MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - decision time. hanlin vs cybook? anyone who's tried em? can you search in a book?

nairbv · 03-22-2008, 08:45 PM

Harry:

well, you haven't pointed out anywhere were I was missinformed yet.

A lot of people are basing purchasing decisions based on the DRM books available. DRM that's has been removed is not DRM... and so is irrelevant to anyone's buying decision. If you're willing to strip the DRM, then the book can be read on any device at all whatsoever, and I can just as well read mobipocket books on a hanlin v3.

If amazon had written a better encryption algorithm (which was their full intention) then you wouldn't be able to run drm mobipocket books on the kindle. The fact that their attempt to completely screw existing customers failed, does not redeem them in my mind.

I mean, I'd consider it false advertising if a company said they "supported" html, but that actually meant they had some hacky tool that would convert html into some proprietary book format. wouldn't you? but in this case they don't even give you the tool, use of the tool is illegal, and average customers probably don't even know it exists (I didn't know until yesterday).

But even if use of this tool is as "trivial" as you suggest: If you catch someone trying to steal your wallet, does the act of catching him redeem him in your mind? suddenly he's a wonderful person trying to help you out?

Alisa: I agree, this is probably their reasoning for introducing a new encryption scheme... but technically they could have trivially supported both mobipocket and AZW books. in terms of agreements with publishers, I dont' think they'd be violating any price agreements on AZW books if they ran both.

They were probably afraid that if they supported both, then the AZW format would be more likely to flop to internal competition. i.e., the revenue directly received from the kindle store wouldn't directly entirely pay for the development effort involved in building it. The revenue would instead come (at least in part) in the form of increased mobipocket sales, which they probably don't see as their core business. Lower sales received from the worse DRM system might have also affected their ability to get low prices that were based on high volume... but if they sell a crap product, that should be their problem.

03-22-2008, 08:45 PM	#40
nairbv Connoisseur Posts: 88 Karma: 15 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: still looking for an ebook reader device	Harry: well, you haven't pointed out anywhere were I was missinformed yet. A lot of people are basing purchasing decisions based on the DRM books available. DRM that's has been removed is not DRM... and so is irrelevant to anyone's buying decision. If you're willing to strip the DRM, then the book can be read on any device at all whatsoever, and I can just as well read mobipocket books on a hanlin v3. If amazon had written a better encryption algorithm (which was their full intention) then you wouldn't be able to run drm mobipocket books on the kindle. The fact that their attempt to completely screw existing customers failed, does not redeem them in my mind. I mean, I'd consider it false advertising if a company said they "supported" html, but that actually meant they had some hacky tool that would convert html into some proprietary book format. wouldn't you? but in this case they don't even give you the tool, use of the tool is illegal, and average customers probably don't even know it exists (I didn't know until yesterday). But even if use of this tool is as "trivial" as you suggest: If you catch someone trying to steal your wallet, does the act of catching him redeem him in your mind? suddenly he's a wonderful person trying to help you out? Alisa: I agree, this is probably their reasoning for introducing a new encryption scheme... but technically they could have trivially supported both mobipocket and AZW books. in terms of agreements with publishers, I dont' think they'd be violating any price agreements on AZW books if they ran both. They were probably afraid that if they supported both, then the AZW format would be more likely to flop to internal competition. i.e., the revenue directly received from the kindle store wouldn't directly entirely pay for the development effort involved in building it. The revenue would instead come (at least in part) in the form of increased mobipocket sales, which they probably don't see as their core business. Lower sales received from the worse DRM system might have also affected their ability to get low prices that were based on high volume... but if they sell a crap product, that should be their problem.