ebooks, buying it in paper and worrying about it

[basschick]

i don't think DRM alone is the issue - it's the fact that most the makers of ebook readers wanted their own formats. DRM would be a lot less annoying if ALL readers could read the same formats.

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

Booksonboard.com were very good, actually, about switching formats, so I could download the mobipocket version.

Which I apparently am now unable to load on my sony 500 because it's riddled with DRM.

I tried downloading something called mobidedrm, but I don't know what to do with it (on my mac laptop). I do have calibre, but that's how I found out I couldn't put it on.
And nobody mention anything about 'command lines' or I'm out of here. To me, 'command lines' are what people shout at each other in Apocalypse Now or The Longest Day, and I'm happy in my ignorance. Is there any goddamned way to get the book I legally paid for to work on my Sony reader?

Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. Do you know what this kind of lack of technological foresight reminds me of? That old, old law that required a man holding a warning flag to walk in front of any and every automobile in case someone got run over; in other words, something so overwhelmingly idiotic as to make the jaw drop.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, DRM is the best advert file-sharing ever had.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

Is there any goddamned way to get the book I legally paid for to work on my Sony reader?

Without cracking the DRM no. And yes, the tools to do that are "command line" programs. Sorry, I had to say it to answer you question.

BOb

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by basschick

i don't think DRM alone is the issue - it's the fact that most the makers of ebook readers wanted their own formats. DRM would be a lot less annoying if ALL readers could read the same formats.

You are describing what may be the Holy Grail of ebooks.

I have about 3,500 ebooks on my Palm OS PDA. The majority are HTML I converted for use by Plucker, an open source offline HTML reader for Palm OS. But I also have a fair number in Mobipocket, eReader, PDF, Word, RTF, and plain text formats. I must maintain five different viewer applications, and remember which books are in which format read with which viewer, which is just nuts.

At the moment, none of the ebooks on my device are paid for commercial titles. They are all public domain, Creative Commons, or other form of license that lets me download, install, and share them. I have no objection to paying for content, but I want to download it once and read it on whatever I happen to have at hand.

The current profusion of formats and DRM schemes makes that far more difficult than I feel like dealing with. If the ebook industry ever settles on a common format everone will support, with a single not overly intrusive DRM scheme, I'll reconsider. I don't see myself as needing to reconsider for quite some time.
______
Dennis

[garygibsonsf]

I got a very prompt mobipocket version of the book from booksonboard, except it's DRM'ed too. I don't know why I didn't expect that; a combination of my own naivety and ignorance, I guess. I had a look around the site here to find possible solutions, but a lot of them have to do with command line interfaces and some coding language which, I'm afraid, went rather sailing over my poor pointy little head. I wish I understood this stuff, but I just don't. I'm going to write back to the company and ask for my money back since I've got a book I can do nothing with.

Forearmed with a little knowledge, I had a look at fictionwise. They have 'multiformat' as I now learn the non-drm'ed stuff is known, alas the majority of what I want to buy is DRM-crippled. But at least I know some stuff is out there - I see some magazines are available in multiformat, and a good bit cheaper than they'd cost me in paper.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

I got a very prompt mobipocket version of the book from booksonboard, except it's DRM'ed too. I don't know why I didn't expect that; a combination of my own naivety and ignorance, I guess. I had a look around the site here to find possible solutions, but a lot of them have to do with command line interfaces and some coding language which, I'm afraid, went rather sailing over my poor pointy little head. I wish I understood this stuff, but I just don't. I'm going to write back to the company and ask for my money back since I've got a book I can do nothing with.

Forearmed with a little knowledge, I had a look at fictionwise. They have 'multiformat' as I now learn the non-drm'ed stuff is known, alas the majority of what I want to buy is DRM-crippled. But at least I know some stuff is out there - I see some magazines are available in multiformat, and a good bit cheaper than they'd cost me in paper.

Does books on board have LIT versions of the books you bought? If so, are you on Windows? If so I would be happy to do a web ex with you and show you how to convert the books. It's not to hard once you've done it.

BOb

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by garygibsonsf

Forearmed with a little knowledge, I had a look at fictionwise. They have 'multiformat' as I now learn the non-drm'ed stuff is known, alas the majority of what I want to buy is DRM-crippled. But at least I know some stuff is out there - I see some magazines are available in multiformat, and a good bit cheaper than they'd cost me in paper.

Which reader device do you have?

BOb

[DixieGal]

DELETED BECAUSE MY POST WAS CRANKY.
HAVING A BAD DAY.
SORRY.

[garygibsonsf]

Hi Bob. The book - 'Imperial Life in the Emerald City', in case anyone's wondering, I saw the author on Jon Stewart some time back - is available in Adobe acrobat, Microsoft reader, Mobipocket (the version I have) and Ereader. I've got a Sony 500, and I'm running it off of a G4 Mac iBook. Outside of the DRM thing, it's been a gas since I got this thing.
I *did* take a look at some 'suggestions' posted elsewhere on how to take care of the DRM thing, but gave up after installing Python and so on. I literally just don't have the time to learn all this stuff.

[garygibsonsf]

I take it back. I'll learn, if it's conceivable. I have a ppc Mac ibook, python installed, and those igorski scripts. what do i do with them?