[BrainDead]

My starting point was that I need to read ePubs (from legitimate sources) and these ePubs are not DRM'ed. With a Kindle you cannot read ePubs without first converting them to Amazon's format (is mobi that format?) - a step that while achievable with something like Calibre, should not be neccessary and one that I would prefer to avoid.

Secondly, I would just like to be able to download or copy the ePub to memory without going through hoops having to register the device on the vendors site before anything will work and being restricted to downloading material only from that vendor's site as was the case with one piece of desktop software from a well known eBook vendor. I had (perhaps wrongly) assumed that the desktop software provided an accurate representation of the functionality that I would get on the actual reader but perhaps this is not the case?

I'm curious though. I can understand from a practical perspective why some might want to remove DRM from ePub files, and its interesting to note that tools are available to do this, but is it legal to do so?

Interestingly I have now seen at least a couple of Android Tablet devices that seem to provide eReader functionality and more for a similar price (e.g. Time2). Wifi and 3G and colour screen. If battery power lasts a few days as claimed it makes for an interesting alternative.