Ebook stores and their DRM

[ebusinesstutor]

Great summary. I like to support book sites like Smashwords and Baen books because of their DRM offerings. I only buy books with DRM when they are not available in the other formats.

[Peter Sorotokin]

Originally Posted by Jasonofindy

Barnes & Noble- The books from their store are epub with their own proprietary DRM using your credit card number. Books purchased from them will only work on the Nook and the various devices that now have software "Nook Apps."

Even with the update this is not quite right. It is true that B&N uses different flavor of Adobe DRM, but it is still DRM licensed by Adobe and it has been available to all device manufacturers for over a year now (shortly after B&N shipped first Nook). It is true that Digital Edition application does not support it yet, but almost all newer devices/apps (Adobe SDK version 9.1+) do.

[crich70]

I did get a reply back to my query to Mobipocket. Naturally it was Amazon that answered me (not Mobipocket) since they own Mobipocket.

Hello,

I'm sorry but the Kindle device and Mobipocket software are not designed to work together.

Please know that, the Mobipocket non-DRM books can be read on the Kindle. The Mobipocket non-DRM books are basically the free ebooks, which you can find at this page (http://www.mobipocket.com/freebooks/default.aspx) and the demo samples that you see on the site. The freebooks and demo samples are not DRM-encrypted, which is why they can be read on the Kindle device.

The Mobipocket DRM eBooks are basically the vast majority of the eBooks that are sold on our site. If they are sold, then they have DRM-encryption and that means they can't be read on the Kindle device.
......
Further, any future development plans for such support will be updated on the website.

I find it hard to believe that Mobipocket software isn't designed to work on the Kindle myself since their free books do work on it. And everyone knows that Amazon's DRM is the only thing that causes them to appear different from standard mobipocket files. I also find it hard to believe that a development plan would need to be worked out yet. I mean they've owned Mobipocket since 2005 after all. Long before the 1st Kindle was designed and built I bet. I'm beginning to feel that Amazon is trying to treat me like a mushroom.