Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
It hasn't taken a single thing from me. I buy a considerable amount of books from Amazon, and despite the apparent "takeover" of the kfx format, I've yet to buy, download, or read a single Amazon book in the kfx format. Not one. So why do I care about its inability to be converted to other formats again? Kfx continues to be a non-factor for those who place a high value on archiving and/or converting their purchases. And it will continue to be so until there are no easy end-runs around kfx.
Contrast that with the many Topaz books that got foisted upon me over the years (with no way to avoid getting them without going to another retailer).
|
Yes, because of two reasons.
- Amazon provides a company set up loophole to circumvent the .kfx delivery (which is automatically enforced) - for people who know not to bite, and invest extra steps to still be able to get out an older file format
- You knowing that you should use it.
--
Now look at the structural problems in that.
- Why should Amazon be the sole proprietor of "access" to a certain "openness" that has be part of books for the past two millenia?
- Why should they be able to control and protocoll who accesses that option?
- Why should they be able to shape its demand - because, currently they are aleready adding "hoops to jump through", and their design looks like straight out of the late 90s - so thats what we stand by? As the model for the future?
- Why should only the people "in the know" be able to still get "books" out of the Amazon ecosystem?
- Why has there to be this forced choice of "either I get a book" - "or I get new features, that make reading more accessible (.kfx is the only format with ligatures and the only format that doesnt see hyphenation as a thing that the user himself has to add after the purchase)"
-Why do we all eat this with as "yes master, may I please have another" attitude - in the fear of "it getting far worse in the future"
- Why do probably almost 90% of Kindle users never get in touch with a file format thats humanly understandable (or fit for archival purposes (sue me
)) anymore?
- Why is all of this considered somewhat "taboo" to be talked about - in fact, I'm still the only one forcing the issue out in the open-
while you have all kind of technical "masterminds" finding creative reasons for why this is just, so that the pages might turn 10% faster...
Oh - and just to resolve two misconceptions as well - first, you are not buying books from Amazon, you are buying reading licenses. And as far as formats go - .kfx is the current standard - trying to convince me, that a majority is pulling out older formats from the Amazon ecosystem - as something "advertised" doesn't have legs.
It isn't advertised. In fact - its a controlled, regulated, and possibly extra messy way (design intention), to get to an older format thats still understood. For purposes of managing a controlled opposition and the poor (people with older Amazon eReaders that don't get updated anymore).
Now - back to the 90% of people that get .kfx autodelivered onto their Kindles.
Should we ignore them as well? We can look the other way - because there are still other options?
Not such a great argument.
Also - not sure what the "I still buy Amazon - and I don't feel any restrictions" part of your argument was meant to instill, but may I ask - why, at this point?
So you are insisting that you still should support a company thats voved to take the book out of the public sphere, and jumping through company loopholes to - purposely not get the autodelivered book, but log in once more, and then download the legacy format - and end up with an .azw3...
Instead of buying the format somewhere where you can get it as an epub (= non binary format) and then convert it to .azw3 with an program thats open source like calibre?
Why?
Three potential answers.
- Book isn't available anywhere else (> factual monopoly)
- I'm too set in my ways (> behavioral design and soft "lock in" were successful, marketing has done its job - "hurray")
- I don't care what happens in the future (> mobilism.com forum position on this issue since day 1)