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Originally Posted by ApK
Lying about your country of residency and support eligibility has no ethical issues to you? It does to me.
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That's up to the user to decide. Some are okay with it and others are not. Same goes with removing DRM. Just as some are okay with jailbreaking or rooting their ipad/Nook color. As was mentioned before, the community here is not "average" in anyway. You'll find a lot of support for removing DRM, so long as you're not pirating eBooks. My point is that the vast majority of people will not strip the DRM to get their books to work on another eReader. And you won't hear their voices here since the vast majority of people won't be here on this website.
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Originally Posted by ApK
Nothing sad about it for the vast majority, it seems, as it represents no loss or inconvenience of any kind, it seems. Hence the Kindle's continued success and popular satisfaction among it's users after 3 generations. This, again, is my point.
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This is mainly because the average consumer will use a device for several years before upgrading. eReaders have just started to become mainstream so once those people look for the next upgrade and decide to get a different brand eReader they'll feel the pain of the books they previously purchased not being usable on another device.
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Originally Posted by ApK
The same problem would exist for users with an Adobe epub library who then buy a Kindle. But in practice it rarely seems to be a problem. Partially because of the reality of DRM stripping, but also because all those books are perfectly readable on computers, iphones, and other devices, so no one is ever really locked out on either side, and also because it rarely seems to ever come up as an actual problem I did see one mention recently of someone considering switching from a Kindle to a Kobo and wondering what to do about their Amazon books. One. So, again, my point is, it seems not to be big issue the vast majority in practice.
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That's 100% true but that's because Amazon refuses to support an open eBook format like ePub that all other major eReaders support. Only a very small amount of eReader owners are stripping DRM, let alone here using this website. So the reality is that a lot of people will be locked to Amazon or have to repurchase books over again in another eBook format when they switch eReader brands (to or from a Kindle). Computers, phones, etc. are nice if there's an amazon app for it and that's how you want to view your books.
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Originally Posted by ApK
I did mention I'm hoping Amazon chooses to support ePub, right? I agree universal standards would be nice.
But in the case of HD DVD (and Betamax before it) the two standards DID cause a fracture the market and cause inconvenience for consumers, so they pushed, and one format prevailed.
In the case of Amazon vs ADE ePub ebooks, most folks just aren't significant bothered, or negatively affected in anyway, so, my point again, it's just not proving to be a real issue.
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Unlike the HD DVD vs Blu-ray battle, Kobo/B&N/Sony all support a open standards eBook format. Amazon is the one holding out by using it's own proprietary eBook format. Not having ePub support is an issue, you can't get books from public libraries. For some that's a huge deal breaker.
The ePub 3 spec will at some point force Amazon to rethink it's non-ePub support. I for one don't care which eReader I use so long as it has the features I want/need and it uses a open standard eBook format. I'd like to see DRM go away but that will likely never happen or will be many years down the road.
I like Amazon, I think it's a great company. But for me, until they provide ePub support they lose my business for their eReader. But if they ever add ePub support I will seriously considering buying their eReader when I'm ready to upgrade.