Until now, I have always bought
eReader e-books directly when I wanted to read copyright-protected material on my Palm using eReader.
My worry is that I don't know what to do with my purchased books if I might switch to another platform one day, for which eReader is unavailable (for instance Linux-based PDAs). Trust me, I would hate losing my previously bought e-books!
So I was thinking about alternative DRM solutions.
Mobipocket Reader is available for several PDAs, including Palm, PocketPC and Smartphone. That is perhaps better than eReader, but it still misses some platforms that might become important in near future (Linux).
Worse, both DRM formats, eReader and Mobipocket, force me to stick to the original reader software. What if I bought my e-books in eReader format, but actually prefer Plucker or iSilo to read them?
My solution to this dilemma is to purchase e-books in
Microsoft's .lit format from now on. Yes, you have heart me right, evil Microsoft can also be a friend! DRM-protected Microsoft Reader e-books are the only ones I know that can be reversed to non-DRM-protected HTML code by using publicly available tools such as Dan Jackson's
MS .Lit Cracker.
Is it legal? That probably depends on which country you are living in. But I think as long as you do it for your own personal use with e-books that you have also personally purchased, you are on the safe side ("fair use").
Please correct me if I am wrong!