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Rootman · 01-15-2010, 03:21 PM

Well since no one really answered sherbearjt08's question directly I'll give it a whack.

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. Because it is easy to "share" digital files via the internet or other media companies have wrapped the ebook file in an encrypted "wrapper". They encode the book so that it will work on JUST the device you bought it for, if it's a PC then the PC and the proper reading software have an ID and the file will only work on THAT PC. If it's an eReader that supports the DRM enabled file then only THAT device can read the file.

Many books are available WITHOUT encryption and will work on any device that supports that particular file format. An example is Project Gutenberg books: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page . Most all books that are NOT in the public domain that are BOUGHT from an ebook distributer like the Sony store Amazon ARE encrypted. The publisher / dealer / author and anyone else involved wants to make sure that no one distributes the book without encryption so that they can sell more books and all get their money. In reality the worth of DRM is questionable - but that's another discussion.

Places like Amazon (for the Kindle) allow you to have up to 6 devices on one account and any of the devices can download the file and read it, however because the file is encrypted for each specific device it isn't possible to just MOVE the file over to the new device, each device has to "fetch" the file directly from the distributer with the proper encryption using THAT devices ID.

Now as Wallcarft noted above ( https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...824#edit739460 ) a way has been discovered to UNwrap the encryption from the B&N ebook files. As discussed above this MAY have legal consequences. But if you BUY the book and do it yourself for just YOUR use alone you should not have any problems. Decide for yourself.

Warning: IANAL, YMMV

Hope this helps.

01-15-2010, 03:21 PM	#13
Rootman Groupie Posts: 181 Karma: 478 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: Android & FBReader	Well since no one really answered sherbearjt08's question directly I'll give it a whack. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. Because it is easy to "share" digital files via the internet or other media companies have wrapped the ebook file in an encrypted "wrapper". They encode the book so that it will work on JUST the device you bought it for, if it's a PC then the PC and the proper reading software have an ID and the file will only work on THAT PC. If it's an eReader that supports the DRM enabled file then only THAT device can read the file. Many books are available WITHOUT encryption and will work on any device that supports that particular file format. An example is Project Gutenberg books: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page . Most all books that are NOT in the public domain that are BOUGHT from an ebook distributer like the Sony store Amazon ARE encrypted. The publisher / dealer / author and anyone else involved wants to make sure that no one distributes the book without encryption so that they can sell more books and all get their money. In reality the worth of DRM is questionable - but that's another discussion. Places like Amazon (for the Kindle) allow you to have up to 6 devices on one account and any of the devices can download the file and read it, however because the file is encrypted for each specific device it isn't possible to just MOVE the file over to the new device, each device has to "fetch" the file directly from the distributer with the proper encryption using THAT devices ID. Now as Wallcarft noted above ( https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...824#edit739460 ) a way has been discovered to UNwrap the encryption from the B&N ebook files. As discussed above this MAY have legal consequences. But if you BUY the book and do it yourself for just YOUR use alone you should not have any problems. Decide for yourself. Warning: IANAL, YMMV Hope this helps.