The Sword and Laser

The one thing that would drive me to book piracy is the complete and utter lack of ebooks available in a library-fashion. As someone with a budget, I just cannot afford to purchase a new ebook every time I want to read something and rely on the library as a resource. I have had many a book that I thought would be awesome and worthy of my hard earned pennies, only to discover it wasn't as awesome as I had thought. Even though I've come to terms with the fact that it's 2012 and I don't have a flying car (it'd probably be out of my budget anyway), I am often infuriated by the lack of ebook titles available to check out for Kindle. I love my Kindle and hold it responsible for rekindling my love of reading after many years of stagnating (sorry, pun not intended but I couldn't come up with a better word). However, if I want to check out an ebook title through my library, I have to wait for months either because the third party company (Overdrive) didn't deem the title popular enough to purchase a license OR they only purchased one license and ten people are already in line ahead of me. In a world where library's have some options for purchasing print titles, to be relegated to one and only one way to get ebook titles is frustrating. AND you can only check out four titles at a time. Amazon's Kindle Owners Lending Library is similarly a joke - most of the titles are awful and you can only check out one at a time (and I'm fairly sure you're limited to once a month for that one time).

And let's not even begin to talk about the price of ebooks. In a world where I can find titles in print at multiple venues on sale or for cheap, to have to pay full price for an ebook is just out of the question. Given how little effort goes into making a computer file, to price them on the same scale as something that is printed is ridiculous.

Disclaimer: Despite all of my whining, I have only ever pirated three books - two as ebook copies of books that I already own, because I couldn't justify spending the money to buy Kindle copies (and couldn't fit in my suitcase), and one that was a book I was so excited for, I couldn't wait until payday. I also rarely buy ebooks - most of the ebooks I have are Kindle Singles (generally self published and priced at the very affordable 99 cents) or free books.

Was there a problem with the upload? don't seem to be able to download the episode.

nevermind. issue on my end........carry on.

The ants at 33 mins are the first signs of the alien invasion.

Star Trek
I'd say that the best Star Trek is DS9. Of course this is highly subjective. It is a little darker and there are a bigger cast of returning characters.

Spoilers
The best episode is "In the pale moonlight" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPocxGUWMxM&feature=related
which includes our favourite tailor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVV-8f1kOvE
and a bartender who's more interesting than Whoopi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vljqKj-Lz-E

ST Next Generation had a bad first season a semi-crappy second season. Then they got better for every season except for the last seaon which was horrible.

If pirating IS okay then the book pirate shouldn't be ashamed to be exposed, right?

I think Goodkind is justified. Pirating may be inevitable but that doesn't make it okay.
Pirating is stealing. It's illegal and immoral regardless of how common it is.

A novel takes years of work and often years to get published. When one finally gets published authors deserve to get the stingy royalties from every copy of their book even best selling authors like Goodkind.

BTW I really enjoy your podcasts and videocasts. Thank you.

Do you think people are more likely to pirate when they believe they can do so and remain anonymous? By pulling back the veil and showing that people can be exposed for their illegal and unscrupulous activity, perhaps this is a better deterrent than DRM.

I am back and catching up on all the stuff I have missed so I can only be a month or two months behind. I am torn by my desire to see an author rewarded for their efforts against my desire to see the new technology thrive and grow. Certainly it is well within Mister Goodkind's rights to call out one of the people whom he thinks is stealing his work and freely distributing to engender a sense of shame but ultimately that policy is defeated by a bunch of people not capable of being shamed by their behavior.

The polygamy of data storage, data transmission and data distribution is too great to put the genie back in the bottle so the effort has to be to create a sense of responsibility within the various communities throughout the internet where peoples hard work is not taken for granted as something other people are then entitled too.

On a lighter note since I have just eliminated the other two paragraphs I was writing I found the sudden out burst of "Ants" hilarious and the veiled hint that those ants might be a byproduct of the consumption of Absinthe even funnier.

While I might not always agree with either of your views at times I still enjoy listening to the podcast and watching the videos when I have time to do so as I scramble madly not to at least keep falling further behind on all the things I try to keep up on.

PS I am torn on which Star Trek Series I would recommend as there are clunkers in all of them.

I just want to say that I think it sucks that you guys are trying to use Stanislaw Lem's name with such a negative connotation.

I'm not saying you shouldn't criticise his work but I'm sure you know writers that are a lot worst than him and they would be much more suitable for this.

Why Lem? Because you've tried to read a single book of his and you couldn't finish it? Is that reason enough for that?

Anyway, I hope this "lem" thing doesn't catch on...