What are we going to do about Adobe?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Harry, unless the license is explicitly described as time limited, one naturally assumes that the license doesn't end.

I agree. What I was asking is whether the licence did make any claims about how long it was guaranteed to work for?

[SpiderMatt]

Originally Posted by ProfJulie

If you use the full version of Adobe Reader 7.0 you should be able to use it to read your DRM books (assuming you have activated your computer through Adobe's website). DE is not required, but it is often the default reader nowadays for PDF books. You'll need to completely uninstall DE from your computer first and then you should check to make sure the PDF file association is set to Adobe Reader. You can see what Fictionwise says about this here:

http://www.fictionwise.com/help/adobe_reader_help.htm

Nice, I'll have to play around with that. I use Acrobat Reader Pro 7.0 on my personal laptop. I experimented with DE on a government laptop since it's the only one I have with internet access right now. But when I'm back home from deployment, I'll have to experiment.

Originally Posted by Nate the great

What about the people whose PDFs stopped working because they had to reinstall the OS? It's happened. What about people whose PDFs stopped working for no other reason than a year had passed since the sale? That's happened.

It depends what guarantees the the company gives with the files. If someone is supposed to have the capability to do something with a file and it turns out the person does not have such a capability, then it's false advertisement on the company's part. A person might have to go into the terms & agreements to find this stuff, but there's generally something available specifying what you can do with the files. Most cases I hear about get solved through complaints to the company anyway. It would be terrible customer service to say, "Oh, your PDF stopped working? Looks like you're SOL." The only personal experience I have with needing to redownload DRMed material was when I forgot to backup some tracks purchased from iTunes (purchasing from iTunes is very rare for me, but they had exclusive Barenaked Ladies material I felt I had to get my hands on ) when I reformatted my hard drive. One email to Apple and they allowed me to redownload everything I had ever gotten from them, including all the free promotional stuff and the free tracks I got from the codes on Pepsi caps years ago. I know Fictionwise is pretty obvious with what you can and can't do with their files. Typically, I don't purchase anything that I won't be able to strip the DRM off of. As a consumer, this has worked out pretty well for me and has seemingly saved me a world of hurt. However, I've made bad purchases before and as mad as I've been about it, I never blamed the retailer. I'm usually just mad at myself for not doing all the research I should have. Apparently, regret is a powerful learning tool, though. I have to say, past unwise purchases have definitely made me a wiser consumer. I don't take parting with my money lightly.

[ProfJulie]

Originally Posted by SpiderMatt

Nice, I'll have to play around with that. I use Acrobat Reader Pro 7.0 on my personal laptop. I experimented with DE on a government laptop since it's the only one I have with internet access right now. But when I'm back home from deployment, I'll have to experiment.

I use Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Standard and it works fine with my DRM books and the books that I check out of the library. But if you've already opened a DRM book in DE, you may not be able to ever open those books in Adobe Acrobat - you may be stuck with DE - I don't know if this latest BETA version of DE addresses that issue.

[BasilC]

The last DRM PDF book I bought can't be launched in ANY system because Adobe claim that I have too many computers registered - which is utter tripe, because I only have one laptop plus one Palm device. I've somehow got into a situation where the same laptop has been registered several times and Adobe regard it as several different computers. I can now no longer buy an DRM'd PDF books - which pisses me off, as most of the books I want to buy are in Adobe format. We need to persuade publishers to go for a different format, eg E Reader.

[ProfJulie]

Originally Posted by BasilC

The last DRM PDF book I bought can't be launched in ANY system because Adobe claim that I have too many computers registered - which is utter tripe, because I only have one laptop plus one Palm device. I've somehow got into a situation where the same laptop has been registered several times and Adobe regard it as several different computers. I can now no longer buy an DRM'd PDF books - which pisses me off, as most of the books I want to buy are in Adobe format. We need to persuade publishers to go for a different format, eg E Reader.

You may be able to get around this by setting up a new .NET Passport account and authorizing your computer under that account. Creating a new .NET Passport account essentially creates a blank slate. I don't know if you'll be able to read the DRM books you already have, but you should be able to read newly purchased DRM books.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by BasilC

We need to persuade publishers to go for a different format, eg E Reader.

Why on Earth would you want to persuade companies to release books in a format which CANNOT be read on any of the current range of eInk devices? E-Reader format is one of the most restrictive formats around in terms of the range of platforms it can be read on. Don't you think it would be more sensible to go for a multi-platform format such as MobiPocket?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Why on Earth would you want to persuade companies to release books in a format which CANNOT be read on any of the current range of eInk devices? E-Reader format is one of the most restrictive formats around in terms of the range of platforms it can be read on. Don't you think it would be more sensible to go for a multi-platform format such as MobiPocket?

It's not that restrictive: the eReader viewer is available for Windows, Mac OS/X, Palm OS, WinCE, Windows Mobile, Symbian, and OQO. It's simply not available for any eInk device.

Agreed that Mobipocket is a better overall choice, though I have hopes that Fictionwise try to extend the range of supported device. A Blackberry client would be nice. Whether it will ever be supported on the Kindle, Sony Reader or Cybook will have more to do with Amazon, Sony, and Bookeen than Fictionwise, I suspect. (I suspect Bookeen would be willing, but Amazon and Sony are another matter.)
______
Dennis

[JSWolf]

Let's go for MS Reader, BBeB, Mobi, and eReader and forget PDF. Then we will be all set.

[nairbv]

Originally Posted by rationalbiker

At any rate, their suit would probably would not have merit unless they could demonstrate that they had contracted (expressed or implied) with Adobe that Adobe would provide a certain durability for the product they purchased.

disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer. anyways.

umm.... Didn't they?

If I "buy" an "ebook," doesn't that represents a contract? A contract which "implies" I will be able to read said "ebook."

There are "implied" warranties of "fitness for intended use" in the US. I can't imagine any judge would fail to see that an unreadable ebook does not meet the "implied" warranty of "fitness for intended use." What else would be the intended use?

from: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedicti...duct+liability

"Breach of warranty refers to the failure of a seller to fulfill the terms of a promise, claim, or representation made concerning the quality or type of the product."

If Adobe has bugs in their system preventing people from registering books to their computers... and thus said books can't be read, ? why does anyone object to a lawsuit? selling un-readable ebooks is plain theft.

I think small claims court is the wrong way to go though. The better path in the US would be a class-action lawsuit through the attorney general, wouldn't it? Then there's one suit representing all pissed off customers.

I'm really getting sick of companies in the US shitting on customers like this. I'm lied to all the time by big US companies that sell me products that just plain don't do what they're supposed to do. Yeah, there are a lot of nonsense lawsuits in the US... someone sews mcdonalds because they're coffee was hot, etc etc, ... but there are also a lot of lying thieving companies in the US that consumer protection agencies should be doing more to protect us against.