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  3. Amazon is changing what is written in books

Amazon is changing what is written in books

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  • yogurtwrong@lemmy.worldY [email protected]

    Is there a way to donate to the authors? Because I think pirating and then donating the money (directly) to the author is much more ethical than putting a megacorp or a publisher in between

    Even better if you send it with something like Monero which doesn't even put the bank between you and the author

    V This user is from outside of this forum
    V This user is from outside of this forum
    [email protected]
    wrote on last edited by
    #176

    You mean the authors would actually earn money instead of the "publisher"? How unfair! /s

    When mist books were made of paper, the publishers job was quite the deal including printing, delivering, stocks, pulp the rests etc. So they took the lions share of the price together with the bookstore and the author got maybe 10-15% from the final price.

    Today it's just theft.

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    • B [email protected]

      Uh, title is a bit clickbaity, editorialized. Amazon isn't changing books yet, they are planning to make it possible for publishers to do so, I think, and also recoking ownership. And the video is not great either.

      C This user is from outside of this forum
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      wrote on last edited by
      #177

      Amazon hasn't changed the content of books yet but publishers already have changed them and that is part of the issue.

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      • T [email protected]

        The man who made that video is annoying. The story he read out was from the twits by Roald dahl, it was a few years back that those changes were made. Dahl was a great author but wasn’t a very pc person , his family have had to apologise for his anti semitism. So whoever is in charge of his works wanted to make them more modern and less insulting which misses the point of Dahl but anyway.
        They’ve done it with Enid blyton books too. In one of hers they have a dog called the n word so probably more necessary with her work lol.

        All amazon have done is update the digital edition to the match the latest edition. There’s a million things to hate Amazon for you don’t have to make things up. And also if you want books that can’t be altered buy a paper book, you own them and they don’t run out of electricity.

        V This user is from outside of this forum
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        wrote on last edited by
        #178

        I'm not saying you should call anyone a removed but you americans sure have some strange problems with words if you can't even put it in writing.

        Should we censor words like Nazi, Hitler, Accident, Hate, Rape, and so on? Who decides the approved words? How do you even transcribe events correctly?

        It's like peopke think that there is nothing bad done if we just don't talk about it.

        Smh

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        • engineergaming@feddit.nlE [email protected]

          Or DRMless digital. But yeah, they need to coexist with paper ones.

          A This user is from outside of this forum
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          wrote on last edited by
          #179

          DRMless digital is great - I have a calibre library of thousands - but still more vulnerable.

          Canticle of Lebowitz is a great post apocalyptic novel. After the nukes, Catholic monasteries preserve the ancient tradition of copying down manuscripts. Text doesn’t require any form of infrastructure.

          There are also many texts/other media that are not available in any digital format. Obscure or older. For as much of an Information Age we are in, a lot of knowledge is being lost through neglect.

          engineergaming@feddit.nlE 1 Reply Last reply
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          • jerkface@lemmy.caJ [email protected]

            So, Google before the IPO.

            C This user is from outside of this forum
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            wrote on last edited by
            #180

            Perfect is the enemy of good.

            Would you rather people switch to non google services or think that since they are all equally evil they might as well keep using the same service.

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            • T [email protected]

              They also treat artists like shit. I switched over to Tidal simply to get access to Joanna Newsom's music, as she won't tolerate Spotify's terms. Tidal isn't much better, but it is slightly.

              I was looking forward to blockchain cutting out the middle man in paying artists. Too bad it has so far not happened that way.

              C This user is from outside of this forum
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              wrote on last edited by
              #181

              Block chain was ruined by the early adopters.

              I really like Tidals algorithm for new music. I struggle to find new music I like so find it immensely helpful and it is much better than spotifys.

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              • A [email protected]

                DRMless digital is great - I have a calibre library of thousands - but still more vulnerable.

                Canticle of Lebowitz is a great post apocalyptic novel. After the nukes, Catholic monasteries preserve the ancient tradition of copying down manuscripts. Text doesn’t require any form of infrastructure.

                There are also many texts/other media that are not available in any digital format. Obscure or older. For as much of an Information Age we are in, a lot of knowledge is being lost through neglect.

                engineergaming@feddit.nlE This user is from outside of this forum
                engineergaming@feddit.nlE This user is from outside of this forum
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                wrote on last edited by
                #182

                The overwhelming majority of my library is actually not digital-native - rather, pdf or djvu scans. I should really contribute to Libgen by scanning some of my library.

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                • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.worksV [email protected]

                  Well that and the fact that some of us define better in such ways that others think may be worse. For example there was a trend some years back where Instagram models were damaging Joshua trees, I am of the complete and unshakable opinion that their blood shouldve water a new Joshua tree and their corpse reduced to mulch for said tree. I aint got nothing against whoring oneself out after all money is money but hurting the Joshua trees is a worthy of death.

                  N This user is from outside of this forum
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                  wrote on last edited by
                  #183

                  Instagram isn't for sex is it?

                  vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.worksV 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • R [email protected]

                    Not exactly aphantasia, though some kinds of imagination are close to that for me. Rather that something remote is very hard to imagine, while triggers, like sounds and smells and physical feelings and harmonic progressions, make something very easy to imagine.

                    So if I know that I have to do something or else my head rolls off, the deadline being in 3 hours, I won't be as concentrated as the typical person.

                    N This user is from outside of this forum
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                    wrote on last edited by
                    #184

                    That's interesting, I'd never heard of that before. I know that people who are aphantasic often still dream with vivid mental images, so, it like they aren't able to access them consciously and maybe the triggers help you in a similar way.

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                    • T [email protected]

                      The man who made that video is annoying. The story he read out was from the twits by Roald dahl, it was a few years back that those changes were made. Dahl was a great author but wasn’t a very pc person , his family have had to apologise for his anti semitism. So whoever is in charge of his works wanted to make them more modern and less insulting which misses the point of Dahl but anyway.
                      They’ve done it with Enid blyton books too. In one of hers they have a dog called the n word so probably more necessary with her work lol.

                      All amazon have done is update the digital edition to the match the latest edition. There’s a million things to hate Amazon for you don’t have to make things up. And also if you want books that can’t be altered buy a paper book, you own them and they don’t run out of electricity.

                      S This user is from outside of this forum
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                      wrote on last edited by
                      #185

                      Wait, if you have the old edition on your kindle, do they reach into your kindle and change what is there? Or do they just change the version in the store to the new edition, preferably with a new ISBN, if Kindles have ISBN's?

                      I remember about the Roald Dahl thing and it seemed pretty clear which edition people would be getting. And some of this stuff (according to another internet poster I mean) may have been intended to keep the books in copyright longer rather than to merely mess with the content. Blyton died in 1968 so her stuff could enter the public domain in the next few decades otherwise. That's nefarious too.

                      I remember for sure that Huckleberry Finn had the N word. Maybe little kids shouldn't be reading it, I'm cool with that, though I read it as a kid myself. But grown-ups who do read it can deal with an unexpurgated version.

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                      • N [email protected]

                        Instagram isn't for sex is it?

                        vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.worksV This user is from outside of this forum
                        vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.worksV This user is from outside of this forum
                        [email protected]
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #186

                        Not directly, but plenty of models are basically trying to get work from rich coomers and what not. On the more extreme levels it gets pretty fucking horrific, if ya want to know how bad it can get look up Instagram models who whore travel to the UAE or Dubai. Mind you you'll probably want to turn Arabia into glass.

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                        • flyingsquid@lemmy.worldF [email protected]

                          Dahl was a great author but wasn’t a very pc person , his family have had to apologise for his anti semitism.

                          That is putting it very mildly.

                          "There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere. Even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”

                          He said that in *checks notes* 1971.

                          Worse, it was in response to criticism to an article he wrote that was justifiably criticizing Israel at a time when it wasn't so popular to do so. And when he was accused of the old "you're anti-Israel, so you're anti-semitic" nonsense, he decided to go, "hell yeah I am!"

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                          wrote on last edited by
                          #187

                          Oof

                          He'd probably like today's politics, it seems fashionable to just lean into anything bad someone says about you.

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                          • K [email protected]

                            And also if you want books that can’t be altered buy a paper book

                            The books on my 1st generation kindle have been there 15 years unchanged. Just don't connect devices to the internet that don't need to be connected to the internet.

                            The "internet of things" that was sold to us is just a way for corporations to exert more control. I am pro-technology. I think an ebook reader is infinitely more useful and valuable than a paper book - I can fit tens of thousands of books on my Kindle, more than I could read in a lifetime, and a full charge lasts more than a month at a time.

                            I can use whatever font I want, I can scale the size to what I want. I can change the margins, place bookmarks, gives a % of how far I am in a book, skip to chapters, etc.

                            Like, it's objectively better than a book.

                            But it doesn't need to be connected to the internet.

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                            wrote on last edited by
                            #188

                            Agreed. And alternatives exist, like Kobo

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                            • C [email protected]

                              There's not a lot of great options for buying eBooks outside of amazon imo. There are some options out there but so many people self-publish exclusively on amazon you very well could be better buying off physical copies (which are somehow often cheaper) and legally backing up your books by finding downloads.

                              Here is a link for some that you can but online though.

                              S This user is from outside of this forum
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                              wrote on last edited by
                              #189

                              Here is a link for some that you can but online though.

                              Thanks!

                              When it comes to ebooks, I generally go for Kobo, which seems to be Amazon's stiffest competition, but I definitely prefer to support DRM-free where I can.

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                              • J [email protected]

                                For sure, thanks!
                                https://libro.fm/referral?rf_code=lfm723891

                                M This user is from outside of this forum
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                                wrote on last edited by
                                #190

                                I decided to do the subscription today so you should see at least one referral coming your way. Thanks, again, for the suggestion!

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                                • M [email protected]

                                  I decided to do the subscription today so you should see at least one referral coming your way. Thanks, again, for the suggestion!

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                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #191

                                  Appreciate it! The last audiobook I picked up from Libro is Kara Swisher's "Burn Book". Not sure if it's your thing, but was totally worth it for understanding more personal context around the big Tech CEOs from the last 25 years.

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                                  • J [email protected]

                                    Appreciate it! The last audiobook I picked up from Libro is Kara Swisher's "Burn Book". Not sure if it's your thing, but was totally worth it for understanding more personal context around the big Tech CEOs from the last 25 years.

                                    M This user is from outside of this forum
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                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #192

                                    Always down for a good recommendation. I picked up Black Pill. To start.

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