Quote:
Originally Posted by DaleDe
If it can't be read then it is different by definition.
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Weeeeell ... I wouldn't consider it to be a different file type if the only reason that it can't be read is because it's not registered to that device's PID. It's kinda like if I password protected an MSWord file and sent it to you, you couldn't open it without the password, but it's not because you computer can't handle the file or that the file is different, you just don't have the key to it.
For instance, John and Jane (hypothetical people) both have Sony Readers, Jane downloads
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the Sony ConnStore, but while John can load Jane's copy onto his Reader, he can't
open it there because Jane's copy is keyed to her account, and John's Reader is not. The DRM has prevented one from opening the same on identical hardware because the file is registered to a different account.
I'm a bit shaky on how mobi's DRM works, but I gather that the files are locked to specific devices by way of the device ID key. So in order to read a DRMed Mobi file on a device (such as a Cybook) I would have to register that device with the seller and download a file that is keyed to that device.
We've got pretty good evidence that AZW files are mobi files with a different extension -- I wouldn't say
conclusive evidence
yet, but pretty good evidence.
What we
don't know is if the DRM that they're using for Kindle follows the same scheme as what's used on mobi files. They say the DRM won't work, but Marketing folks have been known to be ... less than entirely accurate, shall we say? They may just want us all to believe that it won't work, or it may really not work. If it in fact is not a different DRM system, then all we'd need to read a mobi file from say, fictionwise, on a Kindle would be to suss out the device ID for that Kindle, register it with fictionwise, download a mobi book that's keyed to that file, change the extension to AZW, and load it up.
That's the theory, anyway, and it fits the few observed facts we have. Whether it will actually
work that way or not and how tricky getting a Kindle's device ID might be, those things we don't know.