’s affordable IndiviDUAL Learning book⁴⁷: Open Science⁴⁵ yet privacy preserving; co-created commonly⁴³ yet indiviDUAL-owned.
“Democracy requires Privacy as much as Freedom of Expression.” Anonymous
In my humble opinion⁵, ebook is a derogative, extrinsic antonym of a book, a logistics derivative from an ‘integral’ book-as-The-medium³⁸, misused for the fraud of deteriorating a book (the ‘HYBRID³⁷ meta-book’⁵, also called OpenEurope book, ŒBœk) into the book’s distributional-only slave. Such enslaving of an integral book allows to evil-control access to the book reading data by the book’s distributor, contrary to book’s Common Good intrinsic¹⁹ purposes: citizen Right to Information, to equitable education, thus harming SDG 4, 10.
PROBLEMS. If a book is derogated to e-book by its distributor / a publisher who’s limiting Public Goods, by anti-competitive¹⁹ protection of his incomes via contra-CSR³⁹ practices,
- then a book author, the Copyright holder, is robbed of her right to receive incomes from library loans, by leveraging the Public Lending Right⁹ (PLR)
- her incentive to participate in Common Good aims of book is diminished
- society loses access to & preservation of Culture & Learning, via non-FAIR-data⁴¹ books.
The negative consequences of ‘ebook Ki(nd)lling’ include:
- frequent cases of boycotting book sales to the public libraries³¹. Libraries⁶ gate-keeper limits²º in the USA by 5 biggest US publishers (where PLR doesn’t exist); ban of ebook sales to libraries⁴⁹ by Amazon⁵º
- non-equality of access to books in rural areas vs metropolitan area (e.g. there’s no central, but 39 regional³¹ eBook collections in Finland, though PLR exists); see draft²⁹ of Finland’s e-library⁵¹ Reform⁸, to improve library costs³º structure (⁷ slide 23), hopefully including Patron-driven acquisition⁶. We offer ŒBœks for free interlibrary loans⁶;
- non-equality of access to books in non-official-languages, e.g. for up to 40% of people living in some districts of Helsinki⁵³ and 67,000 living in Espoo⁵⁴ city:
at the end of 2022,
66,730 people, or 21.9 %, of the people residing in Espoo spoke a foreign language as their mother tongue,
495,992 people (in 2022), or 9%, live in Finland with a first language other than Finnish, Swedish or Sámi;
the number of foreign-language speakers grew by 37,950 persons in 2022 in Finland⁵⁵;
- predator (non-competitive¹⁹, non-FAIR-data⁴¹) ebook licences pricing to public libraries, 3…5 times higher than to an individual (see also other Challenges⁶);
- excessive proprietariness and complexity, surveillance vulnerabilities & privacy abuses via e-formats, via manipulative access to book reading data by ebook publishers, like via Amazon’s exclusive Kindle format, Ebook Ki(nd)lling (i.e. personal data abuse, by illegal²³ data collection¹), see also⁶ [178] , what Kobo found [179].
OEbook’s innovative business model⁵ enables FAIR royalty flows (⁷ slide 7), including to non-local authors & even from non-PLR countries (⁷ see slide 15);
—> cutting costs of book reading (⁷ see slides 20–23), for
—> Accessibility of unique²⁵-user-adjusted book³⁴ (⁷ See slides 12,13);
—> better reading Comprehension (⁷ See slides 18, 28, 30)
via PPP partnership¹º, by wrapping books into OEbook’s⁵ integral (⁷ slide 7) eco³²-jacket³³, streamlining³⁴ logistics of paper books & ebooks
- when a book in Accessible format is not available from a local library¹⁶.
SOLUTION. Let’s make ‘ebook Ki(nd)lling’ - impossible, by proclaiming the derogation of Common Good — illegal⁴⁸ practice; see IFLA’s opinion on PLR⁹.
We know how to make ebook inseparable from the integral HYBRID book⁵:
- technologically⁵, cost-effectively: unique³⁴ BookOfOne (⁷ slide 21) vs legacy book
- & enabling²⁷ CSR impact, via non-profit’s, grassroots²⁶ empowerment¹º.
First - in Finland, where 1 million € is funded⁸ for 2021 to ebook Reform. Then to the Nordic⁵² countries, to the EU; to GDPR-, CCPA-, to Human Rights-ruled world.
We know how to achieve library books Accessibility in Nordics⁵², the purpose of the Project⁸ F¡NDS™.
“Who (in Finland/Sweden/Nordics) decides who decides who knows?” © Sh. Zuboff²⁴
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¹ https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/03/amazon-kindle-data-reading-tracking-privacy
² https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/07/29/big-tech-ceo-hearing-lies/
⁵ See Abstract of https://bit.ly/oeBookHHProject
⁶ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book
⁷ http://bit.ly/oeBookSlides4Aalto . Prices at Slide 21, e.g. (8$ Amazon.uk delivery fee) https://grosvenorhousepublishing.co.uk/book-printing-prices/ (for 400 pages, full colour, paperback with dust jacket / flexible jacket)
More on flexible dust jackets: https://www.thelibrarystore.com/product/cn55-0150/book-jacket-covers
Demo of our solution for Ukrainians in Finland: https://bit.ly/oeBookLippulaivaSlide
⁸ https://bit.ly/HelsinkiLibrariesReform
⁹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Lending_Right#cite_note-8 https://web.archive.org/web/20061010081153/http://www.ifla.org/III/clm/p1/PublicLendingRigh.htm
¹º A PPP¹¹ data¹² Cooperative¹³, to empower people by MyData¹⁴ human-centric approach to personal data processing: people SEAMLESSLY access OEbook⁵ via The Next Generation Internet¹⁵, when a book in Accessible format is not available from a local library¹⁶. It is last mile printed on-demand in one copy³⁴, including FREE home delivery¹⁷ vs costly Amazon logistics²¹
¹² Example PolyPoly united: GmbH, cooperative & fund
¹³ https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Data_Cooperatives
¹⁶ https://bit.ly/oeBookButtonTweet
¹⁷ https://bit.ly/oeBookKaukoRus
¹⁹ Watch 5 min. animation video from Finnish data scientists, why data is anti-rival & data economy enables intrinsic values https://gmerits.eu/research/
²¹ https://bit.ly/AmazonBook2Finland
²² https://bit.ly/FINDSonepager
²³ https://www.stevens-bolton.com/site/insights/articles/schrems-ii
²⁴ https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/24/opinion/sunday/surveillance-capitalism.html
²⁵ “The usual course is to modify teaching methods and the educational environment to meet the specific needs of the individual with dyslexia.” (We at SmartPaper.fi/oe offer to modify printed book PLUS ebook = HYBRID book, by adjusting it to the UNIQUE user*) https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/All-Disorders/Learning-Disabilities-Information-Page#disorders-r1
*”Remember what is best for you is what is the most important. Individual variations and preferences”: see⁷ slide 12; picture³² ‘Read How YOU Want https://www.dyslexicadvantage.org/the-best-fonts-for-dyslexia/
²⁶ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassroots
²⁸ https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1202
³º “In comparison to physical books, eBooks are often sold for quite high prices, and consumers do not actually benefit from the cost reduction that comes from low printing and distribution expenses. This circumstance curbs the eBooks market’s growth potential heavily” https://www.statista.com/outlook/213/135/ebooks/finland#market-users
³¹“A quarter of domestic e-books end up somewhere other than the library” https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10583370 http://suomenkirjastoseura.fi/artikkelit/koko-kansan-e-kirjasto-miksi-tarvitsemme-valtakunnallisen-e-kirjaston/
http://bit.ly/GlobalLibraryEnergy
https://www.transkribus.org/en/blog/how-to-digitise-archival-materials-with-transkribus
³⁴ https://twitter.com/hunkelerag/status/1331985789115387905
Watch at 13:10–13:20 that BookOfOne³⁵ is a must. At 30:30–32:00 that a BookOfOne might be HYBRID. Vs. multi-million capital investments for the CENTRALIZED production of BookOfOne³⁵ welcomed at this video by Mark Hunt & Hans Gut, my colleagues from Hunkeler AG³⁶, video from USA.
Hunkeler AG is the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of the digital printing world ‘in the top performance class’, offering the world-wide-production-unifying data, Generation-8 approach⁴º, for books at this video.
Our ŒBœks DECENTRALIZED production is the low-cost alternative (see ⁷, prices at slide 21), distributed at the last mile, produced near to a library patron, what is much more economical & eco³²-viable for Long Tail books & local language markets (like most of EU nations’) vs globalization approach, like in the USA (failing in pandemics). See the Hunkeler video’s screenshot below.
³⁵ https://www.printondemand-worldwide.com/about-us/news/25-years/
³⁶ http://smartpaper.fi/en/misc/case-stories/
³⁷ (HYBRID) “medium is the message” © Marshal McLuhan³⁸ http://www.smartpaper.fi/en/smart-paper-products-and-services/technologies/information-technologies/
³⁸ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message
³⁹ https://mydata.dk/corporate-social-responsibility/
⁴º https://www.hunkeler.ch/en/generation-8/
⁴¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAIR_data
⁴² Like a tomb. “Who needs Tomb https://dyne.org/software/tomb
⁴³ https://acris.aalto.fi/ws/portalfiles/portal/35821056/ELEC_Nikander_Will_the_data_markets.pdf https://www.academia.edu/29294039/Data_as_a_common_in_the_sharing_economy_a_general_policy_proposal
⁴⁴ http://bit.ly/oeBookInclusion
⁴⁵ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_science
⁴⁶ https://innovationtactics.com/amazon-business-model-part-3-kindle/
⁴⁷ https://devpost.com/software/individualbooks
⁴⁸ “Let’s define these surveillance tools as weapons” Watch at 10:40–11:20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcrnN-A2c60&feature=youtu.be
⁵º https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/03/10/amazon-library-ebook-monopoly/
⁵¹ The new Finnish law from April 2023 made our meta-book idea viable for global PL’s & might save the US Internet Archive from litigation by publishers: 31 cents royalty is paid to book authors, via Finnish state fund, for a library loan of paper book AND of eBook. https://www.eduskunta.fi/FI/vaski/KasittelytiedotValtiopaivaasia/Sivut/LA_9+2021.aspx
UPDATE, 2023. For implementing eBook library lending royalties Finland has found the solution (eBook royalty becomes equal to royalty from a printed book lending = 0.31 € in 2023), without amending the Copyright Act. The amended Copyright Act is in force in Finland from April 3, 2023
- it allows libraries to digitise / copy books for different library tasks, via PLR (Public Lending Right law). This is similar to our solution³² under development (MVP), MyData IndiviDUALbooks (œBœks™), though œBœks™ even don’t need such Copyright Act’s novelties, for legal functioning:
https://bit.ly/oeBookTONstatement
BUT: “The availability of e-resources for libraries is still weak and this is something that needs to be changed.” https://www.kirjastot.fi/uutiset/uutiset/e-kirjastohanke-paattyy-ja-e?language_content_entity=eng
- USA. The litigation of four biggest US publishers against Internet Archive’ s Controlled Digital Lending . “We filed our opening appellate brief in Hachette v. Internet Archive (IA), reaffirming our commitment to preserving knowledge and defending the digital rights of all libraries” https://twitter.com/internetarchive/status/1735716255867248850
⁵³ https://www.helsinginuutiset.fi/paikalliset/4192177
⁵⁴ https://www.espoo.fi/en/population#population-structure-and-population-changes-17442
⁵⁵ https://stat.fi/en/publication/cl8lprraorrr20dut5a0tywm5
