how do pirated chm files appear on the kindle?
 

so a lot of textbooks have been pirated in to the chm format.

I have no idea why pirates chose the chm format, but they did.

I'm not saying I would ever get a chm pirated book, but what would they look like on the kindle after conversion?

would they have linkable table of contents? index? in text dictionary pop up?

just like bought books would? or would it be different?

.CHM is "Compressed HTML." It seems it should be easy to convert to ePub. I suspect it's popular for pirated books because some of them exist as webpages online, and this is a way to bundle those up; it's also possible that some of them come with a disc that has a .chm file, and pirated versions are just copies of the legit ones.

No idea if Kindle will convert those, or if they'd need to first be converted to individual, separate HTML files. The Kindle page at Amazon doesn't list .chm among the filetypes it can convert.

MobileRead has a strict policy about copyright materials and does not condone or encourage pirated material.

If reading CHM files is a priority, you may want to check out the Hanlin device. According to the MobileRead Wiki it is the only e-ink device to support that format directly.

I've not heard of CHM file, any advantage to it?

CHM is "compiled HTML" file. It is the file used by the "html help" system on windows. Not sure there is any advantage to it, other than it is delivered as a single file.

BOb

Welcome to MobileRead.

I'm thinking that your questions are something you might want to answer for yourself.

this is what sparked the post
 

i just think it's odd to have to purchase a book twice
 

I don't advocate piracy, but i have hard copy of 100s of text. why do I have to repurchase digital copies for an e-book reader?

why can't they sell hard copy text with free kindle access?

There are lots of different ways to look at this.

One is........If you were an author, would you want to be losing those sales?

They are considered separate items. Just like buying the hardcover and still having buy the audiobook (if you want it) or paperback (maybe you bought a 1st Edition hardcover) separately.

For some books Amazon has a program where if you purchased the paper book from them, you can buy a cheap digital version for reading online only (again, not for all books).

Like others said, CHM is just a container for a bunch of (indexed) HTML files. The best Windows-based tool I've found to extract CHM files is chm2web:

http://chm2web.aklabs.com/

It's not freeware.

Beware of CHM files - especially those from "dubious" sources. They can contain executable code and are a popular "container" format for viruses and other "malware".

Why don't you write the publishers and find out? Perhaps they'll give you an "answer." :)


Don

In my opinion, the whole article

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...d-books-piracy

is bulls***. There are so many pirated books around, even some of the bestsellers, that there is enough to make e-readers profitable for the cheap and criminal minded.

you can't compare owners of mp3-players with owners of e-readers. there are too different.
i guess that every owner of an e-reader owns an mp3-player, but only some mp3 owners own an e-reader too.

the same was with the printed books. there where always more copies of records, tapes and cd's than books sold.

but that is my opinion.
take care
harry

dubious chm files on a mac
 

i hear you are unlikely to get a virus if you open unknown chm files on a mac.