[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

ever encounter the situation where a bookstore did not carry any books from a particular publisher because the publisher cut a deal with a different store?

That's not the same issue at all. I see that sometimes Target as an extended version of a CD. I can go to Target and buy it and it will work on my CD player. I cannot go to Amazon and buy an eBook and have it work on my 650. I can go to this other bookstore, buy the pBook and read it the same as if I bought it at another bookstore.

And I do hear what you are trying to express. I too wish there was a genuinely open format w/o DRM but that is not the real world and never will be. So best I see we can do is work with what we have. In that light Kindle books are no less open than DRM'd EPUB. Both have reader apps which work on pretty much all platforms, even Sony is taking a whack at a reader app these days.

I don't mind it when there is a Kindle version and an ePub version. I do mind it when there is a Kindle version only. Sure, I can strip the DRm and convert. But why should I have to go through the hassle of having to convert? Also, sometimes the eBook is better in ePub. For example, the Lord of the Rings eBooks are better in ePub then Mobipocket as the graphics are better. Sometimes the formatting is better. I've read eBooks in ePub that make use of some feature that Mobipocket doesn't have. So if I bought the Kindle version, I'd have a lesser reading experience. Also, I don't want to buy from Amazon. I have seen some Mobipocket eBooks where the graphics were too tiny and that spoiled the eBook as the graphics were important to be able to see.

So, I don't see the issue other than a given brand of store owned reader does not read the format of the other company. Yet is someone owns a device that is not branded to a bookstore odds are high there is the ability to run an app for both.

So where is the Kindle app for my 650? There isn't one. And to be honest, I don't want one for it. I want ePub. So basically, Amazon is trying to wall off as many eBooks as they can from millions of people. Lots of people have a reader that's not a Kindle. It could be a Sony, nook, Pocketbook, Astak, iRex, etc. They don't handle Kindle eBooks. There is no add-on app for them. And to top it off, lots of people do not know how to strip DRM. They do not know how to convert. They do not know how to fix up the formatted due to the conversion. It's not a good thing to try to keep eBooks locked away from people. Amazon is basically trying to keep eBook out of the hands of people that did not purchase a Kindle or use a device to read that has a Kindle app.

Like I wrote, I hear what you are saying, just it's not gonna work that way, yet. Critical mass in terms of ebook sales has yet to be achieved. Plus I have yet to find a book I wanted that Amazon has not carried yet another bookstore did. Long as this is the case, I don't care and I expect to be long dead before that is a real issue, if it ever becomes one.

It would work fine if the publishers did not allow Amazon to do these exclusive deals. The publisher would sell more eBooks if they had them available to more people. To be honest, if I did purchase an exclusive eBook from Amazon, I would convert it to ePub and pirate the hell out of it just to let it be for other people who do not have access to it otherwise.