remove ebooks?

[goom]

i've been talking with dino..
..anybody think it might be a good idea to (temporarily?) take down the ebooks when 2.0 is released?
i wouldn't want it to hurt sales (or cause a lawsuit, for that matter).

any thoughts?

[Slushie Man]

I'd say keep them up anyway, but if Richard is asked to remove them then by all means, he should comply, lol

[Dameg]

Like Essam, I was more thinking about the spoil ^^'
And about the ebooks, I'd agree about make the edited volumes unavailable during few months after they're re-released. (3 "re"... ^^') but only the ones who are edited (for example, when #1 to 3 would be re-released, only #1 to 3 would "disappear" from the base... and reappear later). Just to have less problem and to make people buy them a little More they buy, more we can hope about a movie :p

[DinosaurNothlit]

I say, if an Animorphs re-release is in the works, we might need to take the ebooks down, possibly permanently.  At the very least, make the access to them a lot more restrictive.

The thing is, we want as many people to buy the books as possible, so that the market will be favorable for 2.0, right?  And the simple fact of being able to get the books online for free, is going to make far fewer people go out and buy them.  Even if we only take them down temporarily, if people find out that it's only temporary (and let's face it, this is the internet, so they would find out), then they might just wait for the ebooks to come back up rather than buying the actual books.

Even if we aren't infringing on any copyright laws (which, truth be told, we probably would be), then we'd still be hurting sales.  Which is absolutely the last thing we want.  I want Animorphs 2.0!

It is kinda hard for me to say this, because I know that a lot of people have put a lot of work into those e-books, and I love them too.  I've used them, and enjoyed them, and a big part of me really doesn't want to see them go.  But we have to think about the bigger picture, here.  After all these years, if there's any chance at all of new Animorphs books, who are we to be the ones who might be blocking that from happening?

[Slushie Man]

The thing is,  most younger kids, who the books are aimed at, won't read that much online, like in terms of Ebooks. Between not having the time and just not sitting there to read. Most kids that age like to bring the book to school so they can read in-between classes or when they're done their work in that class, ect. it'd mostly just be the older people like us.

Not to mention that by now you can get Animorphs ebooks on several torrent sites as well as kazaa/Limewire. If they want the ebook versions, they only have to look elsewhere and find them. Hell, that's HOW I found this site, cause I found a torrent of Animorphs ebooks in .txt file and one of the comments left behind said that there were better quality ones over here and provided a link and thus I arrived.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Okay, I disagree with your first point (kids nowadays are trending more and more towards computers, and less and less towards books, so modern kids would be more likely to read stuff on the internet than our generation was), but your second point is a very valid one.  Hmm.  How are they going to get any books sold when the series is available in all these other places?

Keep in mind that two wrongs don't make a right, though.  Just because a bunch of other people are doing something they shouldn't be, doesn't necessarily mean that we should, too.  If anything, it just makes it that much more important that we do whatever we can.

And besides the general morality issue, I'm guessing that if Scholastic really is serious about this, they'll be bringing lawsuits to bear against those other sites, too.  They can't expect to make sales if the series is available everywhere, can they?  Not unless they make some very substantial changes to the books themselves.  As in, re-write it into a whole new series, basically.  Which I got the impression was not what they're planning to do.

[Alic]

wow... i havent read this thread in awhile.
even though i already own all the books, i'll buy them when they are released again too! that way jack will have a brand new series of his own to cherish
i dont think an age restriction is a bad idea..  besides with the rerelese comes more fan sites and im sure a lot of them will be aimed at the younger fans anyway.
and if they really want to join they'll lie about their age.. and well.. that's their bad.

[Slushie Man]

There are plenty that can be done with books that can't be done with reading an average to bad quality ebook. Alongside the stuff I listed above, you can't climb under warm covers on a cold night, you can't read it in the bathtub, ect.

Sure, while society as a whole is more technological then ti was, I find when it comes to books, for those that do like to read, people in general but especially kids, tend to prefer a physical book over an Ebook.

[Terenia]

I definitely agree with taking down the ebooks if/when there is a re-release. I personally love the ebooks. I use them every week for the re-reads, even though I own hard copies of all the books. However, even though kids could theoretically get their books elsewhere, I think it's safe to say that RAF has the most comprehensive collection of ebooks that are of the best quality. Which means two things:

1) We are setting the moral standard for the availability of free copies of the series. If we take ours down it automatically becomes a lot harder (not impossible though) to find good quality copies of the books for free.

2) If Scholastic DOES decide to protect their new re-release by bringing up a lawsuit, they're going to go for maximum effect with minimal expenses. Which basically means that they'll target those who are making the largest infringement on their copyright. Which is easily RAF, since we not only have a comprehensive collection of Anibooks, but also Everworld and Remnants, all of high quality.

I love the e-books, I don't want to see them go, but from an ethical standpoint, a cover-your-butt standpoint, and the standpoint of a fan that wants the re-release to succeed....it would be in our best interest to take them down.


Edit

There are plenty that can be done with books that can't be done with reading an average to bad quality ebook. Alongside the stuff I listed above, you can't climb under warm covers on a cold night, you can't read it in the bathtub, ect.

Sure, while society as a whole is more technological then ti was, I find when it comes to books, for those that do like to read, people in general but especially kids, tend to prefer a physical book over an Ebook.

I don't necessarily think so. Just last night I was curled under my covers with a book....on my iphone. There's also Kindle's and Sony eReaders and other devices that make it simple to put a free ebook in a transportable format. Kids don't read books the way they used to. They just don't. And in an era where you take whatever freebies you can get....they'll take the ebooks over the actual books. Except the kids who LOVE reading....but don't we want to pull in as many new readers as possible?

[Chad32]

I am for taking down the ebooks, even if it's only until the new rewrite is finished. And even then, it will probably be outdated anyway, unless you want to keep them to show people the way it was before the rewrite. Yes take down the ebooks. people have already said that one day Rishard may have to take them down, so if you want to keep them you'd better download them to a file on your PC before it's too late. I've done that already, so I'm in the clear.

[Slushie Man]

Either way, we have over 2 years until we have to worry about it.

[goom]

Either way, we have over 2 years until we have to worry about it.

and it'll be a bit more clear about what exactly will happen.

no sweat.

[Azguard]

why over two years?

[Slushie Man]

Because this is 2009 and its not happening until some point in 2012.

[Essam 293]

2012 is just the ETA. Official Date is TBA (To-Be-Announced). The re-release could be much sooner (hopefully not farther  )