MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

wallcraft · 05-06-2009, 10:11 AM

With DRM-free ebooks you purchase the seller usually says something like "treat it like a physical book". It isn't entirely clear what this means, but since you are already sharing books I don't think anyone is going to come after you for sharing DRM-free ebooks.

With DRMed ebooks, as a practical matter anything the DRM allows is OK (the seller may try to add additional requirements, but if they wanted these requirements to have force they should have added them to the Digital Rights Management). Some vendors have said this explicitly - for example responses on MobiPocket's forum directly from MobiPocket about classroom use simply say 4 students per ebook (i.e. 4 PIDs per ebook).

MobiPocket allows 4 devices (4 PIDs) per ebook file (some retailers allows fewer then 4 but 4 is the maximum). Adobe allows 6 devices per Adobe ID (managed by a central Adobe server, one device must be a Windows PC or a Mac). Sony allows 6 devices (one device must be a Windows PC) per account. eReader has no device limit but your "password" is the last 8 digits of your credit card. Amazon allows 6 devices (Kindles or iPhone/Touch) per account.

If you all want to separately buy ebooks but share them after purchase, then I think Adobe's scheme may be the easiest because you can all be under the same Adobe ID (three desktops and 3 reading devices). If you buy Sony Readers, then you can probably share a Sony account and an Adobe ID. I'm not sure if multiple mobipocket accounts can contain the same set of PIDs - if so then this will work too (just share your device PIDs and add them all to the ebook before downloading it). At Amazon, everyone would have to buy from the same account. That might work if you created an account just for this purpose and funded it with gift cards. There has to be a credit card on the account though. Amazon has a long list of things you are not allowed to do with your Kindle, but they are not enforcing them and there are lots of groups sharing a Kindle account. I don't know if there is a way to get the same credit card registered to multiple eReader accounts for use as a password. There might be, but it isn't obvious how to do this. Note that most of what I just said about sharing is theory (i.e. I have not tried it) - but in most cases you can test using 3 desktop PCs and seeing if they can share ebooks purchased on multiple credit cards. This isn't the case with Amazon, but I have seen multiple reports of family and friends sharing a Kindle account.

05-06-2009, 10:11 AM	#5
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,975 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	With DRM-free ebooks you purchase the seller usually says something like "treat it like a physical book". It isn't entirely clear what this means, but since you are already sharing books I don't think anyone is going to come after you for sharing DRM-free ebooks. With DRMed ebooks, as a practical matter anything the DRM allows is OK (the seller may try to add additional requirements, but if they wanted these requirements to have force they should have added them to the Digital Rights Management). Some vendors have said this explicitly - for example responses on MobiPocket's forum directly from MobiPocket about classroom use simply say 4 students per ebook (i.e. 4 PIDs per ebook). MobiPocket allows 4 devices (4 PIDs) per ebook file (some retailers allows fewer then 4 but 4 is the maximum). Adobe allows 6 devices per Adobe ID (managed by a central Adobe server, one device must be a Windows PC or a Mac). Sony allows 6 devices (one device must be a Windows PC) per account. eReader has no device limit but your "password" is the last 8 digits of your credit card. Amazon allows 6 devices (Kindles or iPhone/Touch) per account. If you all want to separately buy ebooks but share them after purchase, then I think Adobe's scheme may be the easiest because you can all be under the same Adobe ID (three desktops and 3 reading devices). If you buy Sony Readers, then you can probably share a Sony account and an Adobe ID. I'm not sure if multiple mobipocket accounts can contain the same set of PIDs - if so then this will work too (just share your device PIDs and add them all to the ebook before downloading it). At Amazon, everyone would have to buy from the same account. That might work if you created an account just for this purpose and funded it with gift cards. There has to be a credit card on the account though. Amazon has a long list of things you are not allowed to do with your Kindle, but they are not enforcing them and there are lots of groups sharing a Kindle account. I don't know if there is a way to get the same credit card registered to multiple eReader accounts for use as a password. There might be, but it isn't obvious how to do this. Note that most of what I just said about sharing is theory (i.e. I have not tried it) - but in most cases you can test using 3 desktop PCs and seeing if they can share ebooks purchased on multiple credit cards. This isn't the case with Amazon, but I have seen multiple reports of family and friends sharing a Kindle account.