do you ever wonder...

[basschick]

as far as i know, and i'm very new, no other reader can read kindle files but kindle, sony files but sony, and except for the iliad, i believe - and would LOVE to be wrong - that only the cybook can read protected mobipocket files.

i read an easy 3 - 4 books per week. after 3 or 4 years, that will represent an investment i'd hate to have to make all over in order to read the same books i've already often rebought from paper to electronic form.

i've been surfing ebookstores all day. i see that protected mobipocket seems to be everywhere with the authors and titles i want. but bookeen is a small company - in 5 or 6 years, i could have to replace my entire elibrary if they fold.

and yet, that could happen with the sony or the kindle. this is why i hadn't gotten a reader before.

am i paranoid? microsoft did discontinue their reader, and i've seen other types of proprietary product lines suddenly retired in the course of my work. what really annoys me is that i have read everywhere that amazon owns mobipocket.com yet the kindle can't read protected mobipocket because they are pushing kindle with everything they have.

i hate proprietary formats

[HarryT]

That's the benefit of buying MobiPocket format books - it's a format which is available on multiple hardware platforms. If you buy another eBook reader in, say, 2 or 3 years time, you're certain to be able to get one which supports Mobi. Buying Mobi books protects your investment.

Bookeen have been in the eBook reader business for over 10 years - far, far longer than either Amazon or Sony. I don't think there's much chance of them "folding" in the foreseeable future. They have an excellent product which is selling every unit that they can get their hands on.

[moz]

A much better plan is to not rent protected books at all. If you want to buy books you must either buy unprotected books or own the protection system (impractical for most of us). The third option is to buy effectively unprotected books that you can remove the protection from. One approach to the latter that I haven't seen for that (yet) is using an e-ink device and a camera with OCR software but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

Currently of the $500-ish I've spent on ebooks all has gone into books that I now own copies of, rather than to books that I can only access at the pleasure of the owner. the MS lit format is excellent for that, it seems to count as DRM for publishers but it's trivial to remove for consumers.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by moz

Currently of the $500-ish I've spent on ebooks all has gone into books that I now own copies of, rather than to books that I can only access at the pleasure of the owner.

I think you'll find, that if you read the terms of service of practically any e-book store, that you are only licensing it, not buying it. For example, FictionWise say:

All eBooks at Fictionwise.com are the exclusive property of the publisher or its licensors...

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by basschick

i've been surfing ebookstores all day. i see that protected mobipocket seems to be everywhere with the authors and titles i want. but bookeen is a small company - in 5 or 6 years, i could have to replace my entire elibrary if they fold.

This is a real concern, but only if the DRM-provider or the place your bought your ebooks from folds. The least intrusive DRM is eReader's, because it just requires you to remember your credit card number and is otherwise transferable. Three major DRM formats: LIT, MOBI, and eReader can be broken by downloadable software tools. In the US, stripping DRM probably isn't legal even if your DRM provider goes out of business but it is nice to know this last resort is available. If you think DRM is evil, then one approach is to be proactive by buying LIT (say) and immediately striping the DRM and format shifting to be compatible whatever devices you want. LIT is the best choice in this case because it is the best "archive" format of the three (LIT, MOBI, eReader).

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If you buy another eBook reader in, say, 2 or 3 years time, you're certain to be able to get one which supports Mobi.

I dont' know about "certain" but I'd cheerfully go along with "extremely likely."

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I think you'll find, that if you read the terms of service of practically any e-book store, that you are only licensing it, not buying it.

Interesting fact: Martin Gorner, CEO of Mobipocket, is of the opinion that Mobipocket sells ebooks; it doesn't license them.

[DixieGal]

Does this languagge affect how the authors are paid? License vs purchase? Just curious....

[NatCh]

I don't think so, I think it mostly affects whether you can get access to "your" books again later if you want them.

[HarryT]

And it also affects your legal rights as far as things like resale are concerned. If you own them, you can resell them. If you don't, you probably can't.

Note that the Fictionwise "terms of use" go on to say:

Users may not modify, transmit, publish, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, display, or in any way exploit, any of the content of these product(s), in whole or in part. By downloading Fictionwise eBooks, the User hereby acknowledges and agrees to these terms.

Emphasis mine.

[Elsi]

Originally Posted by basschick

i hate proprietary formats

I hate DRM. Except for that, it would be easy enough to format-shift using tools currently available.

[basschick]

i've been a paying member of rhapsody for years. despite the fact that their subscription music is DRM-protected, the format their music is in can be used by pretty much any mp3 player or device. also their music is library style - i get access to all the music in their system each month for a price. if a user chooses to buy a track, as opposed to getting the use of it for a month, they can burn it and it will play for life without "phoning home" each time you play it.

and that's why i was surprised - and dismayed - a few days ago when i started looking at how ebooks work. i'm not 100% against DRM, but the way ebooks work - proprietary formats, no way to permanently buy a book that will work with all or most readers - is disappointing.

[HarryT]

There's nothing inherently wrong with "proprietory formats" - most formats are "proprietory", but that doesn't automatically equate to "closed". Eg, the format of audio CDs is "proprietory" - it's owned by the Dutch company Phillips - but that doesn't prevent people from buying CDs, does it?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There's nothing inherently wrong with "proprietory formats" - most formats are "proprietory", but that doesn't automatically equate to "closed". Eg, the format of audio CDs is "proprietory" - it's owned by the Dutch company Phillips - but that doesn't prevent people from buying CDs, does it?

Just because a lot of people do something is not an argument for something. There still are things inherrently wrong with proprietary formats. For example it hinders innovation.

[HarryT]

It also encourages standardisation. Eg look at the early days of web browsers, when every browser implemented its own "variant" of HTML in slightly different ways. Having a single "owner" of a format is one way (certainly not the only way, of course) of ensuring compliance to a standard.