Gather ’round, children, and let me tell you a story about the old bugaboo we used to call DRM. Digital Rights Management was the beast under every gamer’s bed in the mid-2000s, an invisible bit of software baked into game discs that dictated and tracked player behavior under the guise of preventing piracy. DRM software, like SecuROM, limited the times a game could be downloaded and forced players to regularly connect to the internet for authentication checks, at a time when less than half of American adults had reliable broadband connections. DRM features soured the releases of BioShock, Mass Effect and Spore, and by 2010, anti-piracy software had rendered Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter-Cell: Conviction unplayable. When Microsoft attempted to release the Xbox One with always-on DRM features in 2013, intense vitriol from fans forced the company to reverse its plans at the 11th hour. There were lawsuits. DRM was a curse word. Meanwhile, Valve was building out Steam. When it landed in 2003, the digital PC storefront was designed to streamline the patch process for games like Counter-Strike and make it easier for Valve to implement anti-piracy and anti-cheat measures. Steam was made to be a DRM machine. In 2004, with the release of Half-Life 2, Valve made Steam a requirement for every player, and even those who’d purchased new, physical copies of the game had to boot up the launcher first. There was some low-level grumbling, but PC players were used to being lab rats, and... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2024-03-04 16:30:21 UTC ]
Zoey Dixon, named a Bookseller Rising Star in 2020, has been a leading light in making libraries more accessible, both before and during Covid, in her development role at Lambeth Libraries. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-03 01:24:28 UTC ]
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Charity Libraries Unlimited, which aims to bring libraries’ work to new audiences, has come up with an innovative way to reach potential readers at libraries across Devon. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-02 22:53:52 UTC ]
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Increasingly, books are something that libraries do not own but borrow from the corporations that do. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2021-09-02 10:00:00 UTC ]
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From school libraries to big city libraries and small town ones, this is one Rioter's journey through the important libraries of her life. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-08-30 10:39:00 UTC ]
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A new public library strategy for Scotland has been published, developed with the help of countries all over the world, including Denmark, Australia and the US, and seeking to make libraries key to helping people and their communities recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-24 05:25:24 UTC ]
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Cambridge has over 100 libraries, so here are some (subjective) recommendations for the best ones to start with. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-08-23 10:39:00 UTC ]
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A comic art festival based in Yorkshire is encouraging the public to donate new and used comic books to its organisation, which will then distribute copies to schools and libraries. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-08-21 00:12:55 UTC ]
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Last week, Apple previewed a number of updates meant to beef up child safety features on its devices. Among them: a new technology that can scan the photos on users’ devices in order to detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Though the change was widely praised by some lawmakers and child... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2021-08-12 18:30:29 UTC ]
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Fund some classroom libraries today on DonorsChoose with the help of a boost from the Gates Foundation. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-08-12 10:39:00 UTC ]
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Interviews Emilio Fraia’s Sevastopol, out this summer from New Directions, is the sort of book that beguiles and dazzles in equal measure. Consisting of three disparate stories—of a mountain climber attempting to scale Mt. Everest, a mysterious loner... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-08-09 20:31:30 UTC ]
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Most libraries are named after men, but here are 7 U.S. libraries and collections named after women that are worth celebrating. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-08-09 10:32:00 UTC ]
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“Congress is getting the message that libraries of all kinds are key to the vitality of communities,” said ALA president Patty Wong in a statement. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-07-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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US-based book distribution service Baker & Taylor has announced it will be offering libraries a "diversity analysis tool" to help them discover, manage and report on diversity-related topics. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-07-08 00:26:16 UTC ]
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Powered by the wholesaler's collectionHQ technology, Baker & Taylor’s “Diversity Analysis” tool will help identify opportunities for libraries to evaluate their collections against industry-accepted diversity subjects. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-07-07 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Here are some of the most bookish cities in the world, from the city with the most libraries to the best city for writers to live. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-07-02 10:38:00 UTC ]
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Now we're all possessors of personal super computers that can instantly connect us to whole libraries — there can seem little sense to make iambs and trochees part of one's soul. The post On Memory and Literature appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-06-30 09:59:22 UTC ]
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In a powerful close to the 2021 ALA Annual Conference, the 44th president of the United States praised libraries as "citadels of knowledge and empathy" and said the work of librarians is more vital than ever as we seek to rebuild "the unifying story of America." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Are Little Free Libraries better in wealthier parts of town? I visited 25 of them in different areas of my city to compare and find out. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-06-24 10:38:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones Children's Laureate Cresside Cowell and the Duchess of Cornwall have visited a school in Wandsworth, south London, to open a "life-changing" library. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-06-21 16:23:10 UTC ]
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“The library was practically a babysitter. You could leave yourself and enter worlds. It’s such a rich life when you get to be a reader. Books can give you multiple lives.” The post Anthony Doerr’s Libraries of Wonder appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2021-06-21 10:00:30 UTC ]
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