Sideloading: Own content or "from somewhere else"

[Xanthe]

I realize that, but I was wondering why it was done that way, given the ambiguity of the wording of the questions and how some are interpreting them in regards to piracy. Why on earth should people put their names to a poll where their responses could be so easily misconstrued, to their detriment?

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by HarryT

In my own case it's very much because I've been buying books for an awful lot of years, and from all sorts of different sources, many of which no longer exist (eg FictionWise, BooksOnBoard). Maintaining my ebook library in a single place (Calibre), and sideloading all my content means that I have a single central point where all my books are stored, and no worries about trying to remember where I bought each book from, or what devices I can load it onto. I can read all my books on all my devices.

Says it all. (Except that I've only been buying books for three years.)

[rixte]

I would say it's pretty simple - most pirates sideload, and I think that's obvious. Particularly those who use eink devices - not exactly the speediest at navigating the web!

I don't think that there's any reason to believe most sideloaders are pirates, however.

[dublincheri]

Mine are all books I've bought from various sources over the years - most were MSLit for my PocketPC - and converted to use first on my iPod touch then iPad and later Kindle. Most were from Fictionwise, Books on Board and Powells. Unfortunately some of my books were lost, and by keeping them in Calibre I hope not to lose any more.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by rixte

...
I don't think that there's any reason to believe most sideloaders are pirates, however.

Totally agree. My first reader was a Sony 350 which didn't have wi-fi. That was never an issue for me because I prefer buying all my books through my PC only and then putting them right into Calibre, then I have collections sorted exactly how I want on the reader. Even though I now have a reader with wi-fi, I still never purchase through the reader. There's never a time I don't have at least 400 unread books with me, there's no reason I'd ever need to buy any book right that minute through the reader. So I sideload all my books.

I always worried about what happens if I lose an ereader or it's stolen, and anyone can then buy up hundreds of books before I realized it was gone since the reader stays logged in.

[PurpleStar]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I always worried about what happens if I lose an ereader or it's stolen, and anyone can then buy up hundreds of books before I realized it was gone since the reader stays logged in.

This is one reason why I use a "dummy" account(not the account I buy books with) on my Kobo and sideload everything rather than sync. That and the Kobo desktop app is slow as heck to load books.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by rixte

I don't think that there's any reason to believe most sideloaders are pirates, however.

I really hope so.

I've bought all of my books legally (or downloaded free ones legally), and I sideload everything. I actually have to, most of the time, as I prefer EPUB as my base format, while my primary e-reader is a Kindle. Therefore I have to remove DRM and then sideload before I can read.

Additionally, I don't want to be dependent on any manufacturer's cloud to be able to retrieve my books, and just as Harry, I bought books at many places, such as ebooks.com, BooksOnBoard, Diesel-Ebooks, Kobo, Feedbooks and Amazon. Some of those stores don't even exist anymore, but because I removed DRM and put the books into Calibre, I still have access to them. (They are also in a folder called "Originals", which contains all originals without DRM, but untouched by any edits in Calibre; not even any metadata is corrected.)

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I always worried about what happens if I lose an ereader or it's stolen, and anyone can then buy up hundreds of books before I realized it was gone since the reader stays logged in.

Good point. First, my reader only contains 3-10 unread books only (my current series, and one or two extra, maybe a few standalone books), and second, I normally keep it logged out.

Actually, I have to check that. Can a Kindle be registered, but NOT logged in to Amazon, or do I need to unregister it? Durned. Now I have to turn Wifi on to check, which will make the reader download books that I will have to remove afterward.

[BearMountainBooks]

I find myself buying from multiple sources lately, but only own a Kindle. I buy where it is cheapest.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

I really hope so.

I've bought all of my books legally (or downloaded free ones legally), and I sideload everything. I actually have to, most of the time, as I prefer EPUB as my base format, while my primary e-reader is a Kindle. Therefore I have to remove DRM and then sideload before I can read.

Additionally, I don't want to be dependent on any manufacturer's cloud to be able to retrieve my books, and just as Harry, I bought books at many places, such as ebooks.com, BooksOnBoard, Diesel-Ebooks, Kobo, Feedbooks and Amazon. Some of those stores don't even exist anymore, but because I removed DRM and put the books into Calibre, I still have access to them. (They are also in a folder called "Originals", which contains all originals without DRM, but untouched by any edits in Calibre; not even any metadata is corrected.)



Good point. First, my reader only contains 3-10 unread books only (my current series, and one or two extra, maybe a few standalone books), and second, I normally keep it logged out.

Actually, I have to check that. Can a Kindle be registered, but NOT logged in to Amazon, or do I need to unregister it? Durned. Now I have to turn Wifi on to check, which will make the reader download books that I will have to remove afterward.

On a Kindle, you can turn on Parental Controls and block access to the store. You don't need to turn on WiFi to do this. I'm curious as to why just turning on WiFi will cause books to download to your device?

Shari

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by shalym

On a Kindle, you can turn on Parental Controls and block access to the store. You don't need to turn on WiFi to do this. I'm curious as to why just turning on WiFi will cause books to download to your device?

Shari

It won't, unless you have books queued for download to that device.

[AnneT]

I have a Boox, and 'thus' sideload my books. I buy my books, and try to avoid buying t them from mega-stores like Amazon. And I don't want to be b bound to one seller's ecosystem.
I buy my books (if possible DRM-free or with a digital watermark), download them onto my computer, if I need to I strip DRM (to be sure I can keep reading them 'forever', on every possible device, with the reader of my choice), and organize them with Calibre.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It won't, unless you have books queued for download to that device.

Which happens by default, when you buy books.

I manually switched my main device from the preferred e-ink default, to send them to the Kindle Cloud Reader instead.

Now books only queue to my Kindle if I specifically tell them to.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Which happens by default, when you buy books.

They go to wherever you tell them to go. When I buy books, for example, I get them sent to Kindle for PC. Nothing is ever sent to my Kindle.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by HarryT

They go to wherever you tell them to go. When I buy books, for example, I get them sent to Kindle for PC. Nothing is ever sent to my Kindle.

Well, yes, the point I was trying to make is that by default the default is/seems to be available hardware Kindles.

I did specifically mention switching the default so I would assume it was implicit that you could manually tell them to go elsewhere, being as I did say do.

I doubt many people have the patience to hit the selection dropdown every time they place an order so I thought I'd mention the idea of selecting a default device manually in MYK.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Well, yes, the point I was trying to make is that by default the default is/seems to be available hardware Kindles.

I did specifically mention switching the default so I would assume it was implicit that you could manually tell them to go elsewhere, being as I did say do.

I doubt many people have the patience to hit the selection dropdown every time they place an order so I thought I'd mention the idea of selecting a default device manually in MYK.

I didn't catch the fact that you could change your default until I read this post. All the got my attention.

So thanks! I do hit the selection dropdown every time I place an order, so this will really help.