Adobe DRM protected books on Linux.

[AnneT]

I first asked this question on the 'general' forum, but I think the item belongs merely on this forum...


So I got my first ereader yesterday, a BeBook One. It was one of those 'refurbished' ones, which seemed to me a good opportunity to find out if I like the 'ebook' experience, and which features I like or miss.

And yes, I already have discovered that I will 'upgrade' to something else in the past, but meanwhile I ran into another problem:

I have a linux-computer, and Adobe Digital Editions doesn't exist for that Operating system. I could get it working on Wine, and I can open the DRM protected books that I downloaded via the Windows computer of my husband and shared via DropBox, but I can't find a way to download Adobe DRM protected content directly to my Linux computer. Although I have autohorized my computer via Adobe Digital Editions, the Adobe Website doesn't seem to recognize my computer when browsing the web.

On the Sample eBook Library page of Adobe, the 'download'-button doesn't say download but had the text 'system requirements' on it, and it only brings me to an 'error' page.

Of course, I have the work-around of buying every single DRM-protected ePub on the computer of my husband, downloading it there, and then syncing my dropbox, but that is quite laborious... (although it could help not to let grow the mountain of to be read books to quickly!)

Anyone who can tell me how to download an DRM protected ePub to a Linux computer? (Although I use Linux, I'm not made of the geeky stuff...)

[user_none]

Originally Posted by AnneT

I could get it working on Wine, and I can open the DRM protected books that I downloaded via the Windows computer of my husband and shared via DropBox, but I can't find a way to download Adobe DRM protected content directly to my Linux computer.

Where are you buying you're books from? Some vendors will allow you to download the ASCM file that ADE uses to download the actual EPUB. Once you get the ASCM file all you need to do is open it in ADE on your Linux computer using Wine.

If the store (like Adobe's website) isn't letting you download the ASCM file then you could try changing the user agent for your web browser. There is an easy to use Firefox plugin for this. Changing your user agent so your web browser reports that you're using Windows might get around that issue.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by user_none

Where are you buying you're books from? Some vendors will allow you to download the ASCM file that ADE uses to download the actual EPUB. Once you get the ASCM file all you need to do is open it in ADE on your Linux computer using Wine.

If the store (like Adobe's website) isn't letting you download the ASCM file then you could try changing the user agent for your web browser. There is an easy to use Firefox plugin for this. Changing your user agent so your web browser reports that you're using Windows might get around that issue.

For that, tell firefox to download the .ascm file (not open) Then, open ade, and drag-and-drop it.
There should be a way to tel linux to open the ascm files with ADE, but i never bothered.

That's an idea about the firefox plugin. I'll keep that in mind

I posted a link to download ADE on the other topic.

[AnneT]

Thank you both for your replies...
I must admit, I had only tried to download DRM protected ePubs from the sample Library from Adobe, and there it seems impossible to download anything to my Linux machine.

But after your replies, I bought a book at Bol.com (Dutch bookstore), were I bought the majority of my paper books in the past, and I must admit, no problem there...
I could both download the ASCM-file, or open the file directly with ADE.

So it seems it's only on the Adobe site that I'm having problems, maybe because it tries to verify even without ADE that my computer is authorized??? (No geeky genes I, as I said.)

[EowynCarter]

The browser can tell what OS you're using.
Adobe use the info on the ADE website to block download. But not on the developer website.

But that's pretty much the only annoyance I had with linux and downloading e-books.