Quote:
Originally Posted by spinningdoc
As I understand it, which ever mainstream store I buy from (and in the UK it's basically Amazon or Waterstones - is that right?) I'm going to get DRM-d, regardless of whether it's mobi or epub.
Sooner or later, my gleaming new reader will get old and die, and I'll have to get another one. If either of those formats are no longer used (it happens, particularly with Sony, or Amazon goes bust and takes its DRM rights with it - remember AOL?), do I lose all my books? How do I avoid this? Or, if I decide I don't want another Kindle, do I lose all my books?
That last possibility in itself has me worried.
And as a side issue, for UK people: what's epub availability like, realistically?
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As well as Amazon and Waterstones, there's also
WH Smiths, which I'd consider mainstream.
There are also world-wide speciality stores (
SF/Fantasy ,
Romance), and some long-established general stores (
http://www.booksonboard.com/,
http://www.fictionwise.com/)
ePub book availability is pretty good. While Amazon does have more, and some exclusives, you probably won't notice much difference.
In the past I've mostly bought from Fictionwise and Baen. More recently from Amazon, and occassionally from other ebook stores.
If you buy DRMed ebooks, eventually you'll get burned. It might not happen this year, next year, or perhaps even for ten years. But it will happen. Unless you make sure you remove the DRM as soon as you buy them, and make good backups of the decrypted books. This applies to both Amazon's DRM and Adobe's DRM.
And if you do remove the DRM, it doesn't much matter (for novel-type books) which format you buy. Once De-DRMed, calibre will convert between formats for you.
Oh - and Apprentice Alf is your friend.