Books on Kindle

I've been considering getting a Kindle (an e-book reader from Amazon.com) for some time now. Much as I love paper books (and an entire wall of my house attests to just how much I do!) there is something alluring about the prospect of carrying my library around on a single device. But I have some philosophical issues with the DRM (Digital Rights Management/"copy protection") scheme Amazon has put on these devices to prevent people copying, modifying, or using the books you buy. The EFF has some interesting (and funny!) videos up discussing the issues here.

The EFF has all kinds of cool stuff about how computers and the internet impact our creative life and cultural heritage, focusing on US copyright laws. The info on their site includes anything about intellectual property, copyright duration and public domain, patents and trademarks, fair use, DRM, network security, internet censorship, etc. They also provide legal assistance to people involved in lawsuits around intellectual property. I highly recommend checking them out.

Medieval help desk

A very funny take on the "future" of books: