Adobe Digital Editions - question before I buy a Kobo

[mumbletop]

One of the things that puts me off the Kindle is that DRM'ed books can only be bought from Amazon and cannot leave the Amazon platform. That, and the recent kerfuffle over a Kindle user who had her account cancelled without explanation.

As I understand it, DRM'ed books you buy from Kobo can be transferred to other ePub readers using Adobe Digital Editions, and ePubs you buy from at least some other booksellers can be transferred to a Kobo device using Adobe Digital Editions.

Apologies if I have misunderstood, but does this just transfer the problem from Amazon to Adobe? Can Adobe revoke access to books? What if they cancel your Adobe ID? What if - hypothetically - they go out of business?

Thanks, looking to buy a Glo.

[robko]

Originally Posted by mumbletop

As I understand it, DRM'ed books you buy from Kobo can be transferred to other ePub readers using Adobe Digital Editions, and ePubs you buy from at least some other booksellers can be transferred to a Kobo device using Adobe Digital Editions.

Correct.

Originally Posted by mumbletop

Apologies if I have misunderstood, but does this just transfer the problem from Amazon to Adobe? Can Adobe revoke access to books? What if they cancel your Adobe ID? What if - hypothetically - they go out of business?

In theory they could probably cancel your Adobe ID, but I'm not sure I've heard of that ever happening. Same as the going out of business - possible but highly unlikely. The best solution would be getting to know Apprentice Alf (google it) and you can solve the whole DRM concern.

[jusmee]

Originally Posted by robko

Correct.



In theory they could probably cancel your Adobe ID, but I'm not sure I've heard of that ever happening. Same as the going out of business - possible but highly unlikely.

Even if they did, if a given reader is authorised by ADE, and the book is DRM'd to that Adobe ID, then you will be able to read the book, no matter how broke Adobe go . The danger might be if a firmware update revokes the ability to handle Adobe DRM.

[Quexos]

What about when you sell your ebook reader to someone else. Can they buy books with it ? I mean your reader was bound to your account so won't DRM prevent your reader from being associated to the buyer's account when he creates it to buy books ?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by mumbletop

Apologies if I have misunderstood, but does this just transfer the problem from Amazon to Adobe? Can Adobe revoke access to books? What if they cancel your Adobe ID? What if - hypothetically - they go out of business?

Yes, it just makes your DRMed book reliant on Adobe instead of Amazon.

And Adobe don't even have to go out of business to prevent you accessing your ebooks. Their current system is based on Content Server 4. Their previous system was Content Server 3. They discontinued Content Server 3, and gave about a year for people to migrate their content.

http://web.archive.org/web/201005241...r/migrate.html

If you didn't notice in that short window of time, and open all your DRMed content and resave, you lost access.

[lioslaith]

Originally Posted by Quexos

What about when you sell your ebook reader to someone else. Can they buy books with it ? I mean your reader was bound to your account so won't DRM prevent your reader from being associated to the buyer's account when he creates it to buy books ?

No, you sign out of your account, can even do a factory reset of your reader to be sure that your information/account isn't present on the device, then you can sell it on. Also you can de-authorize the reader from your Adobe Editions account as well.

So if you do sell it on, or give it away, the new owner does a set-up on the device and sign into Kobo - or create an account if they don't have one - and then can buy straight from the device if they want or online/download to device wirelessly.

Essentially you divorce your reader from the account(s) attached to it and it's ready to go with someone else if you wish. As far as I know all readers can a way to do this. With the Kindle you simply de-authorize it in your Amazon account and the new owner can authorize it with their Amazon account. I believe all readers have there own version of this, but from using a Kobo it seems you sign out of Kobo and can sign into another account easily for downloading books if you have it, and for Adobe Editions bought from non-Kobo stores you de-authorize the device from your ADE account. This can be done directly on the Kobo itself or by connecting your Kobo and launching ADE and de-authorizing through their software.

[david_e]

I don't think it was mentioned yet, unless I missed it, but once you authorize your reader with adobe you don't have to use the desktop app again.

Just drag and drop the books onto your reader and you're good to go.