BookLiberator Beta, "BASIC" edition. Please note that BookLiberator Beta is meant for early adopters.

See BookLiberator.com for what this is all about!

CAMERAS NOT INCLUDED. Please note that the Beta units do not include the two digital cameras. We just show them in some pictures so you can see how the BookLiberator is used. The BookLiberator will work with any mass-market digital cameras that accept a standard screw-in camera mount, and one of the purposes of this Beta production run is for users try out all sorts of cameras, so that for 1.0, we'll know what cameras to ship with. (Feel free to try cell-phone mounts too — start at BookLiberator.com for more possibilities.)

Software will be free and open source. Another goal of this Beta run is to improve existing free and open source software for extracting text from digital images of pages. By itself, the BookLiberator just gives you high-quality (depending on your camera resolution) flat images of the pages. Turning those images into digitized text is a software job. During the Beta period, we will be working with existing software projects and creating new software as needed. Remember that any page images you create now with a Beta unit can be fed to newer versions of software later, so as the state of the art improves, past scans can be brought along. The latest information and downloads will always be at BookLiberator.com.

NO WARRANTY. BookLiberator Beta units come with no warranty. They are explicitly for early adopters; yes, you can read that as "we're still working out the bugs here". The main open issue is that we're still figuring out what cameras to use for 1.0 (which is why Beta units don't come with cameras — we need you all to try some and let us know!). We're pretty happy with the base and cube design and think those are finalized, but we need more feedback from users to be sure. Finally, the software isn't ready yet, as noted above, though that is not an issue with the Beta units per se.

KNOWN ISSUES: The rubber strips that help the base grip the table surface aren't glued strongly enough to the underside of the base. We found this in testing and have already talked to our manufacturer about it; 1.0 will not have this problem. In the meantime, it's easy to just add some glue. We also encountered an issue with the width of one plexiglass pane: it was a tiny bit wider than cube face, which caused a slight curvature of the pane. We're not sure how widespread this problem is, because most of the units are already boxed and sealed and we can't check every one of them. However, the solution we used was pretty simple: pad one of the side clamps with a small scrap of cardboard. It might also be possible to either shave one side of the plexiglass or just get a new pane (they're cheap).

Those are the only issues we know about.

What's the difference between the "BASIC" edition and the other editions?

None. The five Beta versions are exactly the same product: BASIC (that's this one), EAGER, SRSLY, THANX, and UROCK. The only difference is the price.

This Beta run is in part a fund-raising effort: we're a non-profit, mass access to book liberation helps our mission, and the more money the Beta run earns, the better we can make the upcoming BookLiberator 1.0 and the more we can improve the accompanying software.

So please consider the options, check your bank balance, and use your judgement. Anything you pay beyond the price of the lowest-priced unit may be taken as a tax deduction in the US, as QuestionCopyright.org is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit.