Is it true that our access to the digital archive going to disappear?

I like hard copies of magazines and books. They belong to me, I can do what I like with them and there's nothing the publishers can do about it. I can lend a hard copy to my friends or sell it to a dealer.

With a digital copy it's different. I don't own the copy. I can't lend it out and I can't sell it. I have merely bought the right to read it for as long as the publisher decides to grant me that right. The publisher can withdraw that right at any time he thinks fit. He can even remotely delete it from any reading device it's loaded on.

The extra cost of producing and distributing a digital edition is I suspect fairly small, as presumably the input to the printer is the digital edition or something very similar.

Unfortunately it looks like some bean counter has asked "Why are we giving free acces to our archive? We could be making money out of it". This is a publisher's decision, not an editorial one, which I suspect is why the editors have understandably been reluctant to contribute to this thread. They don't want to offend their masters who pay their wages.

I have no fear of technology, but I'll stick with a paper copy of the mags as long as they're available.

Max.

Dianne (and David if you're reading this).

Obviously this 'revision' of distribution methods has p*ssed-off a lot of loyal subscribers.

So exactly how much input do yourself and David have with the owners of ME & MEW?

I suspect that the magazine editors have been put between a rock and a hard place.

For every person that accesses this forum there must be hundreds that purchase the magazine but;

Do not have access to the website technology

Do not care

Just want to get on with making swarf

Or like myself, are fed-up with another method designed to rip me off a few more $$

Regards from the land of the kangaroo

Cu Later * Danny M *

This is what the publishers are trying to guard against. Once they allow PDFs to be saved locally then there is nothing to stop people copying them and passing them round, apart from the risk of destroying the magazine as a viable business. This is what most under thirty-year-olds do with music. Hardly any of them pay for it and don't see why they should. In the publisher's ideal world (and anyone else selling media) you would not be able to buy a physical copy at all but only buy access to content that could not be downloaded only streamed. At the risk of getting told off for venturing into politics it is called 'rentier capitalism'.

BTW I've still got all my vinyl LPs but have also got most of them on CD as well which have been ripped to mp3 and transferred to ipod.

Gary

Pretty much my final position Max and I find your rationale on this situation perfect

At least with paper copies I can always scan the relevant page and print a copy to take into the workshop to face the swarf and cutting fluid rather than the precious original. Or I could view it on the planned workshop PC (redundant household unit)

John

.

That's a missed opportunity, Gary

Apple's lossless compression is much better quality than mp3

MichaelG.

Hi Jo,

Perhaps I shouldn't let the editors know this but:

You certainly can store downloaded digital editions on your computer in PDF format so that they can always be read. Unfortunately it can only be done one page at a time so it is very time consuming (unless someone canwrite a script to automate it).

The magazine viewer allows you to print a page at a time. If you install a pdf printer, such as cups-pdf (Linux) or cute-pdf(windows), it enables you to print directly to a pdf file you can then combine the files using a pdf merging program. As an experiment I tried saving one issue and it took me 15 minutes, mainly as I had to rename each file after downloading and before downloading the next page. So it's not very practical but useful if you have one issue or perhaps a drawing you want to save.

Russell.

I have just been asked by Kate in the Subscriptions department to say that she hopes to have answers to the queries raised by early next week and they will be posted here as soon as they are available.

Diane is off to IMLEC for the weekend so won't be able to add anything further until she returns.

On the plus side Kate informs me that some of the missing issues in the archive are being added as I write this, the rest will follow as they are scanned in. If anyone knows of a specific issue that is either missing or the wrong mag comes up when clicked can they post the issue number here.

J

I think MyTimeMedia have got it wrong .... pleasing some people but upsetting even more ...

I think they should offer the following options:-

1/ Online access to Archive only. (Original Digital)

2/ Print + Online Archive (Original Print)

3/ Online Download & Keep + online archive (New Digital)

4/ Print + Online Download + Online Archive

For me I want option (2) to get this I have to pay an extra £12 per year (I don't want online download) .... my second choice would be for (1), again I have to pay even more per year ... Wot a rip off !!!!!

I have now cancelled my MEW Direct Debit, so the September issue will be my last .... I have just renewed my ME (June) so I will get what I want for a year .... Then I will decide what I want to do.

Dave

I think with MEW once you subscribe that's your rate forever, If you want to unsubscribe then resubscribe to get a free gift then you take the risk of a higher subscritpion rate. As has been said elsewhere if they contact you, you might unsubscribe and they've lost income, so they don't run that risk.

I let my MEW subscription lapse by accident. The lady offered me a cheaper price and free gift to return!

Neil

Hi Jason, I've just looked through the ME archive and 4158, 4274, 4275 and 4315 are missing.

Regards Nick.

I thought I'd download the "pocketmags" app for my iPad, just to see how easy (or otherwise) it would be to read/store my copies of MEW. Like a previous respondent to this thread, I got the message that my subscription wasn't valid. Waited a couple of days; still no joy, so on Friday last I fired off an email to help@pocketmags as suggested by their website. I have yet to receive a reply.

Has anyone had the same problem and managed to overcome it?

John

John,

I assume that you have taken out a new Digital subscription? (The higher cost one)

If you have an older Digital Subscription (i.e. one purchased prior to this month) then you won't be able to download issues. (That is what I understand the situation is)

Dave

Me?.. I will make my choice when renewal comes around.. to renew or not..frankly the content is more concern than the format..

digital subs want hard copy?..well printit and store it your self.. that is in theory why digital is supposed to be cheaper...you save the pub. production / distribution costs.

paper subs. want digital copy ? scan it yer self.. or use camera phone....good enough for the odd pages you want to take to the workshop.

my request might be for more readily searchable by topic etc....but a third party solution (solutions) exists for that.....

I would love to have the archive anywhere I go but then again thats more to do with internet access on the go than the magazine publisher...

hate to sayit ( and do it) but you can buy bootleg / pirate/ or what ever disks of back issues...would rather buy these from the publisher but if they don't want to take my money....

please note If a free service is withdrawn you are entitled to a refund up to the price paid....

Not true in my case, Dave. My MEW sub (renewal) dates from last May and my ME sub from November 2012 and I was able to access both using the new reader. I used the subscription numbers exacly as shown in [ My Details ] ... that is, without leading zeros

No but I hope your experience with Pocketmags support is better than mine.

I fired off a question about the print icon which was (according to the help file) supposed to be at bottom left in the offline reader but which wasn't present in mine. After a couple of days I got the following reply:

"if you login to the online reader, silverlight version, you should find the option to print."

(It actually didn't matter by then as Diane had said they had updated the reader and I made the icon appear by doing a refresh within the app).

Make sure you are not entering leading zeros in your subscription numbers.

You lost me for one ..... what free service are we talking about?

If it free why was it paid for?

IanP

Dave/Sid,

I used the cut and paste facility, without leading zeroes, to input my subscription number, so the problem lies elsewhere. Still no reply to my email. Can't say I'm overly worried about it but it would be nice to able search within a whole issue for a specific term. That is assuming it's a "proper" pdf file and not individual page scans.

John

Ok the free service alludes to the achive facility. if a digital edition was available for say the month of the cover plus say 1 month but no futher back( last months) you would have a digital "edition"..

the use of the achive I see as a free bonus to subscribers.. thus if withdrawn you would be entitled to exactly what you paid for it .. nouwt nil nada zilch 

your milage may differ

Edited By jason udall on 15/07/2013 17:02:13