Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
But if everyone told B&N that they would not buy a nook as long as the ePub sold by B&N has this new DRM, B&N would soon change to the current DRM and be done with this new DRM. Before this new DRM for ePub, all eBooks either had DRM or didn't have DRM. And if they had DRM, we know what DRM it had. .epub meant it had DRM or not. And if it had DRM, we know what DRM it had. B&N is selling ePub with this new DRM and not telling the customers. So you think it's got the original DRM, buy the eBook and find it doesn't work in ADE. It's not going to get better unless B&N put the information on their website along with the book's listing.
|
XXXBooks purchased from B&N with DRM have the pdb extension, not the epub extension. XXX Edit: this is wrong, B&N is still selling books with both DRM formats. Irritating!
I think the DRM situation is well-worth complaining against, but I feel like you picked the wrong target. It's not the fact that B&N developed a new DRM that is the problem, it's that B&N is using DRM at all. DRM will have to change over time, that's a given so long as we have hackers who can and will (and, in my not-so-humble-opinion, should) crack it...
I detest that the DRM isn't currently inoperable, but I think that it will be soon as it is in the best interest of Sony and B&N if they want to compete with Amazon's larger libary. And Sony has shown that they are willing to let anyone who has downloaded books in their formats re-download them in the new formats, so *that's* not a problem. They have also offered firmware updates or hardware updates to those with incompatible versions. As well I have been able to download new copies of books from B&N that I had previously downloaded in a different format. What B&N will do in the future is yet to be seen, what iRex did pissed everybody off, and what Amazon does is to screw everyone by pretending this debate doesn't exist and that no one has any right to view their books on different devices.
My point is that this problem isn't unique to the nook, and is being handled no worse by B&N, so condemning them doesn't seem particularly reasonable.
You may have assumed that that you would be able to read B&N books on other hardware, but they never gave that impression nor said it explicitly. If you bought their device for a family member thinking files would be compatible with a sony, that is unfortunate, but, you know what happens when you assume...
In any case, can we try and pick the right target of our vitriol? It's obviously the fact that DRM exists at all that causes this problem, not just the fact that DRM changes over time.