Electronic mags in pdf format ?

[Phast Phlyer]

I have recently subscribed electronically and find the service great. The only thing I would say is that pocketmags viewers are not the most ideal viewing system and I find the both the old & new viewers full of bugs, missing pages, contents page incomplete etc. I would really like to be able to save downloaded pages I have purchased to the globally standard pdf format why is this not available.

Regards Phast Phlyer

[Thijs]

The answer is simple, the solution complex. One of the requirements we had while selecting a platform for our digital edition was that the content could not be distributed by the subscriber. When having a PDF, which can be saved at your computer, it is possible to send the pdf to fellow enthousiasts (in other words not paying subscribers).

There are technical solutions to overcome this problem. But at this moment we don't have the resources to dig in that. Next to that the services pocketmag offers are good.

As always when one has a good solution / opportunity to overcome the above problem, let us know.

Thijs

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[Phast Phlyer]

Thanks for your reply Thijs. Whilst I understand your concerns about re distribution it seems that you are trying to exercise control over an item which has been purchased and ownership has effectively passed by purchase to the purchaser. If it was a hard copy of Scramble what is to stop someone passing on the magazine to another? same principle.

Other digital magazines I subscribe allow to the subscriber to download a copy of pages in pdf format why be different?

Also what happens to access to the digital copy of Scramble I have purchased if I decide to change to hard copy of the magazine. Do I lose accesss to that which I have already purchased.

Allthough I would not wish to print an entire magazine page by page nor is it viable or cost effective to do so, Scramble by it's very nature is for the serious aviation enthusiast or historian a valuable reference work which like other of it's type people may wish to refer to in years to come. I still regulary refer to my old copies of LAAS, Air, Roundel & Air Britain from the 70's onwards and it is in my view unfair to place constraints on something which I have purchased. I thought I was doing the modern thing in saving you postage and printing costs. Had I known or it had been made clear at the time of purchase that such contraints be imposed on the me purchaser I would not have bothered and opted for the hard copy.

I also find it disconcerting that you automatically assume that your readership would wish to re-distribute the magazine I presume for payment. Ours is an information reliant and sharing hobby and Scramble only exists by virtue of all the many enthusiasts that take the time to collect and provide information & photo's for free but which you take the time to collate and produce what is an excellent magazine and reference work. I only finally decided to subscribe to Scramble after a friend loaned me a copy of it. I also noted an old copy of Scramble on the the magazine rack of my local health center waiting room, is this not re distribution?

Ours is a information reliant hobby so to put constraints on the way we, the ligitimate subscribers access and use that information once purchased is both unfair and unjust and I urge you reconsider.

Kind regards Steve (Phast Phlyer)

[Thijs]

Thanks for your reply Thijs. Whilst I understand your concerns about re distribution it seems that you are trying to exercise control over an item which has been purchased and ownership has effectively passed by purchase to the purchaser. If it was a hard copy of Scramble what is to stop someone passing on the magazine to another? same principle.

True, but we don't want to stimulate / make it easy to distribute a digital magazine.

Other digital magazines I subscribe allow to the subscriber to download a copy of pages in pdf format why be different?

Which ones? Why be different, see the reason above. And Airforce Montly, for example, has the same policy as ours.

Also what happens to access to the digital copy of Scramble I have purchased if I decide to change to hard copy of the magazine. Do I lose accesss to that which I have already purchased.

No.

Allthough I would not wish to print an entire magazine page by page nor is it viable or cost effective to do so, Scramble by it's very nature is for the serious aviation enthusiast or historian a valuable reference work which like other of it's type people may wish to refer to in years to come. I still regulary refer to my old copies of LAAS, Air, Roundel & Air Britain from the 70's onwards and it is in my view unfair to place constraints on something which I have purchased. I thought I was doing the modern thing in saving you postage and printing costs. Had I known or it had been made clear at the time of purchase that such contraints be imposed on the me purchaser I would not have bothered and opted for the hard copy.

Issue 400 is free of charge, so you could have "bought" this edition and take a look what it looks like and what the options are.

I also find it disconcerting that you automatically assume that your readership would wish to re-distribute the magazine I presume for payment. Ours is an information reliant and sharing hobby and Scramble only exists by virtue of all the many enthusiasts that take the time to collect and provide information & photo's for free but which you take the time to collate and produce what is an excellent magazine and reference work. I only finally decided to subscribe to Scramble after a friend loaned me a copy of it. I also noted an old copy of Scramble on the the magazine rack of my local health center waiting room, is this not re distribution?

Scramble wouldn't be Scramble without the input of the community. We are for freedom and sharing of information. And all the information which is in the magazine can also be found in some way at our website. For instance all the military up-dates are coming directly from our database. All the databases and information within the various databases can be viewed by everyone, for free. As a subscriber to the magazine you have some extra benefits compared to non-subscribers.

Thijs

[Maurice]

A small side step to this topic. I am also in doubt to move to a digital subscription rather than a paper one. At the moment I own an iPad and can purchase my membership via iTunes.

What happens to my old digital 'copies' when I decide to by a tablet from a different brand next year, without access to iTunes anymore? Will I never be able to view 'my' old Scrambles anymore?

[Key]

Steve and Thijs,

While I cannot afford to really take part in this interesting exchange at this time, one aspect is worth pointing out: Scramble's main concern, and a very common one indeed, is the fact that digital copies can be multiplied and distributed in unlimited numbers (unless sophisticated safeguards are in place).

We, like other publishers, have no problem at all with hard copies being passed on: they have been paid for, and it's up to their owner what to do with them. It is the multiplying of the work, be it digital or print, that is harmful. In other words, there would be no harm in passing on one's digital copy to someone else either, as long as it remains a sole copy.

The reality is different as we all know. We certainly do not 'automatically assume that our readership would wish to re-distribute the magazine', and even less 'for payment', but selling digital mags without copy-protection is considered to be so inviting for abuse, that objecting to multiplication would hardly make sense anymore. This is the reason, AFAIK, that we do not distribute the mag as pdf yet.

On a separate note, we see more and more that licenses are sold - not ownership - especially for software. I do not know if this will move to include magazines as well, but I do have hope a satisfying solution to the above will come up in due time, in whatever form.


Cheers,
Erik

[Thijs]

A small side step to this topic. I am also in doubt to move to a digital subscription rather than a paper one. At the moment I own an iPad and can purchase my membership via iTunes.

What happens to my old digital 'copies' when I decide to by a tablet from a different brand next year, without access to iTunes anymore? Will I never be able to view 'my' old Scrambles anymore?

No, the magazines are offered via the pocketmags software. When you have an account with pocketmags, you are able to view your purchases at different devices. You can try for yourself with your wife's Android phone or own Android or I-Phone. Search for Scramble Magazine in the I-tunes store / google play store, download and login or create a pocketmags account.

Thijs

[Maurice]

Ok Thijs, thanks for your response!

[Pelican34]

I can understand the problem Scramble has with making current issues available as pdfs. But can this not be overcome by introducing a certain time lag before a issue is made available as pdf, say two or three years? Most content in Scramble concerns actual developments, so in my opinion this will not affect the number of subscriptions.

It would be of great benefit to those who want to retain their Scramble-archive (but who run out of book shelfs) or for those who are interested in historical data. In the not so distant past, the military update sections were available to subscribers as pdf, so why not the rest of those old scrambles as well...

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