books

 by Brendon J. Wilson

Non-DRM Constitution

Yesterday, John Beimler pointed Comrade Cory over at Boing Boing to this DRMed version of the US Constitution. Someone must be doing well – it’s apparently Amazon’s 965th highest ranked item. I can only hope that’s only for electronic book sales, otherwise there are a lot of stupid people in this country.

Putting aside the irony of restricting access to a government document with digital rights management software, they’re not the only ones trying to make a buck this way. Hell, even I slapped an Amazon Associates referral ID on the link above – if you’re stupid enough to buy a DRMed copy of a public document from Amazon, I deserve a cut! And arguably, there is some minute amount of value that someone must derive from being able to get a Microsoft Reader copy of the Constitution right now. It’s possible. I guess.

But if you don’t like DRM and you really need the US Constitution (or any other document for that matter) on the go, there’s an easy way to solve this problem: make your own! And make the publisher’s market disappear while you’re at it! Doing this will take you about ten minutes:

  • Install (soul-sucking) Microsoft Word 2002 or later, assuming if you haven’t already succumbed by way of peer pressure.
  • Download and install Microsoft’s Read in Reader conversion plug-in.
  • Open Word and cut’n’paste the contents of you favorite version of the US Constitution into a new document.
  • Click the Microsoft Reader button on the toolbar.

(Or if you’re against The Man, but horribly lazy, you could just download this version I created. And no, I’m not the author of the US Constitution – I’m just really into flagrant self-promotion.)

Voila! Instant un-DRMed version of the US Constitution suitable for reading with Microsoft Reader! Of course, this does beg the question: did I just effectively circumvent the copy protection mechanism and violate the DMCA? Oh well!

in Culture / Technology 2 comments
 by Brendon J. Wilson

Three Little Pigs

This evening I was down in the recycling area of our building, doing my Sunday duty of taking out the recycling. It’s a tedious job, but hey, it fits well with my obsessive-compulsive need to sort and organize stuff. That, and it’s always interesting to see what people throw away. There’s the usual magazines (I could save a bundle on magazine subscriptions if I were sufficiently motivated), shredded financial statements (think of the things I could do with a scanner and a good piece of software), and The Three Little Pigs. Huh?

WTF? There in the middle of the usual discarded junkmail and pizza boxes is a pristine copy of The Three Little Pigs, the kind that is targeted for bedtime reading to three year olds. Alongside it, a similar copy of Jack and the Beanstalk. Am I mad? Hell yeah.

First, I’m a big book fan. When I was a kid, I grew to love books through my overly-literate parents’ numerous Sunday visits to the library. One weekend in fifth grade I read a dozen Hardy Boys. Twelve. It’s safe to say, I like books.

Second, I hate to think that some kid somewhere has nothing, and here’s someone who has so much that they have to throw away perfectly useful items just to make room for more crap. My mother had the curious habit of forcing me to keep my Dr. Seuss books and Lego on the presumption that trees and plastic wouldn’t exist by the time I had kids. I don’t know whether that was an overly pessimistic statement on humanity, or simply a subtle hint that she didn’t expect me to have a child until I was 60. Either way, it was probably a smart plan; after all, have you seen the price of Dr. Seuss books?

Finally, I really like the library but cuts are forcing them to become shadows of what they used to be. Any time I’ve got a book I’m done with, I usually try to donate it to the library (same with my magazines). The clerks at the library always looked shocked that someone is donating books. I like that look.

I picked up the books, and took them back up to my apartment. After all, I’ll be going to the library sometime soon. And it’ll make me feel a little better about the whole thing.

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