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Originally Posted by jocampo
This is absurd! Where did you read that?
People can read, legally, any MOBI format type of books on their Kindles. There is not legal requirement or legal clause that blocks that.
What may not be legal, at least in USA, is removing DRM from books, as that's part of the contract you have when you download or buy from Amazon. But that also varies from country to country and it is not illegal in certain European countries, I believe.
Also, there is no "insistence" of Amazon on not using industry standard format. Amazon is just a normal company, like any other, who make profit from selling goods, ebooks on this case. But people can still buy a Kindle and upload DRM free books and read those using a Kindle. I do not see the point though, as Amazon is still the biggest store with the best prices, in most cases. I actually own and bought (legally) lot of IT related books that have no DRM protection on it and I use my Kindle as ereader device.
Last but not least, I would argue, at least un United States, that such claim of "non industry" standard is correct. Amazon is probably the major ebook seller here and I do not know of any other online retailer or company that can sell more ebooks than Amazon and they use ePub as default format. B&N tried, and their ebook business is pretty much dead at this point or with not a very promising future.
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1) Name a major (heck even a minor) e-reader licence store that uses MOBI besides Amazon. Next name one of the popular Kindle readers that reads ePUB If you can, I will withdraw my statement.
2) However since I have seen no evidence that my statement is incorrect, this makes the MOBI format used by Amazon that no other major licence seller uses, Kobo, Sony, Google, etc., this makes the format proprietary and a non-industry standard. Having multiple sellers using similar formats is called competition. It allows the user to choose which reader best suits her or him and then which store she or he wishes to purchase a e-book licence.
All I am saying is that people should be aware that buying a Kindle virtually locks you into Amazon. And that purchasing from Amazon, for the vast majority of purchases, means you are required to purchase a Kindle if you wish to use an e-reader. (Of course some people can reader for hours on a back-lit screen, many can not.)
All of this is fine, but users should be aware of the options. Since they generally don't, it is no surprise the majority of the book licences sold are from Amazon.
But if we are going to talk about dying industries, the entire e-ink industry appears to be in trouble which is too bad given that tablets just suck as e-readers. In which case this entire discussion is pretty much moot. Sigh...