So Long O'Reilly
-
I just went to the O'Reilly site to check on a ebook I thought I "owned" and I saw this notice: "In March 2020 the Members Library will be shutting down Please download any ebook, video compilation, or other content you wish to save prior to March 2020." :mad: And, the notice is on the Library Sign-in page [^], so if you don't have to sign in, you won't see it. Funny part is this blurb at the top of my library (emphasis mine): "Every ebook and video you’ve purchased through your O’Reilly account is available below. You get lifetime access to these products, and we will alert you when they are updated." I guess their lifetime is way shorter than mine. :laugh: O'Reilly used to be my go-to publisher for books. You could almost never go wrong buying a Nutshell book. I was surprised when they stopped selling their own books. Now they can't even be bothered to keep the space for ebooks they promised to give you "lifetime access" to. Their entire focus seems to be shifting to trade conferences and the so-called O'Reilly online learning, which is their subscription access service, formerly Safari. I know books are "passé", and I'm probably dating myself by still wanting to read them, but this seems like another great service dying in favor of subscription pricing. Anyway, enough ranting. :cool: Bottom line, if you have ebooks on O'Reilly and you want to keep them, be sure to get them downloaded prior to March. Alan
-
I just went to the O'Reilly site to check on a ebook I thought I "owned" and I saw this notice: "In March 2020 the Members Library will be shutting down Please download any ebook, video compilation, or other content you wish to save prior to March 2020." :mad: And, the notice is on the Library Sign-in page [^], so if you don't have to sign in, you won't see it. Funny part is this blurb at the top of my library (emphasis mine): "Every ebook and video you’ve purchased through your O’Reilly account is available below. You get lifetime access to these products, and we will alert you when they are updated." I guess their lifetime is way shorter than mine. :laugh: O'Reilly used to be my go-to publisher for books. You could almost never go wrong buying a Nutshell book. I was surprised when they stopped selling their own books. Now they can't even be bothered to keep the space for ebooks they promised to give you "lifetime access" to. Their entire focus seems to be shifting to trade conferences and the so-called O'Reilly online learning, which is their subscription access service, formerly Safari. I know books are "passé", and I'm probably dating myself by still wanting to read them, but this seems like another great service dying in favor of subscription pricing. Anyway, enough ranting. :cool: Bottom line, if you have ebooks on O'Reilly and you want to keep them, be sure to get them downloaded prior to March. Alan
ajhampson wrote:
You get lifetime access to these products
Ha ha, silly you. You thought lifetime referred to YOUR lifetime. Nope. ;)
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
-
I just went to the O'Reilly site to check on a ebook I thought I "owned" and I saw this notice: "In March 2020 the Members Library will be shutting down Please download any ebook, video compilation, or other content you wish to save prior to March 2020." :mad: And, the notice is on the Library Sign-in page [^], so if you don't have to sign in, you won't see it. Funny part is this blurb at the top of my library (emphasis mine): "Every ebook and video you’ve purchased through your O’Reilly account is available below. You get lifetime access to these products, and we will alert you when they are updated." I guess their lifetime is way shorter than mine. :laugh: O'Reilly used to be my go-to publisher for books. You could almost never go wrong buying a Nutshell book. I was surprised when they stopped selling their own books. Now they can't even be bothered to keep the space for ebooks they promised to give you "lifetime access" to. Their entire focus seems to be shifting to trade conferences and the so-called O'Reilly online learning, which is their subscription access service, formerly Safari. I know books are "passé", and I'm probably dating myself by still wanting to read them, but this seems like another great service dying in favor of subscription pricing. Anyway, enough ranting. :cool: Bottom line, if you have ebooks on O'Reilly and you want to keep them, be sure to get them downloaded prior to March. Alan
-
ajhampson wrote:
You get lifetime access to these products
Ha ha, silly you. You thought lifetime referred to YOUR lifetime. Nope. ;)
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other. Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it. Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
Same goes for lifetime warranties. Always ask what the lifetime is for the product.
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
-
Then don't blatantly promise me "lifetime" access! Keep the promises you make. Novel concept these days, I know. :sigh:
It sounds as if you are expecting them to relate to your lifetime. That's a complete misunderstanding. They are relating to the product they sold you. When that product dies - which seems to be what has happened in this case - then you have no longer access. O'Reilly couldn't possibly track the lives of each and every customer. Their products is all they care about. For being slightly more serious: This is a major reason why I am not using streaming services, neither for music, movies nor books. If it is not worth my time listening / watching / reading a second time (or more), then it wasn't even worth the first time. I always want the option to return to the same work. To me, "spoiler" is a silly concept: When I know that the butler is the murderer, I find great pleasure in re-reading from page one to see how cleverly the author step by step provides small clues, without revealing any more than absolutely needed. Even if I know the final chords of a tune, I enjoy the singer's voice on the second hearing. And so on. During the first years of streaming, disk space was expensive. After some time, movies were taken out of the catalogs (I guess some of it had to do with publishing rights as well). Every time I came across lists of movies unavailable after a certain date, I could check 2-6 of them: But they are still available in my bookshelf, and will remain available for as long as I want, at no additional cost! Today, disk is cheap, but rights questions remain. The Norwegian National broadcaster ("NRK") makes a major part of their productions over the last 60 years freely available, tagged "Available until: Always". Last newyear, contracts with the artists' organizations (actors, musicians, and all the others) was about to expire. To renew the contracts, the artists were demanding a doubling of the compensation for the next period. They came to an (undisclosed) agreement a couple days before the old contract exprired. If no agreement had been made, that would have been the end of "Always". So, not only do I buy physical media music, movies and books - I've got around 4000 books in my shelves, 1500 CDs and 3-400 DVD/BDs: I also record a lot of radio music, often live, unavailable on CD. I save great shows and movies from the NRK archives / free streaming services. (Norwegian law explicitly grants me the right to do so, for privat, non-commercial purposes.) I will continue to do so, and continue to buy music, movies and books on physical media. Two other reasons for
-
It sounds as if you are expecting them to relate to your lifetime. That's a complete misunderstanding. They are relating to the product they sold you. When that product dies - which seems to be what has happened in this case - then you have no longer access. O'Reilly couldn't possibly track the lives of each and every customer. Their products is all they care about. For being slightly more serious: This is a major reason why I am not using streaming services, neither for music, movies nor books. If it is not worth my time listening / watching / reading a second time (or more), then it wasn't even worth the first time. I always want the option to return to the same work. To me, "spoiler" is a silly concept: When I know that the butler is the murderer, I find great pleasure in re-reading from page one to see how cleverly the author step by step provides small clues, without revealing any more than absolutely needed. Even if I know the final chords of a tune, I enjoy the singer's voice on the second hearing. And so on. During the first years of streaming, disk space was expensive. After some time, movies were taken out of the catalogs (I guess some of it had to do with publishing rights as well). Every time I came across lists of movies unavailable after a certain date, I could check 2-6 of them: But they are still available in my bookshelf, and will remain available for as long as I want, at no additional cost! Today, disk is cheap, but rights questions remain. The Norwegian National broadcaster ("NRK") makes a major part of their productions over the last 60 years freely available, tagged "Available until: Always". Last newyear, contracts with the artists' organizations (actors, musicians, and all the others) was about to expire. To renew the contracts, the artists were demanding a doubling of the compensation for the next period. They came to an (undisclosed) agreement a couple days before the old contract exprired. If no agreement had been made, that would have been the end of "Always". So, not only do I buy physical media music, movies and books - I've got around 4000 books in my shelves, 1500 CDs and 3-400 DVD/BDs: I also record a lot of radio music, often live, unavailable on CD. I save great shows and movies from the NRK archives / free streaming services. (Norwegian law explicitly grants me the right to do so, for privat, non-commercial purposes.) I will continue to do so, and continue to buy music, movies and books on physical media. Two other reasons for
Member 7989122 wrote:
Their products is all they care about.
That was actually my point (hidden in all the grousing ;P ): O'Reilly used to be one of the best book publishers, because books were their product. Now their business seems centered around conferences and the subscription model. I understand the book market probably isn't what it used to be, and companies have to adjust to survive. I just really don't like the subscription model at all for books, music, or video. As an aside, I am with you on owning physical copies. I have nearly all my music on physical CDs. All the video I care about is on DVD or BR. My book collection is also pretty big. I mainly buy e-somethings for the convenience of being able to travel with a collection in my tablet or phone. I try really hard not to get e-anything that I can't download and keep a copy of.