{"id":1887,"date":"2011-02-28T11:56:05","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T16:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/?p=1887"},"modified":"2011-02-28T11:56:05","modified_gmt":"2011-02-28T16:56:05","slug":"the-ebook-users-bill-of-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/28\/the-ebook-users-bill-of-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"The eBook User’s Bill of Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hope to write up some of my thoughts on the Harper Collins\/Overdrive controversy this week, but for now, I’m posting an eBook User’s Bill of Rights sent to me by a librarian I trust and respect greatly, Sarah Houghton-Jan<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The eBook User\u2019s Bill of Rights is a statement of the basic freedoms that should be granted to all eBook users.<\/p>\n

The eBook User\u2019s Bill of Rights<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every eBook user should have the following rights:<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks<\/p>\n

I believe in the free market of information and ideas.<\/p>\n

I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access.<\/p>\n

Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information. Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material. These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks.<\/p>\n

I am a reader. As a customer, I am entitled to be treated with respect and not as a potential criminal. As a consumer, I am entitled to make my own decisions about the eBooks that I buy or borrow.<\/p>\n

I am concerned about the future of access to literature and information in eBooks.\u00a0 I ask readers, authors, publishers, retailers, librarians, software developers, and device manufacturers to support these eBook users\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

These rights are yours.\u00a0 Now it is your turn to take a stand.\u00a0 To help spread the word, copy this entire post, add your own comments, remix it, and distribute it to others.\u00a0 Blog it, Tweet it (#ebookrights<\/a>), Facebook it, email it, and post it on a telephone pole.<\/p>\n

To the extent possible under law, the person who associated CC0<\/a> with this work has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hope to write up some of my thoughts on the Harper Collins\/Overdrive controversy this week, but for now, I’m posting an eBook User’s Bill of Rights sent to me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ebooks","category-our-digital-future"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1887"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1890,"href":"https:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1887\/revisions\/1890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meredith.wolfwater.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}