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Originally Posted by stickybuns
Hypothetically speaking (I'm sure that there are economic/business reasons for why Amazon wouldn't do this), could the Kindle firmware be updated to accept Mobipocket DRM? Or is there something about it that's just inherently incompatible?
Regarding libraries purchasing mobi books: do the libraries actually have copies of these files on their servers? Or do they purchase licenses and then send a request to OverDrive when a lbrary patron wishes to check out ebooks? It just seems like the most logical way to handle Amazon/Kindle library books is for the library to send the request to OverDrive as usual, which will then pass the request along to Amazon.
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To read Mobipocket DRM ebooks, you needed to know your device's 'PID', which the reading apps would tell you. Then you had to supply this number when buying a book. Amazon wisely chose to obscure this detail. The PID is still there but Amazon learns what it is when you register a Kindle or Kindle app to your Amazon account. So there's effectively no way to tell a Mobipocket retailer (or Overdrive as in this discussion) what your PID is in order for it to prepare a DRMed book for a Kindle. There were ways around this but of dubious legality. Now that won't be necessary.
I believe Mobipocket titles reside on Overdrive's servers, as that arrangement was grandfathered in by Overdrive's licensing of Mobipocket technology when Amazon acquired the latter.
However I strongly suspect that Amazon will be fulfilling all of these lending library books on their servers, because only Amazon knows what the device IDs are for any given Amazon account, and I doubt they would want to share access to Amazon user accounts with Overdrive (nor would I want them to). So when you click Download on Overdrive's site, you'll probably get redirected to an Amazon hosted web site to complete the authentication with Amazon and choose the Kindle device you'll be reading the book on. That way you get wireless delivery, as well as all the synching functionality that goes along with books that you've purchased from amazon. So it will be much better than if you had been able to borrow Mobipocket books.