MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - 'Old' man non-techie libertarian expat's challenges getting his first ereader

hermes · 05-29-2011, 04:58 PM

ATD wrote: "..use the prepaid gift cards anyway. Provided you live in or regularly visit an enabling country, you can buy them for cash over-the-counter without having to leave any address info."

May I ask you or other forum members if anyone has actually done this habitually? Anyone care to give real world examples?

ATD wrote: "Certainly you can do it for the Chapters Indigo (a bookstore chain in Canada) gift cards which you can use to pay for your purchases in the Kobo e-bookstore (owned by same said bookstore chain in Canada).

Ah, very good. I expect I will eventually have several e-readers, and Kobo might be one of them.

> They're available over-the-counter with no address info required, and you can go back to "refill" them with another cash payment and thus not dump another credit-card-sized piece of anonymous plastic into the landfill.

I see. The fact is in my case I am unlikely to ever be coming back to the first world west, except maybe an occassional visit to Singapore or South Africa. There is always the old fashioned method of a very small item being posted by a friend of course.

>And the Kobo bookstore no longer requires you to have a valid credit card on file for purchases as long as you cover the payment via other methods (store credit, gift card) and you can make up anything you like for the billing address provided the postal code is an existing one (and not some random alphanumerical jumble)

I think a lot of this must be not some nefarious plan but simply gathering information for marketing and other not-so-nasty (but still questionable in my view) practices. The trend here in Canada is to ask for name, postal code and sometimes even telephone when making purchases. It's as if soon I will be asked to show some sort of secure ID to get in a taxicab! Take purchasing event tickets. I was paying by prepaid debit card (don't recall if it had been registered at credit union's website) and was told that I *had* to provide my phone number even though paying in person. This was to call me in case of cancellation. I replied that I would call the same day to assure that was not the case. After a bit of polite disputing the order went ahead. Another time two orders at Amazon were declined because the card had not been registered. Another time an event booker refused to book my ticket unless I gave telephone number and address and the card was declined as I had not registered it. Her reason she said was 'we have to know who is in our building.' While I recognize that the world has changed since 9/11 it seems an extreme overreaction and excuse to control financial transactions as well.

One of the challenges with the prepaid cards I have experience with is that the limits are not high - $500. I expect that companies like Kobo etc are even lower. And one has to tie up one's funds at no interest. plus, they are insecure. They are as good as cash.

>as long as the country IP matches.

A friend in Thailand has a *huge* problem doing mail order using his US bank account cards. Apparently in nations that have a story of credit card fraud (and Bangkok used to be such a centre of crime) it is almost impossible for him to use his US cards. I suppose one could disguise one's ISP with various anonymizing software. Ugh, more technical hurdles...

>I believe you can do much the same sort of thing with electronic gift certificates/Amazon purchases (you will have to have a Kindle app registered, not necessarily your actual Kindle)

I do not understand why another kindle would work? Is this a technical or an Amazon policy issue?

>and you'd need to break and strip the DRM on the books as they came in (of varying legality in varying locales) unless you lucked out and bought the rare DRM-free books, which are usually available openly via other outlets anyway.

I understand why this would be necessary if I was planning on reading digitally-copywritten material on a kindle (as a writer myself, I have mixed feelings as to the ethics of this, but mostly I just am not a techie and would rather see if I can find enough to read without this technical challenge). But are we of topic here as I often am? mean, what does the DRM aspect have to do with the anonymity aspect?

>Anyway, as for Sony, you don't have to buy your books through their store if you have concerns about their security. Their e-readers support any standard ADE-DRM store (such as the Kobo store)

Ah, very good.

>and of course you can load up DRM-free books from any source.

[snip]

"Hope this helps, and welcome to MobileRead!"

Yes, it does. Thank you.

05-29-2011, 04:58 PM	#12
hermes non-techy Posts: 110 Karma: 50586 Join Date: May 2011 Location: wherever I can afford to get laid and eat vegetarian Device: Sony pocket edition and Kobo touch both died - looking at Kindles	re: ATD's suggestions ATD wrote: "..use the prepaid gift cards anyway. Provided you live in or regularly visit an enabling country, you can buy them for cash over-the-counter without having to leave any address info." May I ask you or other forum members if anyone has actually done this habitually? Anyone care to give real world examples? ATD wrote: "Certainly you can do it for the Chapters Indigo (a bookstore chain in Canada) gift cards which you can use to pay for your purchases in the Kobo e-bookstore (owned by same said bookstore chain in Canada). Ah, very good. I expect I will eventually have several e-readers, and Kobo might be one of them. > They're available over-the-counter with no address info required, and you can go back to "refill" them with another cash payment and thus not dump another credit-card-sized piece of anonymous plastic into the landfill. I see. The fact is in my case I am unlikely to ever be coming back to the first world west, except maybe an occassional visit to Singapore or South Africa. There is always the old fashioned method of a very small item being posted by a friend of course. >And the Kobo bookstore no longer requires you to have a valid credit card on file for purchases as long as you cover the payment via other methods (store credit, gift card) and you can make up anything you like for the billing address provided the postal code is an existing one (and not some random alphanumerical jumble) I think a lot of this must be not some nefarious plan but simply gathering information for marketing and other not-so-nasty (but still questionable in my view) practices. The trend here in Canada is to ask for name, postal code and sometimes even telephone when making purchases. It's as if soon I will be asked to show some sort of secure ID to get in a taxicab! Take purchasing event tickets. I was paying by prepaid debit card (don't recall if it had been registered at credit union's website) and was told that I had to provide my phone number even though paying in person. This was to call me in case of cancellation. I replied that I would call the same day to assure that was not the case. After a bit of polite disputing the order went ahead. Another time two orders at Amazon were declined because the card had not been registered. Another time an event booker refused to book my ticket unless I gave telephone number and address and the card was declined as I had not registered it. Her reason she said was 'we have to know who is in our building.' While I recognize that the world has changed since 9/11 it seems an extreme overreaction and excuse to control financial transactions as well. One of the challenges with the prepaid cards I have experience with is that the limits are not high - $500. I expect that companies like Kobo etc are even lower. And one has to tie up one's funds at no interest. plus, they are insecure. They are as good as cash. >as long as the country IP matches. A friend in Thailand has a huge problem doing mail order using his US bank account cards. Apparently in nations that have a story of credit card fraud (and Bangkok used to be such a centre of crime) it is almost impossible for him to use his US cards. I suppose one could disguise one's ISP with various anonymizing software. Ugh, more technical hurdles... >I believe you can do much the same sort of thing with electronic gift certificates/Amazon purchases (you will have to have a Kindle app registered, not necessarily your actual Kindle) I do not understand why another kindle would work? Is this a technical or an Amazon policy issue? >and you'd need to break and strip the DRM on the books as they came in (of varying legality in varying locales) unless you lucked out and bought the rare DRM-free books, which are usually available openly via other outlets anyway. I understand why this would be necessary if I was planning on reading digitally-copywritten material on a kindle (as a writer myself, I have mixed feelings as to the ethics of this, but mostly I just am not a techie and would rather see if I can find enough to read without this technical challenge). But are we of topic here as I often am? mean, what does the DRM aspect have to do with the anonymity aspect? >Anyway, as for Sony, you don't have to buy your books through their store if you have concerns about their security. Their e-readers support any standard ADE-DRM store (such as the Kobo store) Ah, very good. >and of course you can load up DRM-free books from any source. [snip] "Hope this helps, and welcome to MobileRead!" Yes, it does. Thank you.