Quote:
Originally Posted by David58117
Eh, I see it as a very minor offense and I can't imagine how it could possibly hurt Kobo. I doubt they're on a "get paid every time the ad runs on an individual reader" agreement with each ad, if so - what about the people who never turn on wifi? Kobo wouldn't be making $ with them either..
And I'm not about to get on my soap box and preach about "ethics" with regard to software and electronic agreements, since in my 20 years of using computers I'm pretty certain at some point in time I've invalidated warranties and used items I paid for in ways the developer didn't intend.
There must be quite a few software saints on this message board..
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Well, either that or a lot of Developers that know how much it hurts when you subvert a revenue source that both the seller and buyer agreed upon.
We don't know really how their ad system gets paid or how they prove to their advertisers that there is a certain number of units that are showing ads but it is likely it has something to do with the ereader connecting to the Kobo servers and updating its cache of ads. (Ok, I'm assuming the ads change from time to time here and it's not the same ones for months on end.) Another thing is that the agreement to purchase an ad supported unit DIRECTLY affected your purchase price. It is the primary reason for it being cheaper.
You are correct in saying Kobo probably makes no ad revenue from those not turning on their devices or ever connecting to their servers but honestly how many owners will do that? If I worked for Kobo and was devious enough I would probably link the advertising code tightly with the code that controls updating the DB or the wireless. You'll be either unable to sideload or not have Wifi access and won't have ads but you'll have to do deal with something hobbled on your ereader.
