Quote:
Originally Posted by fearindex
Obviously. I don't agree with SoCalReader's wording at all.
SoCalReader of course has a more general point, in general use cases Kindle readers are tied to Amazon's ecosystems, but worded it way too strictly both from a legal and a book-acquisition point of view:
- Breaking Kindle's TOS or even DRM is not necessarily illegal in your location. It is in some locations.
- While most e-book content is DRM protected, and there you are (under TOS) stuck with what Amazon offers, there is non-DRM PDF and .mobi content available that you can read as is on Kindle. Plus some e.g. ePub (and other type of document) content that you can legally convert to PDF or .mobi. Kindle even has an email document to device service.
So it certainly isn't true that "legally, if you purchase a Kindle, you can only read Kindle books on it", but of course as a broader point it is true with Kindle you are mostly (but not entirely by a long shot) tied to its ecosystem unless you break the TOS and perhaps break the law in your locale.
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I agree with you to a certain extent, but I think it's important to point out (for the benefit of other people) that (to the best of my knowledge), there's no clause in Amazon's TOS which says that you can't read content not purchased from Amazon on a Kindle. As you say, there are numerous places other than Amazon from which Kindle-format books can be obtained. In addition to buying Mobi-format books from sites like Baen, personally I take advantage of special offers at other bookstores and buy numerous books in ePub format, which I then convert to Amazon's KF8 format using Calibre.
If you're comfortable using tools like Calibre (and it's not at all difficult to use), owning a Kindle doesn't tie you to Amazon's infrastructure at all. Of course, most people don't give a damn about that - they buy a Kindle, buy their books from the Kindle Store, and are perfectly happy doing so.