Online bookstore browser reading mode 

amazon.com has a introduced new feature called "look inside". It allows a potential buyer to view scanned pages of the book including:

• dust jacket covers and flaps;
• introductory pages of the book;
• the table of contents;
• multi-page excerpt from the book.

Roger Ebert say thumbs down 

Don't Confuse Fans With Pirates by Roger Ebert

This year, Universal's music division plans to use a new copy-protection scheme that excludes its discs from being played at all on "Macs, DVD players, and CD-compatible video game consoles." This according to Peter Cohen of MacCentral, who also reports that the plan will block discs from being copied to other CDs or being saved to the hard drives of most PCs in the MP3 format. The first disc to get this treatment is More Fast and Furious: Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture, a title that will live in infamy.

That the CD itself has been ripped off from other CDs (it is a compilation of tracks having little connection to the movie or one another) is a delightful irony. That Universal has copy-protected it, and blocked out Macs and DVD players altogether, has to be the worst marketing decision in consumer electronics since the original DivX format (which was Circuit City's widely hated, intrusive pay-per-view system). It confuses fans with pirates. My guess is that no musician or band still actively engaged in trying to build an audience will want to come anywhere near it. [read more]

It may not seem important or relevant--but it is 

Bleak future looms if you don't take a stand by Dan Gillmor

This is a quiz about your future. It's about how you view some basic elements of the emerging Digital Age.

1. Do you care if a few giant companies control virtually all entertainment and information?

2. Do you care if they decide what kinds of technological innovations will reach the marketplace?

3. Would you be concerned if they used their power to compile detailed dossiers on everything you read, listen to, view and buy?

4. Would you find it acceptable if they could decide whether what you write and say could be seen and heard by others?

Those are no longer theoretical questions. They are the direction in which America is hurtling.

Media conglomerates are in a merger frenzy. Telecommunications monopolies are creating a cozy cartel, dividing up access to the online world. The entertainment industry is pushing for Draconian controls on the use and dissemination of digital information.

If you're not infuriated by these related trends, you should at least be worried. If you're neither, stop reading this column. You're a sheep, content to be herded wherever these giants wish. [read more]

A cure, worse than the disease 

Guard Copyrights, Don't Jail Innovation by Alex Salkever

U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) has earned a reputation over the years as a fearless contrarian, speaking the truth as he sees it. So it was a bit of a surprise to hear his folksy doublespeak on Mar. 21, when the senator solemnly introduced the Consumer Broadband & Digital Television Promotion Act.

The legislation would mandate that copyright-protection mechanisms be embedded in PCs, handheld computers, CD players, and anything else that can play, record, or otherwise manipulate digital information. The law's stated goal is to stop rampant digital piracy. ...

... In this case, however, the proposed cure is far worse than the disease. Introducing copyright-protection mechanisms into almost all digital hardware clearly flouts the interests of consumers. And it's more evidence that, when it comes to delivering content in the 21st century, the entertainment industry is hell-bent on stifling technology, rather than using it in ways that eventually could become highly profitable. Hollings' proposal hands control over the innovative forces that drive tech development to some of the most change-resistant companies in the world. [read more]