Comments on: Mormon Studies on a Kindle?

By: Kari

Kari — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:42:00 +0000

So a bit of research and I learned how to disable the “clipping limit” for a book. It’s very easy to do. Now I’ve just got to test it out. It doesn’t disable or crack the DRM, so I’m pretty sure it’s not illegal. It’s just a setting in the metadata of the file.

By: mlu

mlu — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 04:54:30 +0000

I think the amount you can clip is probably a percentage of the book, but I would think I could just find out. I could clip less–rationing–if I knew. Amazon says the policy is set by individual publishers, but they don’t tell you what the policy is, even when you’ve bought a book.

I understand the reason. With unlimited clipping I can easily liberate the book into a doc and send it wherever. I’m not quibbling with the policy but with the secrecy.

Yes, research files and for quoting in other writing.

You end up with just a text file you can download to your computer containing any quotes you’ve clipped. My practice has been to underline as I read, then to go back and type what I’ve underlined into a text document, then. . .but it was so time intensive that I only got a fragment of the books I read captured in a way most useful to me.

I read a book today and now have 28 pages of clippings, which are the core thoughts I want to use for other purposes.

The ability to clip as I read was the main reason I bought a kindle. I read quite a lot online but I’m often frustrated reading paper books because I want notes in digital form when I’m done.

By: Kari

Kari — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:15:33 +0000

Just out of curiosity, what do you do with your clippings after you’ve clipped them? Is it so you can include extensive quotes in other documents? Research files?

By: Kari

Kari — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:09:52 +0000

mlu,

Since I’ve obviously never clipped enough, I’m wondering how large your file of clippings became. Have you copied it to your computer and looked at it? Were both books bought from Amazon, or did you obtain them elsewhere? I assume both had DRM.

I’ve read online that the clipping amount is set as a percentage of the book size, and that each book can be different, so it’s not a Kindle setting, but it’s encoded in the book. I’m going to look at a couple of my books and see if I can figure out how to change the setting.

By: mlu

mlu — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:51:56 +0000

Kari, um. I don’t know.

I’m using a Kindle 2.

The book that was clipped badly–when I was about a third of the way through was On the Rule of Law by Brian Tamanaha. It’s a 2003 copyright from Cambridge U Press. I just finished Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart (2009 copyright from Yale U Press) and clipped notes all the way to the end without a problem. I was, admittedly, more sparing because I had no idea how much I could clip.

By: Kari

Kari — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:29:49 +0000

wreddyornot,

Don’t know about the legality of what you describe, but who cares? If you’re willing to tear your physical books apart, and don’t share the electronic versions, no one will ever know. I have always considered unauthorized distribution to be the reason for copyright laws, so in my no-legal-training opinion, even if you’re breaking the letter of the law, you’re not breaking the spirit of the law.

By: Doc Sarvis

Doc Sarvis — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:47:12 +0000

Here’s an informal list from my Kindle (sorry that I am not providing links but you can find this stufff on Amazon pretty easily); except for the items that I mark with an asterix (*), everything here is either free or under $5. Many are free.

Triple Combination with 1830 BoM
NIV Bible
KJV Bible
Institutes of the Christian Religion – Calvin
Jesus the Christ
The Prodigal God and The Reason for God – Keller*
Autobiography of Parley P Pratt
Claiming Christ – Millett*
The Refiner’s Fire – Brooke*
A Different jesus? – Millett*
Works of Jonathan Edwards
Rough Stone Rolling*
By the Hand of Mormon – Givens*
Under the Prophet in Utah – Cannon (technically anti-Mormon but paints a very interesting picture of the 1890s church – free)
Mormons and the Bible – Barlow*
Works of Augustine of Hippo
ESV Bible
The Quran
Mormon Settlement in Arizona
The Victory of Reason and Discovering God – Stark

By: Doc Sarvis

Doc Sarvis — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:38:53 +0000

I’ve been doing a lot of religion-based reading using my Kindle (Mormon-based and otherwise), and while I agree that there is a major dearth of Mormon studies material avaiable, there is a lot of interesting stuff, much of it free or at very low cost. List to come…

By: wreddyornot

wreddyornot — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:42:28 +0000

Over against having only a license to the limited use of a DRM-protected text with a book purchased through Amazon or some other ebook vendor, I wonder about one’s right to take acquired conventional paper books–over a lifetime a person can buy a lot of them–removing their spines via a guillotine cutter, and feeding them through a resonably efficient scanner, applying OCR to extract the formatted text electronically, making any necessary edits to them that might make them more accessable but doesn’t change the words, etc., including adding bookmarks and hyperlinks for, say contents and footnotes and the like, and then converting the resulting files, via say mobipocket, and ending up with backup copies of the original purchased hardcopies that can be conveniently stored on a Kindle or whatever electronic device you like. No commercial motive whatsoever, just making a backup of what you bought and ease of use, having all the conveniences of your personal library at your fingertips whereever you go? Always open. Only needs an infrequent charge to keep it going.

Any legal/ethical problems with this? In otherwords, not necessarily buying the licenses to use DRM-protected files in the form of ebooks, but having bought actual paper and converting it to ebooks?

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:39:02 +0000

I would love to have a Kindle, but I think the netbook will do it in. I have an HP netbook..it’s sweet.