Dell magazines like Asimov's

[Krittika Goyal]

After December 4th (i. e. when fictionwise shuts down) Dell magazines like Asimov's, Alfred Hitchcocks Mystery Magazine, Analog, Ellery Queens Mystery magazine will no longer be available in DRM free formats. Please get the ones you want quickly.

Here is an email from Dell magazines staff that i got today

Dear Krittika,

Fictionwise began to sell our digital editions many years ago when there was less concern about piracy, making any type of encryption or security measures almost a non-issue. Of course that no longer remains true. One such company has within the last year moved their servers outside of the US in order to continue selling content they do not have rights to nor are they paying the publishers. That includes all of our fiction titles. We lose a significant sum of money to this type of effort each year, not to mention the rights of our authors. As such, once Fictionwise goes out of business there will no longer be any DRM free versions of our digital editions.

It is unfortunate that we are not able to satisfy some of our customers who want DRM free content but due to the pervasiveness of piracy today we are not able to accommodate the request. We hope you and all our customers understand our position.

Regards,
Terrie Poly
Websites and Digital Publishing Manager
Penny Publications, LLC
203.866.6688 x189
tpoly@pennypublications.net

[HarryT]

A reasonable perspective. It's unfortunate that the dishonest minority spoil things for everyone else.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by HarryT

A reasonable perspective.

No! No, it's not!

They are talking about commercial or large scale pirating. Web sites selling content that isn't theirs to sell, or possibly even torrents (although the email only mentions commercial pirates).

Adding DRM to their books has no effect on such operations.

Saying that such operations are why they will no longer offer magazine DRM-free is shows that they are either lying or misinformed.

(I've sent them a letter:

Spoiler:

Dear Analog,

With the demise of Fictionwise, I shall have to start buying your magazine elsewhere. I have bought Analog (& Asimov's) from Fictionwise since 2003.

Have you considered starting direct electronic subscriptions? It would be relatively simple to set up, especially as it could be a shared resource for all Dell Magazines.

But if not direct, do you have a preferred partner? Ideally I would like to buy in a similar drm-free multiformat as was available at Fictionwise, as I currently use a Mobipocket (Kindle-ish) device, but I may well switch to an ePub based device in the future.

I so a quote at Mobileread that you would no longer be offerring a DRM-free edition. If true, this is surprising. DRM on ebooks offers no protection from commercial pirates, and only inconveniences paying customers. The Music industry discarded DRM a few years ago, Some mainstream publishers are starting to discard DRM now (e.g. TOR). It would be a shame to see Analog's publisher going backwards.

regards,

Paul Durrant

And why does one only spot typos after hitting send!)

[ballfresno]

I wrote to Analog a week or more ago. My letter pretty much echoed your sentiments, including suggesting electronic subscriptions direct from them and a desire to have DRM-free ebooks. In any case, I have yet to receive an answer.

I am particularly annoyed because I cannot find where I can actually buy Analog (and Asimov's) in the UK for my Kobo.

It is sad that after almost 40 years of reading Analog, I may have to stop because I cannot actually get a copy of the magazine.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ballfresno

I wrote to Analog a week or more ago. My letter pretty much echoed your sentiments, including suggesting electronic subscriptions direct from them and a desire to have DRM-free ebooks. In any case, I have yet to receive an answer.

I am particularly annoyed because I cannot find where I can actually buy Analog (and Asimov's) in the UK for my Kobo.

It is sad that after almost 40 years of reading Analog, I may have to stop because I cannot actually get a copy of the magazine.

It appears to be available at nook UK and at Amazon UK

I don't know if the nook version will work on your Kobo. Certainly either can be converted for your kobo is you strip the DRM (with Apprentice Alf's help).

[ballfresno]

Thanks for the links to nook and amazon.

However, my understanding is that these only deliver to actual devices? I haven't checked nook but amazon restricts delivery to kindle devices and a number of specific devices that I don't have. It doesn't allow downloading to Kindle PC so even Alf cannot help? My impression was that nook was the same.

Please correct me if I have misunderstood.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ballfresno

Thanks for the links to nook and amazon.

However, my understanding is that these only deliver to actual devices? I haven't checked nook but amazon restricts delivery to kindle devices and a number of specific devices that I don't have. It doesn't allow downloading to Kindle PC so even Alf cannot help? My impression was that nook was the same.

Please correct me if I have misunderstood.

Ah. You may be right. I have an Amazon subscription to F&SF, and that only allows downloads to my Kindle and Kindle for iOS.

I don't have a magazine subscription at nook.co.uk, so I don't know for sure, but I would have expected to be able to download those to a computer.

[gbm]

I just download Nook for PC, download Asimov's Science Fiction 01/01/13. The good news is that it does not seen to have "drm", dragged and dropped to calibre just fine.


bernie

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by gbm

I just download Nook for PC, download Asimov's Science Fiction 01/01/13. The good news is that it does not seen to have "drm", dragged and dropped to calibre just fine.


bernie

Any ebook (DRMed or not) will load into calibre just fine. The question is whether you can view and convert it with calibre.

Good news that you can download direct to your computer from the nook store though. The Amazon subscriptions won't download to Kindle for Mac/PC.

[gbm]

Originally Posted by gbm

I just download Nook for PC, download Asimov's Science Fiction 01/01/13. The good news is that it does not seen to have "drm", dragged and dropped to calibre just fine.


bernie

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Any ebook (DRMed or not) will load into calibre just fine. The question is whether you can view and convert it with calibre.

Good news that you can download direct to your computer from the nook store though. The Amazon subscriptions won't download to Kindle for Mac/PC.

It opened just fine in both ADE and calibre reader from the nook dir.

I am using Nook for PC under wine on a Ubuntu 12.04 system.

You can get a free one month trial subscription to check with nook for mac.

Bad news for you pdurrant see the bold print:

Overview -Analog Science Fiction and Fact

Product Details

Pub. Date: November 2012
Publisher: Penny Publications
Sold By: PENNY PUBLICATIONS - EPERIODICAL
Format: NOOK Magazine (eMagazine)
Sales Rank: 20,826
Delivered: Monthly

Series: ePeriodical Series
BNID: 2940000281574
Available only in the U.S.
Language: English

bernie

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by gbm

Bad news for you pdurrant see the bold print:

It may only be available in the US from the US site, but it is available for nook at the uk nook site:

http://uk.nook.com/newsstand/analog-.../2940000281574

I'll give it a go soon.

regards,

Paul

[gbm]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It may only be available in the US from the US site, but it is available for nook at the uk nook site:

http://uk.nook.com/newsstand/analog-.../2940000281574

I'll give it a go soon.

regards,

Paul

Good luck.

bernie

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by gbm

Good luck.

Thanks. However, I don't yet have a nook UK account, and I'm not going to make one until I've heard about what I need to do for the Fictionwise shutdown. I think I will need to create a UK account, but I don't want to make one and find that having a new account has confused their transfer system.

[ballfresno]

Thank you all! I will try nook UK when the next issues of Analog and Asimov's appear (I already have the newest ones available from nook, bought them from Fictionwise with the last coupons a few weeks ago!).

[HarryT]

Is there any way to buy previous editions from Amazon, as I believe one could (?) from FW?