Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin8or
As to this, Calibre and Apprentice Alf offer protection against obsolesence. A Kindle (or Nook) user can add everything they buy to Calibre, seamlessly stripping the DRM wrapper in the process. Calibre becomes a repository of DRM-free e-books that can be format-shifted to any future device the owner chooses. |
I'm aware of this - I use it.
But going for a less locked down reader necessitates less of that extra work than a more locked-down reader. Double that if you have a locked-down format.
It is true you can get around anything, but why should someone pay for the privileged of having to fight the thing they've just purchased? If you can lessen the work by simply buying something else, it's silly not to recommend that instead.
Yes, I certainly could pick the lock but why would I pay for the lock in the first place?
I choose to go the extra mile and make everything I have as uniform as possible. However, if I were disinclined to do that, it is much less work on a Kobo (or a Pocketboot, or a Cybook, etc) than it would be on a Kindle or a Nook to simply retain my files.
The Kobo store is straight-forward and honest about whether a given book is DRM'ed. No guess work required. Not true of B&N, who refuse to disclose if a book is DRM'ed (did I mention their DRM won't work on any other device but theirs?). Even Kindle can be sort of dodgy about that.
I can go to Project Gutenberg and get free books in Epub format. I can go to just about any store outside of Amazon and B&N DRM (but like I said, how can you tell with them?) and get books that will work with what I have.
If I'm a little savvy about it and avoid DRM, I will never have any issues. Even when EpubX comes out, the upgraded format is backwards compatible.
If I go the MOBI route, things get considerably more complicated. The only device that reads my files is Kindle, and Kindle's apps. However, Kindle has a habit of deciding to change their format every few years and render all previous generations of ereaders useless in reading the new format. They're doing it right now for what I believe is the 2nd or 3rd time.
When that happens, I've got a lot of work to do, converting everything, "liberating" any DRM'ed books I've accidentally stumbled upon (and again, although Amazon is not as straight-up dishonest as B&N on this issue, they do make it difficult), etc.
If you've got a Nook and B&N books, you basically have no idea what you have because they refuse to tell you what you're buying. The only way to find out, unless you preemptively go to the trouble to install a DRM-stripping plugin, is to try to put your books on something else and see how many of them don't work. But it's moot, since Nook has no international support anyway.
Why would I recommend to someone that they pay for all that trouble over the simpler approach above?