Lame "All-American B&N Classics" free promo

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by SkyDream

Well, thy are not really FREE as you need to sign in (free account) AND give them your credit card informations.

Why do they need my credit card informations for free books ?

So, free is not always free.

I've loaded all 21 of these classics, plus a bunch of others over the past several weeks. All free.

[jasonfedelem]

Kindle user here, but I always check for the free version on Amazon before going to PG because it allows for tighter integration with notes. If its not free or I dont like the formatting, I'll go to PG.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jgaiser

Actually, Harry, there is considerable doubt that the copyrights said to be held in the United States are valid (The claims have been rejected at least twice in US Federal Court). It appears from my reading that only one book - The Case Book - remains under copyright.

Yes, it's the "case book" that I was referring to - this is unquestionably under US copyright. Since the omnibus contains this, I'm afraid it means that you really shouldn't download the omnibus if you live in the US,

[TheOn3LeftBehind]

I think it's so stupid how they charge for classics. They're out of bloody copyright, make them free. So many sites I can go to and get them free (and not crappy quality). Sure, they have some free ones.. of Google Books that are crappily scanned.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by TheOn3LeftBehind

I think it's so stupid how they charge for classics. They're out of bloody copyright, make them free. So many sites I can go to and get them free (and not crappy quality). Sure, they have some free ones.. of Google Books that are crappily scanned.

"Scholarly" editions of classics are worth paying for - the introduction and footnotes can give you a lot more insight into the book than just reading the plain text. I have a whole bookcase full of "Penguin Classics" and "Oxford World Classics" for this reason. From what has been said, these B&N classics are of a similar nature.

Of course the plain text can be obtained free, if that's all that you want; right here at MR among other places.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Because their DRM scheme is based on your name and credit card number, both of which are encoded into the downloaded file.

The DRM scheme saves an encoded value. I suspect that it's a one-way hash, since one of the DRM strippers for the eReader DRM, also used by the ePub DRM only needed the last 8 digits of the credit card, not the entire 16. I know that on the Nook, they only save the encrypted hash and not the name and credit card.

The credit card I use is a virtual credit card with a dollar or two credit limit. If you don't want B&N to have "your credit card", get one of those "gift" credit cards and register it at B&N.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, it's the "case book" that I was referring to - this is unquestionably under US copyright. Since the omnibus contains this, I'm afraid it means that you really shouldn't download the omnibus if you live in the US,

Didn't realize The Case Book was in the Omnibus.. Guess that means I have an illegal copy, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Actually, the B&N Classics series come with bonus specially-written essays and commentary on the author/work presented, so it's a freebie worth picking up.

I downloaded several of the B&N Classics because thy have the essays and commentary. I love that stuff. Also, because these titles come from B&N, they will go in my B&N folder in the nook rather than in my harder-to-control My Documents folder.

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Geo-restricted to US addresses, though.

I wish the publishers and e-book publishers would get their acts together. Still, it must be a legal nightmare. Even public domain texts aren't in the public domain in all countries. Several years ago, while U.S. citizens were was able to download most of Algernon Blackwood supernatural stories from legal public domain sites, a British anthologist on a mailing list pointed out that in the UK, those stories were still under copyright. He complained that he couldn't include one of those stories in one of his print anthologies without paying ridiculous amounts to Blackwood's estate. All because while Blackwood wrote his most famous stories many years ago, he lived a looong life.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

I wish the publishers and e-book publishers would get their acts together. Still, it must be a legal nightmare. Even public domain texts aren't in the public domain in all countries.

It seems especially silly to have the geo-restriction in this case, since B&N are the publisher as well as distributor.

Mind you, though all the original authors in this promotion are very dead and the B&N Classics series has been going on for years, possibly they never thought they'd be selling ebook versions and thus failed to contract for worldwide electronic rights from the people supplying the commentaries and such.

(Which, BTW, are well done and very informative in the ones I've sampled, for anyone wondering if they're really added-value).

[GERGE]

Originally Posted by HarryT

"Scholarly" editions of classics are worth paying for - the introduction and footnotes can give you a lot more insight into the book than just reading the plain text.

I've bought many books from the Everyman's just for the introductions. B&N PD books have good extras in them too. You should at least donwload the Eliot.

[notyou]

Ok ok, original poster here. Maybe this promo isn't so lame. I've downloaded all of them. ;-}

[FlorenceArt]

Let us know what you think

[frquixote]

Looks like all these books are only available in ePub format and require the B&N Reader to be open. I'm disappointed. Had understood that the books would be delivered as eReader format if downloaded through the browser. Well, B&N wouldn't download any of them through my browser (Firefox). I click the Download button in My eBooks Library, it goes into busy mode for a minute or so and nothing. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by frquixote

Well, B&N wouldn't download any of them through my browser (Firefox). I click the Download button in My eBooks Library, it goes into busy mode for a minute or so and nothing. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

Do you have the EPUBreader add-on installed? It tries to automatically load any epubs you get from the web into its own library, and will fail with DRMed ones.

It also takes over the extension so I can't download .epub files via FF any more, but have to right-click/save as if the site permits it, or use another browser to get a backup copy.

[frquixote]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

Do you have the EPUBreader add-on installed? It tries to automatically load any epubs you get from the web into its own library, and will fail with DRMed ones.

Yup ... its the only way to check out the ePubs as I download them. Switched to IE 8.0 and got the books to download ... unfortunately, I was hoping to get at least SOME of them in eReader format ... guess B&N has abandoned it in its entirely.

Won't be able to read any of these on my WM6 device since Freda doesn't do DRM, eReader doesn't do ePub (DRM or no) and B&N has never done the courtesy of porting their application to the Palm and WM environments used by many of the original eReader users that kept eReader and Fictionwise alive for years.

Not that I'm bitter, but this is yet ANOTHER reason why format portability is important. After this experience I'll certainly not buy from B&N.