The amazon kindle piqued my interest in dedicated e-book readers again (as well as a few friends of the family). Although it's ugly and feels like they're locking you in to one provider, it did make me google alternatives. One that caught my eye was the Cybook3.
I currently use a PDA for reading the odd book from project Gutenberg as well as Baen books. So have a combination of txt and mobipocket format books, both of which would be directly supported on the Cybook. So my current e-library, albeit a very small library compared to my paper one
is not too big an issue in choosing a reader.
I'm also interested in reading some of my favorite authors in e-book format that are not available on Bean books. It's appealing due to the amount of space my fiction and reference books accumulated over the last few decades are beginning to take up.
I've found stores that sell in mobi-pocket format, which would work on the Cybook, however, they all come with DRM. I'd much rather buy in a format that I can later convert to work with a different reader should a manufacturer release a better reader. Which means not only am I looking for DRM less stores, but also stores that sell in a format that is not proprietary, or at least has tools available to convert from that format.
Ideally I'd like to keep all my books in a single format (is there an ebook standard? I read briefly about OEB, but no where appears to sell in that format?) then convert only as required to put the books on whatever reader I'm using at the time.
I've read a few topics that mention convertLit which opens the possibility of buying Lit books and converting them to an open format for archiving, then converting to mobipocket for reading on the Cybook. However, I'm a little against the idea of buying ebooks with DRM as it sends the impression that consumers are happy to have DRM and be locked in, when in reality they're probably stripping it and converting. So, I would much rather purchase books without DRM in the first place if at all possible
This is the reason I avoided iTunes when they sold only DRM'd music, despite the fact you could burn to cd then re-rip to mp3. I felt it just gave the wrong impression, so stuck to converting my existing CD's and buying from places like podshow (which incidentally opened my ears to indie music, much like Bean books has opened my eyes to many new authors I'd never have considered reading before).
So after that rather long winded build up, are there any stores that sell EBooks without DRM? I've spent a while googling, but the only store that turned up was Baen books, which I already use.
I suspect the answer is a resounding no. In which case I'd like to know what you do to limit the loss of access to books you've purchased? What format are you buying in, are you converting them?
I'm almost sold on the idea of a dedicated reader, just from the space saving and instant access via on-line purchase, but the format question is really keeping me from jumping in.