[joblack]

Perhaps this explains:

This document accompanies the release of Digital Editions 1.7.1. This release consists essentially of the removal of one now-obsolete feature and some bug fixes. The feature that has been removed is that Digital Editions no longer supports fulfillment from Adobe Content Server 3-powered sites. Adobe Content Server 3 is now obsolete, having been replaced by Adobe Content Server 4.

As of March 30, 2009 Adobe de-activated the support in the Adobe Content Server 3 activation server such that no new instances of Acrobat or Reader could be activated. Existing instances of Acrobat and Reader that had already been activated will continue to work and can still fulfill content from any website still providing Adobe Content Server 3 content.

With this release, Digital Editions will no longer fulfill content from sites powered by Adobe Content Server 3 (though few are left at this time). Digital Editions is still able to migrate existing Adobe Content Server 3-licensed eBooks to the new Adobe Content Server 4 license format. Such migration will be supported until mid-December 2009. After that no more migrations will be possible.

http://www.adobe.com/products/digita...ease_notes.pdf