DOWNLOAD OPTIONS - Adobe DRM EPub ???

[SameOldStory]

Pardon my language but WTF? (What the Fork)

In "Reading Recommendations", snipenekkid, started a thread about a SF book on Baen. He even gave a link to it. The book is $6 and of course is DRM free. Fine, I like that.

NightBird then post that the book is free on Kobo. That's nice, I like free.

But then I notice on the right it says;




You can ask for a DRM encumbered book?

Are people so stupid as to want DRM?

Now Kobo may have been doing this for a while. I've only been to their site a couple of times because the books that I've wanted were always cheaper elsewhere.

Can someone help me understand this situation? It really make no sense to me.


By the way, thanks snipenekkid and NightBird.

[Hellmark]

Most retail companies seem to be in a DRM or not at all type of situation. I guess they have a meatgrinder setup to add it to all books they get in, and generally find it difficult to have exceptions. Plus, sometimes they may not have the ability to have exceptions legally speaking. I have heard of contracts where all books from X will require DRM, whether or not you can get it without DRM directly from X. My guess is kobo simply does it to all to avoid the headache.

[SameOldStory]

Not smart, but it makes some kind of sense I suppose.

[abookreader]

I don't think it is so much of a case of people wanting DRM as it is people wanting to download a copy to transfer to their digital readers. I don't think I've ever seen a book from Kobo that you can download that doesn't utilize ADE ePub.

You can read that book online from Kobo - but I'm pretty sure you have to have an active internet connection. It is one of those in the cloud things.

[dmacmart]

The Kobo book is proprietary DRM but not Adobe DRM, so the choice is Kobo or Adobe, not non-DRM or DRM. Hope that makes sense (and is what you'er asking)

[Hellmark]

Originally Posted by dmacmart

The Kobo book is proprietary DRM but not Adobe DRM, so the choice is Kobo or Adobe, not non-DRM or DRM. Hope that makes sense (and is what you'er asking)

Uhm, you lost me here. It isn't really another format from Kobo. You have the option of reading the book through the webpage, it being presented as a webpage, or downloading it in a DRM format. The webpage method isn't traditionally thought of as DRM. When reading it that way, you're getting a copy of the book given to you in a way that is plain text, nothing preventing you from taking the info and putting it back together in a single cohesive file (yes, I know it is more difficult than simply copy and pasting it, due to the viewer applet, but that really is trivial and insignificant to the matter at hand).

[SameOldStory]

Abookreader and dmacmart are correct.

Thanks guys.

[SleepyBob]

Originally Posted by SameOldStory

Abookreader and dmacmart are correct.

Thanks guys.

How can they both be correct? Their posts contradict each other.

[dmacmart]

It's not really contradictory; I guess there are plenty of ways of reading a Kobo book.
* online (this is actually news to me, a long-time Kobo owner). Not sure you could call this DRM but it seems to be a Flash display mechanism
* using the Kobo desktop app, in Kobo kepub format
* on the Kobo reader, in Kobo kepub format
* on the Kobo or other ePub reader, in ADE epub format
* using Adobe Digital Editions on a computer, in ADE epub format
* using a Kobo application on a tablet, smartphone, etc. in Kobo kepub format
... any other ways I'm missing?

But there are only two kinds of files, Kobo kepub and ADE ePub, both DRMed.

The vast majority, but not all, Kobo books have ADE ePub available for download. I believe all Kobo books have kepubs, though I have found the "Add to Library" link is somewhat hidden for some free books.

[SameOldStory]

Originally Posted by dmacmart

But there are only two kinds of files, Kobo kepub and ADE ePub, both DRMed.

The vast majority, but not all, Kobo books have ADE ePub available for download. I believe all Kobo books have kepubs, though I have found the "Add to Library" link is somewhat hidden for some free books.

True. You can read the free book (free in this instance) by creating an account and downloading the software to read it in. Disconnect from the internet, and you loose the ability to read the book. Therefore the reference to the book being "in the cloud".

Alternately you can download it to a ebook reader but it'll be in a DRM format with all that entails (i.e. readers that can not work with Adobe DRM epub, can't read it).


This is all new to me too, because I don't check with the Kobo site anymore.