Electronic publishing WAS: [sdiy] IP, copyright etc

[Niels A. Moseley]

Hi,

Tim Daugard wrote:

> - To electronic publish:
> 
> =-  The author has to put the book in a format readable - this
> means PDF. This entails either working with a word proccessor and
> massaging the work to convince the word processor to create a
> good PDF file.
> - or - Paying About $1000 for a copy of Adobe Acrobat.

There are tools like LaTeX (http://www.miktex.de) that produce PDF for 
free. You'll have to learn LaTeX, but that isn't too hard IMHO.

Also, the free OpenOffice suite (http://www.openoffice.org/) has 
built-in PDF support. And the upcoming Microsoft Office (version 12 I 
believe) will also feature PDF file creation (not free!).

> =-  The aurthor has to convince a service like Amazon to sell
> it. - or - Create a publishing company so that he can take
> Paypal. For me to sell in Florida, Paypal wants my Tax ID.

Hmm.. yeah, problem. But there must be other alternatives.

> =- Figure out a way to lock the book, if he delivers it
> directly. - and - I've found far more information on the web on
> how to defeat the locks, then how to lock a PDF doc. without
> Adobe.

The PDF protection is easy to crack. But there are other tools to 
encrypt a file, like PGP (http://www.pgpi.org/), which aren't easy to 
crack. Of course, once decrypted, the buyer will still be able to spread 
it himself.

One could include a hidden and unique serial number in the PDF so you'll 
always be able to trace the original buyer.

> Total cost: $2,000 to $3,000. Anyone want to buy 2 copies @$1,500
> each?

With the tools mentioned above, your initial cost would be zero. You can 
make PDFs for free.

Regards,
Niels.