Quote:
Originally Posted by jocampo
. . .
By the way, let's be clear and say, non DRM ePub books. Because B&N, Sony and even Apple, sell ePub books, but they are DRM protected. So you can only read on their own devices; Sony is the exception, which you can move and read to B&N readers, but you cannot use or read B&N or Apple books outside of their own world. If you take that into consideration, breaking DRM and using Calibre, also breaks any format barrier and makes Kindle an option, which for sure is what lot of people are doing and both ways, B&N and Amazon users.
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If I understood your argument correctly, it was something like -
The DRM isn't really compatible anyway so you will end up having to strip it
- AND -
Since you have to strip DRM anyway, you can just convert the file while your at it . . .
- AND THEREFOR (by this convoluted logic) - this makes the Kindle just as easy to use with multiple ebook sources right?
This might be true it EITHER of your premises was correct, but I'm sorry to say that I disagree on both points.
First of all, the so-called EPUB DRM incompatibly issue you brought up is nowhere near as big a problem as you have made it out to be.
Along with Sony, nearly ALL popular readers now support ADEPT DRM (even the $99 dollar low end models), and ANY of them can buy from Sony, Kobo, Google and Borders (yes Borders ebook web store is still there).
Also, B&N has at least publicly committed to harmonizing their DRM with Adobe ADEPT DRM. Currently they are half way there, because both the e-ink Nook and Color Nook can read standard Adobe ADEPT EPUB books purchased at Sony, Kobo, Borders, and Google.
Sadly I do not expect Apple to fall in line, but if that's the way they want to be, that's fine with me, as I am quite happily living now in a Macintosh and I-trash product free household. (I was one of the first in my city to own the original Mac nearly 30 years ago, but Apples recent change to a business model that involves hooking a
vacuum cleaner hose to your wallet has caused me to part ways)
The second area where I disagree, is that I feel you have also misstated the facts by implying that a DRM stripped book, and a book that is
both DRM stripped
AND format converted, are equivalent.
They are NOT.
For me, buying from B&N would be a very minor hassle, because after stripping the DRM, I would have a perfectly formatted EPUB that will read perfectly on my Sony.
On the other hand, buying a book that is
both DRM protected
AND in the wrong format, is more of a problem because you would have to BOTH strip the DRM -AND- run the book through a potentially LOSSY CONVERSION from MOBI to EPUB or EPUB to MOBI.
If you are dealing with simple justified text, then things should be fine, that works fairly well, but anything more complex than that could be a problem.
Some EPUB titles now have really nice embedded fonts and other fancy formatting that would not be available if the same title was purchased in MOBI or AZW and converted to EPUB or purchased in EPUB and converted to MOBI.
Conversion times from EPUB to MOBI are also currently an issue with Calibre on my machine. On my 1.6 GHz PC it takes about 10 to 15 minutes average to convert a single title, with some titles taking as little as 5 minutes and some taking 20 minutes or more (some folks have reported a single conversion taking HOURS.)
Aside from the delay, you also occasionally have to deal with conversion issues like the formating sometimes getting mangled for things like Drop-Caps, fancy headings, or any index or hyper-links beyond the basic Table Of Contents (which can also disappear depending on how the EPUB is formatted internally).
So - Long Story Short - Push come to Shove - I'll take a DRM stripped book from B&N every time, before I would buy a Amazon version and then have to deal with
both DRM
and a potentially troublesome conversion.