The document discusses the threats that digital rights management (DRM) poses to readers' rights with ebooks. It argues that DRM restricts consumers' control over their devices and purchases, threatens fair use and privacy, and limits sharing and libraries' ability to provide access. The document proposes a Readers' Bill of Rights for Digital Books that guarantees the ability to retain, archive, transfer and print purchased ebooks using open formats on various hardware. It encourages actions like choosing DRM-free options and informing publishers that DRM is opposed.

1. The Rights of Readers and the Threat of the KindleMatthew GoinsIndependent TechnologistAlycia SellieBrooklyn College LibraryACRL Annual 2011Our ACRL hashtag: #readersrights

2. Our Inspiration:“The Right to Read” by Richard Stallman

3. “Freedom to Read Statement” by the American Library Association

4. The Free Software Movement

5. The “Five Laws of Library Science” by S.R. Ranganathan

6. The Free Culture Movement

7. Open Access Publishing

8. The Free Culture MovementTechnological Changesin the History of the Book

9. Electronic Books: The Latest Book Technology

10. Why are Electronic Books Appealing? (a short list)Speedy delivery of materials (downloads vs. physical delivery)

11. No physical object that takes up space

12. Full text can easily be searched/analyzed/edited

13. An item won’t be misplaced, stolen or vandalized

14. An ebook reading device can contain an entire library of materials

15. Ebook devices make collections mobile We’re not Smelling the Books. Important aspects related toebooks that we’re not focusing on in this talk:Preferences between ink on paper vs. reading from a screen

16. Aesthetic issues

17. Page Numbers

18. “Lendling” or short-term sharing between personal collections (via DRM)ONGOING PERFORMANCE BY RACHEL MORRISON: SMELLING THE BOOKS

19. We’re Interested in Rights, not FeaturesIn this project, we’re focusing on: Readers as people, more so than readers as hardware

20. Examining how our rights are preserved—or lost—as books go digital

21. Shaping, for the better, the future of ebooks (in libraries—andoverall)What is an Ebook?An ebook is a digital file, or a collection of digital files. Open Formats: ePub, HTML, Plain Text, PostScript

22. Proprietary Formats: Mobi, AZW, etc.Ebook ReadingDevices(are Computers)

23. The Problem with Digital Books:Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)

24. What is DRM?“DRM” = Digital Rights/Restrictions Management.DRM controls access to digital content and restricts the functionality of devices.DRM relies on two forms of secrecy; one is the encryption key, the other is the proprietary code that the hardware executes. As the end user, the key that is being used to encrypt and decrypt content is a secret that is kept from you. The internal functioning of the hardware you are using is likewise kept secret. If the user could find out either of these secrets (the key or what the machine is doing) the DRM would be broken. In many cases, breaking DRM is considered a criminal act.

25. Digital Restrictions Affect:Control over Hardware/Freedom to Tinker

26. Consumer Protection

27. Privacy

28. Fair Use

29. Sharing“In essence, DRM treats the Information user as attacker on her own computer, blocking uses of information undesired by the provider, regardless of whether the information object is legally owned and whether the use in question is otherwise legally permissable.”--Jason Puckett “Digital Rights Management as Information Access Barrier”

30. DRM restricts ourControl over Hardware and Freedom to Tinker

31. DRM is at odds with consumer protection via troublesome End User License Agreements (EULAS)

32. DRM restricts Fair UseDevices should not Control Us.Scholarship should not Criminalize Us.

33. DRM threatens our Privacy and the Freedom to Read

34. DRM restricts Sharing (and Threatens Libraries)

35. The Two Main CommercialModels for Digital Books(Both Rely on DRM)

36. Lending Tethered Devices

37. Problems and Concerns with Current Library Ebook ModelsAlmost All Ebook Vendors use DRM

38. Limited Printing

39. Caged vs. Free Range DownloadingAdobe Digital Editions = DRM

40. There’s no such thing as “Minimal DRM”

41. Simultaneous Readers and “Checked Out” Ebooks

42. Rental vs. Ownership

43. Disappearing Books, Diminishing Budgets, and Permanent Collections

44. How Ebook models are different from electronic journal subscriptions

45. The Digital Divide

46. http://ushep.commons.gc.cuny.edu/

47. Connectivity Problems and Lack of Access to Technology can translate into Academic Barriers

48. In Summary, Our Concerns about Current Library Ebook Models:DRM restricts our ability to:PrintDownloadUse Texts with Others and CollaborateRetain and Archive our PurchasesMake Information Accessible to our Patrons(Or anything else the vendor/publisher would like to restrict…)

49. The Results ofDigital Book Restrictions: A Few Horror Stories

50. DRM Horror Story #1: The Amazon Kindle

51. It’s not just the Kindle that Threatens Readers’ Rights…

52. DRM Horror Story #2: Harper Collins

53. “Conglomeritis”

54. http://boycottharpercollins.com

55. Why Retain only the Negative Features of Print Books? i.e. Scarcity, Fragility

56. What’s the Solution?

57. The Readers’ Bill of Rights for Digital Books*As readers of traditional print materials, we are already guaranteed all of these rights--and we should not be denied them due to the medium in which we are reading.