On: Company Scans Your Books For a Dollar – Ship ‘Em I...

[kwamenum86]

printed, sold, shipped to this company, scanned, and then resold

[Bud → kwamenum86]

Not resold as physical books, no...since they cut the spine off the book so that they can scan it.

Resold as PDF files? Not by this company, anyway...I don't think that business model will work out legally.

Resold by shady third parties? Maybe.

Copied and bittorrented? Definitely.

[gwern → Bud]

> Resold as PDF files? Not by this company, anyway...I don't think that business model will work out legally.

I wonder. If the company holds onto the PDF and just sends out that PDF whenever someone mails in a book already scanned, isn't this the equivalent of those music services which simply make you prove through uploading music that you already have a copy and then give you access to their one stored version of that song? I think this has also been done with DVDs as well. So why not books?

[algorias → gwern]

Would be interesting to try sending in a book with notes on the margins, see if they get preserved.

[eru → algorias]

If only this service would have been around in Fermat's time.

[roryokane → gwern]

I hope not, because books, unlike DVDs and music, can be modified by the readers. What if I want my handwritten notes in the margins also scanned?

[wmf → gwern]

Weren't all those music lockers sued into oblivion? If they're smart, this company will take the hint.

[orijing → wmf]

You mean like Apple iCloud?