Transferring books

[Someguy]

I have a Sony PRS-505, but have been thinking of getting a Kindle, or Nook. Would I be able to download all the books I've purchased from the Sony bookstore to a non Sony reader?

[susan_cassidy]

Not to a Kindle. Sony uses ePub format, Kindle uses a variant of Mobipocket. If the books don't have DRM, you can convert them fo Kindle's format, but otherwise, you would have tor remove the DRM to convert them.

[FF2]

You've have to examine your moral and legal conscience to determine if you really own those books and would be entitled to strip the drm from them and then convert them for kindle.

[Someguy]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

Not to a Kindle. Sony uses ePub format, Kindle uses a variant of Mobipocket. If the books don't have DRM, you can convert them fo Kindle's format, but otherwise, you would have tor remove the DRM to convert them.

Forgive my computer ignorance, but how do I do this?
Thanks

[Someguy]

Originally Posted by FF2

You've have to examine your moral and legal conscience to determine if you really own those books and would be entitled to strip the drm from them and then convert them for kindle.

I figure if I paid for them I own my copies of them. Just like if I bought them from Borders. I would never alter the content in iny way, so morally I'm ok with it. Unless of course its against the law.

[rogue_librarian]

As they said, you'd need to strip the DRM layer from your epubs, then use Calibre or some other tool to convert them to the Kindle format. As to stripping the DRM: it can be done, it's not too difficult, but we can't tell you exactly how to do it. If your Google Foo is not too weak, a search for "ineptepub" should get you started.

[cfrizz]

You would be better off simply looking for another epub reader if you don't want another Sony.

Depending on how many drm books you have it could end up being a very time consuming process.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by Someguy

I figure if I paid for them I own my copies of them. Just like if I bought them from Borders. I would never alter the content in iny way, so morally I'm ok with it. Unless of course its against the law.

Whether it is against the law or not will depend on where you live, I know there are laws against it in the UK, America and Australia, I don't know about anywhere else. Either way it will be against the terms of the license to read those books that you bought from the supplier.

[jbcohen]

I look at the issue this way, just like a dead wood book book once the store sells the book to me they release their rights to the book to me. Therefore the store has no rights to include DRM in any way. At the moment I have not really had any need to strip the DRM yet. My Libra gets its books from Kobo and they issue discount codes frequently, thus I have no need to strip the DRM as yet. Besides on which I did something very stupid: I bought an ebook from B&N not realizing that the DRM restricted what readers I can read it on. When I get time I am going to install a DRM striping software at home, download the ebook, strip the DRM and read it.

[abookreader]

If you head down to the Kindle forum there are several threads on the topic of migrating an ePub library to a Kindle device.

I look at it this way. My library is actually on my computer and the books there need to be available to whatever myriad of devices I happen to be using. I buy my digital reading devices based upon which ones have the features I'm looking for and I basically shop for my eBooks based on price. Although these days I'm ticked enough at Amazon that I'm not sure where I'll shop once once current gift card loads run dry.

Personally I prefer to use Calibre and liberate my books as I buy them to insure future device compatibility. I mean, who knows what kind of reading gadget I might want to buy in a couple of years - right? I don't want to be re-buying the same books over and over as my format needs change.