Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader Locked Up: Why Your Books Are No Longer Yours

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Of course, you run the risk of someone else getting your number, and having access to every digital document you own...

Yes, same with PGP. You have to keep your private key private. Perhaps that's why they call it the "Private" key. Then again, you still need a passphrase even if you do have the private key.

You can always REVOKE a pgp key and send that to the PGP server, as you see I did when you look for me on the key server. Heck they could use PGP as it already exists, and there are already public key servers.

BOb

[Taylor514ce]

Exactly, PGP is a nearly invisible (to the user) implementation of Public Key Cryptography.

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Well this is exactly the key used on eReader by palm (now owned by fictionwise) except they use your credit card number. You can use it anywhere you wish and give it to anyone you would trust your credit card to.

The eReader DRM is non-intrusive as long as you're on a supported device. That doesn't help folks who have a large investment in eReader-format books who would like to read them on a newly-purchased Kindle, Cybook or Sony...

And I don't personally think that purchasing one's e-library again (or "throwing it away") each time they change to a non-supported device is an acceptable solution. Especially given the minimal discount to print price that most eReader books are sold at.

But a similar encryption scheme that is truly universal would be acceptable to me.

[Kajti]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

What is Baen doing wrong that you don't want to pay them?

Not a thing. DRM-free texts in open formats like HTML, bundling that makes unknown authors less of a risk to check out, more: Baen is doing stuff more right than anybody. But the books are out there, easily gotten, at vanishingly small risk on p2p and zero risk on usenet. The point of paying for an expensive reading device for me was that books then became free. Same with buying a divx-capable TV player, so I could watch shows I download, like jPod from Canada or Ashes to Ashes from the UK, or watch movies others have ripped and made available. And even if copyright fetishists use dark magic to shut down the internet, I've enough books on DVD that I could read a novel a day for decades to come with no problem....

I could plead that I live on a fixed income, or that I require a small fortune in meds every month to stay alive, but why bother? Files are available, so I avail myself of them. QED. If your morality says I'll burn in hell, I can live with that.

[Kajti]

Originally Posted by nekokami

Whoa. Have you ever actually tried looking for anything on the darknet? It is far from the path of least resistance.

If I go to one of the dozen or so NZB search engines in existence and type in a term, I usually get a result. Download a pointer file, feed it into a downloading program, and minutes to hours later (depending upon file size and download speed), I have a book or TV show or movie or game or whatever. P2P is quite similar, though generally slower. It's not difficult, for anyone of "I installed some new plugins in Open Office" level of computer skill.

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by Kajti

Files are available, so I avail myself of them. QED. If your morality says I'll burn in hell, I can live with that.

I don't care what happens to you or your soul. But I do wish a nasty rootkit upon on your computer.

I think that you're a poster child for all DRM advocates, who believe that you are a typical consumer.

Me, I know that people don't produce content for free.

I can see maybe making some sort of "moral" exception for books that aren't available electronically -- though I wouldn't. But pirating books that a publisher like Baen puts out there at reasonable cost without DRM is, yes, wrong in my book. Especially when you so proudly proclaim it isn't due to lack of funds.

Whatever.

[Lobolover]

where is this siad "article"?Anyway's,I put up all my fiction online,has a much broader readership.

[HarryT]

Many people have joined the MobileRead community recently, so this is perhaps a good opportunity to remind people of our site policy.

MobileRead is a site for the discussion and promotion of the "legitimate" eBook market. There are plenty of sites on which so-called "pirates" can discuss their activities, but MobileRead is not such a site.

We try to allow a free exchange of opinions here, and to let everyone air their views, but that does (and must) stop short of promotion of, and advocacy for, illegal activities.

Please bear that in mind when posting here.

Thank you,

[Moderator]

[tompe]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Well this is exactly the key used on eReader by palm (now owned by fictionwise) except they use your credit card number. You can use it anywhere you wish and give it to anyone you would trust your credit card to.

How does that work when you get a new number on your credit card? Do you still use your old invalid card for old books? If so there is no problem distributing the number.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by bwaldron

And I don't personally think that purchasing one's e-library again (or "throwing it away") each time they change to a non-supported device is an acceptable solution. Especially given the minimal discount to print price that most eReader books are sold at.

Agreed... at any e-book price... and this seems to be the only thing that DRM actually accomplishes. I expect that when DRM advocates see the progress made in traffic management... ID'ing suspect material in transit and tracking it to sender and recipient... they will lobby to adopt TM to their purposes.

Originally Posted by Kajti

The point of paying for an expensive reading device for me was that books then became free.

That sounds to me like saying I expect all of my groceries to be free because I bought a high-end fridge...

Originally Posted by Kajti

I could plead that I live on a fixed income, or that I require a small fortune in meds every month to stay alive, but why bother? Files are available, so I avail myself of them. QED. If your morality says I'll burn in hell, I can live with that.

And people wonder why the e-book market is so slow to catch on. Who's bringing the marshmallows?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by tompe

How does that work when you get a new number on your credit card? Do you still use your old invalid card for old books? If so there is no problem distributing the number.

For your old books at least the old number will work forever. I am not sure about the new ones you buy. The number is stored in the file itself.

Dale

[radleyp]

bwaldron, you highlight the point I was trying to make in our discussion in another thread, that if you switch reading devices from, say, the Cybook, to your TH55, the book you are reading must be available in both formats. I did lots of reading in ereader on both my Palm devices and, later, my MotoQ: I have some 50+ books in ereader format. None are readable on the Kindle. Moreover, if you do switch, you have to coordinate the two devices. Of course, you could be reading different things on each: I, however, cannot switch from one to the other because of, say, lighting conditions, leave off what I was reading on the Kindle and start with other matter on the MotoQ. So how do you manage? Like you, I don't want to have to buy the book twice but, just so you know, when I was presented with the Kindle in December, I was reading The Best and the Brightest, a DRM'ed book, in ereader on my MotoQ. I could not simply stop, so I bought it again for the Kindle. So I hope you turn publishers' heads in the right direction, and make them issue multi-eformatted books.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Kajti

Files are available, so I avail myself of them. QED. If your morality says I'll burn in hell, I can live with that.

I bet you feel differently about people coming into your house and taking your stuff.

[bwaldron]

If you look in the lounge, there is a tool available to remove the eReader DRM and decode the files to HTML (which can then be converted to the mobi format readable by the Kindle). Of course, the usual disclaimer about legality of using such a tool must be made.

Originally Posted by radleyp

bwaldron, you highlight the point I was trying to make in our discussion in another thread, that if you switch reading devices from, say, the Cybook, to your TH55, the book you are reading must be available in both formats. I did lots of reading in ereader on both my Palm devices and, later, my MotoQ: I have some 50+ books in ereader format. None are readable on the Kindle. Moreover, if you do switch, you have to coordinate the two devices. Of course, you could be reading different things on each: I, however, cannot switch from one to the other because of, say, lighting conditions, leave off what I was reading on the Kindle and start with other matter on the MotoQ. So how do you manage? Like you, I don't want to have to buy the book twice but, just so you know, when I was presented with the Kindle in December, I was reading The Best and the Brightest, a DRM'ed book, in ereader on my MotoQ. I could not simply stop, so I bought it again for the Kindle. So I hope you turn publishers' heads in the right direction, and make them issue multi-eformatted books.

[radleyp]

Are you quite sure that works? The mobi format readable on the Kindle must be non-DRM, and even if you remove the DRM I am not sure it would work. In any case, I refuse to deny creators their earnings, so I wouldn't do it, nor have I ever been able to get mobi creator to work on my desktop.