My massive Logos library is great for research, but reading large amounts of text such as a ‘book’ is an unfortunate and foreign experience to the Logos Bible Software interface. Desired features such as book marking, page turning, and non straining reading are not existent. Further, holding the ‘book’ in your hand and having portability (bed/couch/airplane/walking/waiting room/etc…) is something you cannot fully achieve from the laptop!

I’d love to see an interface which would allow us to easily export text into reading devices iPhone, Kindle, etc… I think possibly each ‘book’ or file could have a timer set to corrupt the file after some amount of time. This would stop the text from unwarranted distribution to those who are not rightful owners, but would allow the rightful owner to bring the book into a more comfortable and appropriate reading environment.

Here is to kindle reading our Logos Bible Software resources!

In Him for the Gospel,

John

One more thing… I would take that money and put it into Bible software!

http://michaelcardensjottings.blogspot.com/2009/05/kindle-and-canon.html

But you’ll also be locked into the software as it stood when Logos “went down in ashes.” No more improvements, no new features. But if your digital resources were unlocked, you could simply plug them into Logos’ successor and go right on doing your Bible thang.

Look at the digital music revolution (I sound like such a tool when I use that term) for an example. Everything was DRMed at the start; you’d buy it from walmart.com or iTunes, and there would be copy protection embedded in the file. Then, predictably, some of the music stores started to close. Yahoo Music (for example) shut down its authentication servers, and suddenly consumers had NO way to transfer their music to a new computer. They lost the license to music that they had legitimately bought.

Customers complained, resisted, and (of course) pursued DRM-free music through illegal means. Eventually, the digital music distributors (including Amazon!) woke up and switched over to legitimate, DRM-free offerings. Just last month, Apple finally converted their entire iTunes music store to non-locked-down offerings.

Now we seem destined to endure the same torturous experience with digital video and digital books. It’s as if the whole DRMed music fiasco never happened. As if Amazon never learned that consumers HATE locked-down content. If I buy a digital resource, I want to OWN that resource. I should be able to view it on my laptop, my iPod, my Kindle, my GPS, my TV, and my toaster. If I want to, let me print it out at the library. If they can’t provide users with basic ownership rights, then they shouldn’t be surprised when users pursue other avenues for acquiring the content.

Not that I think my idea is likely, but I think Amazon partnering with a company that is a leader in pushing a digital library for Christian literature is more likely than for-profit companies opening up their arms and joyously embracing each other in their common pursuit towards the freedom of information