Why no Crisis of Conscience eBook pdf version?

by truth_about_the_truth 43 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  seattleniceguy

  FDS said,
  

  I tend to agree that the time has come for it to go PDF. ...It would not be to hard even for me to create such a file.

  Truth_about_the_truth said,

  Sounds like a great idea.

  Let me try to explain this in a way that even you retards might understand:

  Retain a lawyer. You'll need one.

  Now, now. This is getting a bit more heated than it needs to be. I think that there are many advantages to having the book available online.

  The book would likely be read by many more people than otherwise might read it. We don't have any hard figures on how many are in that nether-area between belief in Witnesses and mental freedom. Such people (perhaps tens of thousands or more?) are prime candidates to read this book if it did not involve great personal risk to do so. Making the book available in an attractive format via the Internet would almost definitely increase its readership.

  Whatever happens, Mr. Franz's rights and wishes should obviously be respected. I personally think it may actually be more profitable for him to make it available online. I believe that many people who read the book would feel compelled out of respect and thanks to make a small contribution, and since there was no physical product involved, that money would be pure profit.

  With regard to any existing stock on hand, I don't think that the arguments of AlanF and NathanNatas are compelling in this regard. The investment for the physical stock has been made; it will be recouped as the physical books are sold. I believe that they would continue to sell, both through the usual manner, and also because a percentage of the people who read the book online would wish to own a physical copy. In fact, because a greater number of people read the book, the physical sales might actually increase. I believe that this fact plus contributions from a wider readership would more than offset any risk of a decrease in sales of the physical book.

  I don't think a PDF is the right delivery mechanism. I think it should be delivered through a site that has been granted specific reprint permission by Mr. Franz, and in a format that makes it convenient to access through the site, and which discourages efforts to download and redistribute.

  If Mr. Franz decides that this is a good idea, and if executed correctly, I believe that this could result in greater revenues to him personally, as well as vastly more people reading the book. This is a win for everyone involved.

  I'm a software developer, and I have a graphic designer standing by. We are willing to work for free on this project, as well take care of all other hosting-related expenses, if Mr. Franz should decide that it is worthwhile. He has expressed some interest to me. We'll have to wait and see what he decides.

  More news as events warrant.

  SNG
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  Nathan Natas

  The critical factor here is that RAY FRANZ is the ONLY person who has the right to decide how RAY FRANZ's books are to be distributed.

  It is not up to some uninformed "do-gooder" to decide that Ray has been selling hard copies of his book "long enough" and that it is now time for someone to make a pdf distribution.

  As a side issue, pdf document security is virtually non-existent, depending upon a "gentleman's handshake" agreement not to pirate. Software pirates LOVE that illusion!

  It will be quite a challenge to find a secure e-method of distribution that legitimate users find easy to use and that also discourages those with bad intent.
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  seattleniceguy

  Nathan,

  The critical factor here is that RAY FRANZ is the ONLY person who has the right to decide how RAY FRANZ's books are to be distributed.

  I agree absolutely.

  It will be quite a challenge to find a secure e-method of distribution that legitimate users find easy to use and that also discourages those with bad intent.

  I think we are dealing with a different type of scenario than software piracy. The goal for a software pirate is to make money. Microsoft Word is a target for pirates because there are millions of people that will pay money for it. In the case of a free online book, the dynamics are totally different. If the book is available online, for free, then what is the motive to download it, bind it into some other format, and distribute it?

  When I said I hoped to make it easier for people to read it online than to take the pains to download and manipulate it, I meant it in the economics sense: People will do what is easiest. As one very rudimentary example, imagine that the book was actually scanned in and displayed in an interface similar to Amazon.com's Look Inside feature (reference: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0842332537/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-7645262-8905643#reader-link). It would be easy to flip through the book, and you would get an experience similar to reading the actual book, in that text formatting, photocopies, and so on, are preserved in original form.

  But if you make it difficult and tedious to manually retrieve the actual images (which Amazon has done), you make it impossible for the non-technically-savvy, and you take away the motive for the others. Why do I want to waste hours downloading images and reverse-engineering the code when the damn thing is already sitting there in a nice readable format, for free! I simply have no motive for doing so.

  The other thing to consider is that this book is not one that people read for fun. This book has a tiny audience, which we hopefully will make larger by putting it online. People who read this book come away in one of two states:

  • Still a dyed-in-the-wool JW, in which case they will not bother with the book again.
  • Intensely grateful for Mr. Franz's work, in which case they will probably make a small donation, write a letter of thanks, and send the URL to all of their friends, some of whom will look at the site and repeat the process.

  I sincerely believe that having this book online would work synergistically with the effect the Internet is already having on JWs. Someone sends you a link, you click on it. Maybe you read it. It's so much more natural and easy then going to a bookstore or library, where you fear you may be seen by friends and family. The readership would vastly increase, leading to ever greater numbers of people snapping to, leading to yet more readership as those people talk about the book.

  But as you say, the choice belongs to Mr. Franz. As excited as I am by the potential, I would never endorse anything that disregarded his rights or wishes. We will have to wait and see what he thinks.

  SNG

  (Corrected misspelling)
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  dm6

  CoC are easily available as pdfs