ebooks gone

[VisserZer0]

Another good thing is, that since the eBooks are gone, we may be getting new members that will be interested in the community itself, not just the eBooks.

[Alex Oiknine]

Maybe knowing people have been using eBooks Scholastic will be more likely to release the whole original series in eBook format. Been waiting for a long time, guys!

[adamjared]

This little text at the bottom of the latest blog post is disconcerting to me: "There is a great possibility that in the next week major changes will have to be made to RAF." What kind of changes do you mean, Richard?

He probably means that the eBooks are referenced in tons of places. It's still in the Meta-Keyword tags, there is styles in the CSS for the eBooks, and at the time of this reply, the RAF Projects Board description still mentions the eBooks (see attached image).

There are also probably tons of things I don't know about that he means, but I'm pretty confident he is NOT talking about the way RAF looks, acts, or feels.

But think about how many hits our forum got because of the eBooks (just look at how many created memberships ONLY to complain about the eBook disappearance)! Without the search for "Animorphs eBooks free online" on google (for example) directing people to our beloved RAF, we may drop from 3rd result when searching for "Animorphs" (on google.ca ).

Think about how many members discovered this forum because of their search for eBooks! I'm pretty sure there are some active ones. Richard might be meaning changes in the form of how many new members we see coming in before the re-release.

I dunno, I'm only speculating.

[Kelly]

Oh no your email made me sad Rich...I had a feeling Scholastic would crack a **** about it one day though

[Coal Kropotkin]

Personally, at this stage in the game, I'd say it'd be better to keep anything y'all want to partake in in PMs and email format only.

I think it sucks some major monkey balls that the eBooks are gone, but, I'm not too upset, I figured it was coming. Scholastic has done their song, RAF's gotta do the dance, and it'll all blow over eventually. Any changed made (per the last portion of the blog post), may have some effect on RAF, but they'll never be able to stop us from having our little community, whether we have eBooks or not. And who knows? Maybe they'll release Animorphs in eBook form at some point, and we'll be able to purchase them for RAF, or from RAF (provided, of course, that the sales be forwarded to Scholastics).

But, yeah, if you're gonna discuss something... I'd highly suggest doing so in a discreet, private way, to safeguard yourself.

[goom]

merging.

[Vickie1]

...Ok I am lost in the sea of posts after just 12 hrs of sleep...

In any case, I'll try to be part of it again. I am a bit ups and downs with Scholastic telling RAF to take the ebooks off. After all they are the publishing company of the book. And they have the money to sue anyone (of course, their finances might not be as great as many that of a game company, so I'll be in the clear of any possible sue once I get a job )

The ups is that I understand what they had to do (but from the looks of these posts, they didn't do it discreetly) but the downs is that there is no more reference for fanfics or fanarts. Which I take it very seriously because I like to make fics/art as great as the real books. It was also a source of inspiration to make the storyline of my fic as unexpected as possible for the readers (which I hope I'm attempting).

Now my only sources of inspiration are a lot of music while drawing and REFINING my book cover for the fic... So yeah. :\

And what do I mean "unexpected", you ask? -grins evilly- That depends, how exactly do you expect of the fic's storyline?

Now I end my post. Cya around! -rushes to uni-

[wildweathel]

Doesn't sound like they even use the word please.

Oh no they did not.

Technically, they probably did.  "Please" in legalese is spelled "d-e-m-a-n-d."  It comes from the Old French "demander" meaning "to request, ask."  So, "We demand that you..." translates to "We ask you to..." in standard English.

It's still not very nice.  Unfortunately, being nice doesn't gain you any points in the legal world.  It shouldn't lose you any points, but I guess lawyers would rather sound big and scary rather than reasonable but resolute.  Oh, well.

My guess is they used the same style that's on display here:

http://www.chillingeffects.org/domain/notice.cgi?NoticeID=2007 (trademark)
http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512c/notice.cgi?NoticeID=28163 (DMCA takedown)

Scholastic is pretty darn clearly in the legal right with their copyright claim.  Trademark?  Not so much.  Personally, I'd offer to be polite, along the lines of the "not affiliated" blurb, but not an inch more.  Of course, this is Richard's decision.

Without seeing the letter itself--and running low on sleep--I'm hesitant to say more.  Would you be willing to post it, Richard?   (RAFblog, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, or both.)

[ElementX]

You all had to know this was going to happen with the rerelease. They would lose out on a profit otherwise. Suppose the first two books are released and they manage to attract a whole new fan base. Said fan base probably then discover they had the entire series for free online, not to mention that the original fan base might not bother buying the new editions at all. Sucks, but makes sense on their part.

[goom]

makes perfect sense. as far as i know, we were planning on doing so all along.
i just didn't appreciate scholastic's tone.

[Kelly]

they're the big guys 

[Cecil475]

Good day everyone.

This is my first post on the forum. It's good to be able to talk to other Animorphs fans. I caught the book series at the tail end of 1995. I saw the books around. I got tired and nabbed one in early 1996 from Wal-Mart. It was Animorphs #2 The Visitor. I think that is as far as the series had gone when I started. I quickly got #1 The Invasion afterwords. I was hooked. From there I bugged the bookstore for information when the next book would be released. I always looked forward to the next book. I expected there would be a television series. While it was okay, I wish they did a better job sticking to the story. Games came and I played most of them, but most were based more on the tv show, as far a character design. It was disappointing. I like most of the books that were released, and was disappointed with the way the series ended. I never expected a re-release, or even a 2.0. A continuation featuring the fight against The One? I had not been expecting it and It will be interesting to see the changes that the re-release classics will bring, as well as the new series if it happens.

To the matter at hand, This was bound to happen. Re-release or not. I own all the books still. All 54, plus all the special books, and some that were re-bought becuase some of my originals were falling apart. The E-books were good when I was bored and I could just pull the book up on the computer and read awhile. But, overall I like holding the physical product in my hand.

I'm hoping this is where I need to be to get the updates on the re-release, the main reason for joining RAF, along with chatting with other Animorphs fans. I'm sad the e-books are gone but I had a feeling that it was bound to happen. Same thing may happen with the TV show. I hope it won't happen for awhile, but who knows?

Anyway, it's great to be able to post here and meet you all, and I hope to post here for a long time to come.

Have a good night!

 - W

[AniDragon]

Not surprised. A bit disapointed, but not too much. I have the books already, and the ebooks weren't what brought me to RAF, or what keep me here. They were convinient, since my books are in a box in my mom's basement until I get my own appartment and it's hard to dig them out, but it's not the end of the world.

I'm just glad that we're even getting a rerelease. Last I checked, Disney still hasn't released the second half of season 2 of Gargoyles on DVD yet, and have no plans of it, so Scholastic is already ahead in my books for still remembering Animorphs, and wanting to rerelease the books for another generation. Even if all they're thinking of is dollar signs, and their methods are... irritating, they haven't given up on the series, and for that I applaud them.

[goom]

I'm hoping this is where I need to be to get the updates on the re-release, the main reason for joining RAF, along with chatting with other Animorphs fans. I'm sad the e-books are gone but I had a feeling that it was bound to happen. Same thing may happen with the TV show. I hope it won't happen for awhile, but who knows?

Anyway, it's great to be able to post here and meet you all, and I hope to post here for a long time to come.

january '09? quite the lurker
welcome to RAF. we won't bite!¹

make sure to check in with http://www.hiracdelest.com/status.htm as well for updates. great site. *wink*

Here are the new things we now know:


      The first spring/summer 2011 re-release is now said to be covering only the first 2 books: #1 The Invasion, and #2 The Visitor. Not as volumes for multiple books, but as an individual release of those two books only, with the new covers.

      The books are now going to be updated with outdated references. An editor has gone through the first 2 books, and Michael & K.A have just recently approved the changes to them.

¹ RAF is not responsible for any injuries.

[Funky Poacher]

Changing 'outdated references'? Okay, that makes me mad.