Tools 4.0

[KevinH]

Hi,

Originally Posted by GoSharks

....questionable legality depending upon where you live, questionable ethics depending upon your own moral compass...

This makes it sound so terrible. It may be technically correct but just to add some perspective:

It is currently legal/ethical in Canada (the home site of Mobileread I believe) to remove the DRM on an ebook as long as it is for personal use such as to archive for long-term storage, or convert so that it can be read on another reader you own. The only illegal or unethical issue is when it is used to create pirate copies.

The AA site that posts these tools specifically states that they are provided to support fair-use only, they refuse to support people who intend to use the tools for pirating purposes, that they love ebooks, authors, reading, and even ebook publishers and hope that everyone makes a profit so that new ebooks continue to be made and published, etc.

The only reason I buy ebooks (and I almost exclusively buy ebooks vs regular books now) is if I can remove the DRM and keep an archival copy (in html format) so that I never lose any book I buy. I don't sell my paper books now and I keep them and enjoy them again and again. No one company going out of business or dropping support can take away my paper books and they should not be able to do that to my ebooks either. Without these tools, I simply would not buy ebooks and my total book purchases would actually decrease. That said, I am totally against piracy and against not remunerating publishers and authors for their work. That is wrong.

As for Mobileread not allowing discussion of the specifics, I believe (someone please correct me if I am wrong) that Mobileread simply does not want to deal with all of the legal hassles from countries that have draconian laws that outlaw drm removal or software creation even for personal use because the laws there were written by lobbyist from industries that support DRM to trump "fair-use" and "common sense".

What I find truly unethical, is ebook sellers trying to take away your fair-use rights via questionable license agreements and then wanting to charge as much or more for what they are trying to "rent" to you. That is truly unethical and they all should be ashamed of themselves.

But that is another story.

[DiapDealer]

Well said. Karma coming.

[GoSharks]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Hi,



This makes it sound so terrible. It may be technically correct but just to add some perspective:

It is currently legal/ethical in Canada (the home site of Mobileread I believe) to remove the DRM on an ebook as long as it is for personal use such as to archive for long-term storage, or convert so that it can be read on another reader you own. The only illegal or unethical issue is when it is used to create pirate copies.

The AA site that posts these tools specifically states that they are provided to support fair-use only, they refuse to support people who intend to use the tools for pirating purposes, that they love ebooks, authors, reading, and even ebook publishers and hope that everyone makes a profit so that new ebooks continue to be made and published, etc.

The only reason I buy ebooks (and I almost exclusively buy ebooks vs regular books now) is if I can remove the DRM and keep an archival copy (in html format) so that I never lose any book I buy. I don't sell my paper books now and I keep them and enjoy them again and again. No one company going out of business or dropping support can take away my paper books and they should not be able to do that to my ebooks either. Without these tools, I simply would not buy ebooks and my total book purchases would actually decrease. That said, I am totally against piracy and against not remunerating publishers and authors for their work. That is wrong.

As for Mobileread not allowing discussion of the specifics, I believe (someone please correct me if I am wrong) that Mobileread simply does not want to deal with all of the legal hassles from countries that have draconian laws that outlaw drm removal or software creation even for personal use because the laws there were written by lobbyist from industries that support DRM to trump "fair-use" and "common sense".

What I find truly unethical, is ebook sellers trying to take away your fair-use rights via questionable license agreements and then wanting to charge as much or more for what they are trying to "rent" to you. That is truly unethical and they all should be ashamed of themselves.

But that is another story.

I agree completely. I was just trying to be VERY neutral so as to avoid the inevitable derailing of the thread by the morality police that ALWAYS seems to be lurking on (trolling) this forum.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Hi,

This makes it sound so terrible. It may be technically correct but just to add some perspective:

It is currently legal/ethical in Canada (the home site of Mobileread I believe) to remove the DRM on an ebook as long as it is for personal use such as to archive for long-term storage, or convert so that it can be read on another reader you own. The only illegal or unethical issue is when it is used to create pirate copies.

The AA site that posts these tools specifically states that they are provided to support fair-use only, they refuse to support people who intend to use the tools for pirating purposes, that they love ebooks, authors, reading, and even ebook publishers and hope that everyone makes a profit so that new ebooks continue to be made and published, etc.

The only reason I buy ebooks (and I almost exclusively buy ebooks vs regular books now) is if I can remove the DRM and keep an archival copy (in html format) so that I never lose any book I buy. I don't sell my paper books now and I keep them and enjoy them again and again. No one company going out of business or dropping support can take away my paper books and they should not be able to do that to my ebooks either. Without these tools, I simply would not buy ebooks and my total book purchases would actually decrease. That said, I am totally against piracy and against not remunerating publishers and authors for their work. That is wrong.

As for Mobileread not allowing discussion of the specifics, I believe (someone please correct me if I am wrong) that Mobileread simply does not want to deal with all of the legal hassles from countries that have draconian laws that outlaw drm removal or software creation even for personal use because the laws there were written by lobbyist from industries that support DRM to trump "fair-use" and "common sense".

What I find truly unethical, is ebook sellers trying to take away your fair-use rights via questionable license agreements and then wanting to charge as much or more for what they are trying to "rent" to you. That is truly unethical and they all should be ashamed of themselves.

But that is another story.

Excellent post. Totally agree.

Carol

[Bev M]

Agree here as well...and I wish I could present a medal for these wonderful tools!

[Leep]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Hi,


As for Mobileread not allowing discussion of the specifics, I believe (someone please correct me if I am wrong) that Mobileread simply does not want to deal with all of the legal hassles from countries that have draconian laws that outlaw drm removal or software creation even for personal use because the laws there were written by lobbyist from industries that support DRM to trump "fair-use" and "common sense".

What I find truly unethical, is ebook sellers trying to take away your fair-use rights via questionable license agreements and then wanting to charge as much or more for what they are trying to "rent" to you. That is truly unethical and they all should be ashamed of themselves.

But that is another story.

Remember, Mobileread has also gotten a 'take-down' notice from Amazon for 'Kindle PID' and 'Kindlefix' tools and the visual wiki's created for using same in the past. You can understand their hesitance to get in a tussle with big corporations.

cheers

[Kenneth_irl]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Hi,



This makes it sound so terrible. It may be technically correct but just to add some perspective:

It is currently legal/ethical in Canada (the home site of Mobileread I believe) to remove the DRM on an ebook as long as it is for personal use such as to archive for long-term storage, or convert so that it can be read on another reader you own. The only illegal or unethical issue is when it is used to create pirate copies.

The AA site that posts these tools specifically states that they are provided to support fair-use only, they refuse to support people who intend to use the tools for pirating purposes, that they love ebooks, authors, reading, and even ebook publishers and hope that everyone makes a profit so that new ebooks continue to be made and published, etc.

The only reason I buy ebooks (and I almost exclusively buy ebooks vs regular books now) is if I can remove the DRM and keep an archival copy (in html format) so that I never lose any book I buy. I don't sell my paper books now and I keep them and enjoy them again and again. No one company going out of business or dropping support can take away my paper books and they should not be able to do that to my ebooks either. Without these tools, I simply would not buy ebooks and my total book purchases would actually decrease. That said, I am totally against piracy and against not remunerating publishers and authors for their work. That is wrong.

As for Mobileread not allowing discussion of the specifics, I believe (someone please correct me if I am wrong) that Mobileread simply does not want to deal with all of the legal hassles from countries that have draconian laws that outlaw drm removal or software creation even for personal use because the laws there were written by lobbyist from industries that support DRM to trump "fair-use" and "common sense".

What I find truly unethical, is ebook sellers trying to take away your fair-use rights via questionable license agreements and then wanting to charge as much or more for what they are trying to "rent" to you. That is truly unethical and they all should be ashamed of themselves.

But that is another story.

Well said, well said.

We need combat these powers that seek to take away our 'common sense' freedom for their own benefits. Be aware of it or not, the freedom we have today is not a physical law of the universe. If it can be gained then we can also have it taken away from us.

Cheers

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by chas0039

I found that Calibre replaces the old with the new automatically.

did it also keep all of the personal settings?

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by alansplace

did it also keep all of the personal settings?

Yes - it will "move" your configuration settings to the new version of plug-in

[alansplace]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Yes - it will "move" your configuration settings to the new version of plug-in

cool, thanks!

[Nyssa]

The following quote was snipped to summarize since it has been quoted a few times already in this thread:

Originally Posted by KevinH

What I find truly unethical, is ebook sellers trying to take away your fair-use rights via questionable license agreements and then wanting to charge as much or more for what they are trying to "rent" to you. That is truly unethical and they all should be ashamed of themselves.

Excellent post Kevin!!! Much karma to you.