Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Thompson
In another thread we were talking about scanning/ocr and the thread began to drift to purchasing ebooks and converting them. I promised to post my results in a separate thread, so anyone who was interested could read about my experience without getting too off topic on the original thread.
For my purposes, I decided I would rather figure out how to scan because too many of the books I want are not available as eBooks as of this posting.
Also, as a newbie, I found experimenting difficult and results sub-optimal. My goal was to get a book into a .txt file so I could have some other software analyze word and expression usage within the books.
I tried purchasing a lit file (microsoft reader). After I paid for the lit file, I was informed that I would need to install Microsoft Reader on my computer before it would download. Half way through the Microsoft Reader install, I was informed that I needed to create a Microsoft Passport Account to activate the software. Then I had to activate all kinds of Active-X controls to download the software. Then the file I purchased didn't download anyway because the default settings of IE8 on my WinXP computer (or perhaps the fact that I had popup blocker on) did not permit the download. I eventually figured that out and the got the eBook downloaded.
To convert it to text, I had to "unlock" it by "turning off the DRM." That required downloading software from what struck me as an "outlaw" company -- which made me nervous. Enough people told me it works that I tend to trust the company and believe it would work, but I just decided it wasn't worth all the hassel to me. Most of the books I want aren't available as eBooks, so I may as well just solve the scanning problem.
I do have faith that I could have gotten everything working and that it makes sense for others with other circumstances. I just thought I should alert anyone starting out like I was that unless someone is holding your hand, this isn't as straight-forward as you might hope. (Of course, I may say the same thing about scanning after I've tried that  |
People have used several .lit-to-whatever converters without problems. The same is true for .prc/.mobi-to-whatever and .prb(ereader version)-to-html converters. Also, Acrobat Pro can export to .doc, .rtf, .html and .txt among others.
But there's that 'ethical' question of whether you have the right to convert *your* purchased ebook to a format that works for you. I just go ahead and do it, but it is an individual's choice.
However, that is not to say that you'll avoid legal entanglements if you scan your dead-tree versions onto the computer - and that can get costly simply because of the equipment needed.
It is a problem, indeed.
Derek