Review: Shusaku's Very Best Moves

[Splatted]

Let see. Imagine a chest. With books. And locker. I can give it to anybody. Right?
I see no difference.

Lawyers do see a difference.

[Boidhre]

Let see. Imagine a chest. With books. And locker. I can give it to anybody. Right?
I see no difference.

Often we do not buy books on electronic platforms, we merely licence their usage. The licences are usually non-transferable. It's technically the same with computer games sold through Steam I think but Valve don't really care if you pass on your account to someone so long as the games remain tied to that account and not copied (they will however not help you at all if you try and get that account back). They however very much care if you're sharing an account with someone which is viewed as very different.

[palapiku]

I wonder if it is ethical to download a pirated/free/unprotected copy of a book once you actually bought the book legally. If this is ok, this should take care of many such potential problems and worries - although the exploding Sun might still be an issue...

Even that won't help you when dealing with a closed format. You may pirate a copy but you won't have any way to run iPad software ten years from now.

Closed formats are simply a giant "**** you" from authors/publishers.

[lobotommy]

@palapiku

Wow, you certainly have some precognition powers...

iOS is 5 years on the market already. And it does not look it is going to disappear anytime soon. Not with such strong customers base. And I don't think my idevices will stop working anytime soon. Moreover - I definitely will read all my go books before your precognition will come true. And even if apple/google/amazon will disappear I think in ten years you will have emulators of any mobile platform on your pc/mac/linux (like all 8-bit and 16-bit machines are emulated these days).

So please stop bitching about closed formats - just buy and read go books now, not in ten years from now.

Peace

[Boidhre]

@palapiku

Wow, you certainly have some precognition powers...

iOS is 5 years on the market already. And it does not look it is going to disappear anytime soon. Not with such strong customers base. And I don't think my idevices will stop working anytime soon. Moreover - I definitely will read all my go books before your precognition will come true. And even if apple/google/amazon will disappear I think in ten years you will have emulators of any mobile platform on your pc/mac/linux (like all 8-bit and 16-bit machines are emulated these days).

So please stop bitching about closed formats - just buy and read go books now, not in ten years from now.

Peace

The problem is that we won't have an emulator of the App Store, so we'll not be able to load up SmartGo and sync with the Store to restore our purchases. Circumventing this, eh, well then anyone could access any book in the app since they're stored in the app not pulled from a server anywhere when you buy them. So it'll probably be a cracked version of SmartGo with all the books unlocked that's circulated. Honestly I do expect to be able to still access the books I've bought in SmartGo when iOS eventually fails, I just do not expect it to be able to do it legally.

[lobotommy]

The problem is that we won't have an emulator of the App Store, so we'll not be able to load up SmartGo and sync with the Store to restore our purchases. Circumventing this, eh, well then anyone could access any book in the app since they're stored in the app not pulled from a server anywhere when you buy them. So it'll probably be a cracked version of SmartGo with all the books unlocked that's circulated. Honestly I do expect to be able to still access the books I've bought in SmartGo when iOS eventually fails, I just do not expect it to be able to do it legally.

We should not worry about the Bad Thing (Apple bankruptcy, the end of AppStore, erasing of all backups, end of internet, end of anything and "going back to the caves") till it happen. It's just wasting your energy. If you have iDevice then you know that your backups are 1:1 (this is certain advantage of this platform over other ones). Just sync and restore and you have all your data back, even ten years from now. And no AppStore is needed. So nothing is going to be lost. Of course if you think there will be no electricity or ipads/iphones in 10 years then nothing can be done

[Boidhre]

The problem is that we won't have an emulator of the App Store, so we'll not be able to load up SmartGo and sync with the Store to restore our purchases. Circumventing this, eh, well then anyone could access any book in the app since they're stored in the app not pulled from a server anywhere when you buy them. So it'll probably be a cracked version of SmartGo with all the books unlocked that's circulated. Honestly I do expect to be able to still access the books I've bought in SmartGo when iOS eventually fails, I just do not expect it to be able to do it legally.

We should not worry about the Bad Thing (Apple bankruptcy, the end of AppStore, erasing of all backups, end of internet, end of anything and "going back to the caves") till it happen. It's just wasting your energy. If you have iDevice then you know that your backups are 1:1 (this is certain advantage of this platform over other ones). Just sync and restore and you have all your data back, even ten years from now. And no AppStore is needed. So nothing is going to be lost. Of course if you think there will be no electricity or ipads/iphones in 10 years then nothing can be done

The app uses your purchase history stored in the AppStore to decide what books to unlock.

[lobotommy]

The app uses your purchase history stored in the AppStore to decide what books to unlock.

Restoring is not just reinstaling apps. I'm 99.9 % sure that backup made on your Pc/Mac has all data included. Backup is not just a list of apps, but their data too.

[Boidhre]

The app uses your purchase history stored in the AppStore to decide what books to unlock.

Restoring is not just reinstaling apps. I'm 99.9 % sure that backup made on your Pc/Mac has all data included. Backup is not just a list of apps, but their data too.

You're right from a quick Google, it's been well over a year since I restored an iOS device that had in-app purchases involved so I didn't trust my memory.

[palapiku]

We should not worry about the Bad Thing (Apple bankruptcy, the end of AppStore, erasing of all backups, end of internet, end of anything and "going back to the caves") till it happen.

I disagree with this policy in general, and some of those things are much more likely than others. And specifically in this case, I work in the industry, developing Mac and iOS apps, and I don't share your optimism about the future of Apple or iOS.

It's just wasting your energy. If you have iDevice then you know that your backups are 1:1 (this is certain advantage of this platform over other ones). Just sync and restore and you have all your data back, even ten years from now. And no AppStore is needed. So nothing is going to be lost. Of course if you think there will be no electricity or ipads/iphones in 10 years then nothing can be done

From Apple's documentation:

Backup of purchased music is not available in all countries. Backup of purchased TV shows occurs only in the United States. Previous purchases may not be restored if they are no longer in the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBookstore.

Edit: less bragging

[Bill Spight]

Let see. Imagine a chest. With books. And locker. I can give it to anybody. Right?
I see no difference.

Often we do not buy books on electronic platforms, we merely licence their usage. The licences are usually non-transferable. It's technically the same with computer games sold through Steam I think but Valve don't really care if you pass on your account to someone so long as the games remain tied to that account and not copied (they will however not help you at all if you try and get that account back). They however very much care if you're sharing an account with someone which is viewed as very different.

There are forces moving us towards a state of electronic tenancy, where what we have is owned by somebody else. I understand why it is happening, but I regard it as pernicious. As we know, serfdom can last for centuries.

[tchan001]

I can legally resell my physical go books and for some rare ones for much more than they originally cost. Try doing that with your smartgo versions

[Bantari]

I wonder if it is ethical to download a pirated/free/unprotected copy of a book once you actually bought the book legally. If this is ok, this should take care of many such potential problems and worries - although the exploding Sun might still be an issue...

Even that won't help you when dealing with a closed format. You may pirate a copy but you won't have any way to run iPad software ten years from now.

This is simply false.
Once I have an unlocked copy I can convert it into any format I want and then run it on whatever device I want.
And this is what I mean - buying legal locked data and then downloading the same stuff but unlocked/pirated. Downloading something that is locked to specific account would be pointless. Other than this - we are just talking different formats of data which can be converted, even if they are propriatory.

Why would I want to run iPad 10 years from now? There will be better stuff to run then!

Closed formats are simply a giant "**** you" from authors/publishers.

Ah, stop yer bitching.
If you don't like something, don't buy it.

The case you are making can be made against all electronic devices.
But I still rather live with my laptop/phone/tablet than without - even if there is a danger they come with a new version of Something and my old app/game/whatever won't work anymore... Been there, done that, and the world's still here.

[palapiku]

Even that won't help you when dealing with a closed format. You may pirate a copy but you won't have any way to run iPad software ten years from now.

This is simply false.
Once I have an unlocked copy I can convert it into any format I want and then run it on whatever device I want.
And this is what I mean - buying legal locked data and then downloading the same stuff but unlocked/pirated. Downloading something that is locked to specific account would be pointless. Other than this - we are just talking different formats of data which can be converted, even if they are propriatory.

Are you saying there's a converter from iGoBooks to some open format?

[Bantari]

Even that won't help you when dealing with a closed format. You may pirate a copy but you won't have any way to run iPad software ten years from now.

This is simply false.
Once I have an unlocked copy I can convert it into any format I want and then run it on whatever device I want.
And this is what I mean - buying legal locked data and then downloading the same stuff but unlocked/pirated. Downloading something that is locked to specific account would be pointless. Other than this - we are just talking different formats of data which can be converted, even if they are propriatory.

Are you saying there's a converter from iGoBooks to some open format?

No clue - but I think that the issue is not format but protection. As long as the data is locked to one specific account, you are hosed. Once it is unlocked, its just data and can be converted. If there is no converter right now, nothing is stopping you from writing one... or, when need arises, somebody else might. Or maybe there is no need...

So what you have to do is figure out how to break the lock or else see if somebody else did and download the unprotected version.
This is what I was talking about.

PS>
I am no expert, so if I am wrong with the above, please correct me. All I know is that I can get books in many different formats, and easily convert them to use on my kindle. I see no reason this should not be possible with books in ANY format, as long as there is no protection against it built into the file. Its just a matter of having the right app to do the conversion.