Does anyone browse the darknet library before buying an ebook?

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

One doesn't *need* an excuse - one just goes ahead and does it! (Of course, like reading poetry in public, one should always wash one's hands after doing so.)

Derek

Ouch !

[EricDP]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

The way the bigger publishers are behaving, it's almost as though they want to kill the industry !

They do. They'd much rather go back to the days of paper only. In the electronic world, they are obsolete. They are the horse buggies after the combustion engine was invented.

[wgrimm]

Originally Posted by Vintage Season

I have no problem with the idea of my own works showing up on the darknet, though. Eventually, some of them probably will. It is my hope that, if they do, they will reach a few new readers who might then enjoy the stories enough to keep an eye out for them later, and perhaps spend money. If those individuals wind up spending money, I've made a sale I wouldn't otherwise have; if those individuals don't spend money, they probably wouldn't have anyway.

- M.

Have you ever checked out Smashwords.com? I recently purchased several books there, reasonably priced, and all are offered in various formats. I hear they pay authors well, too.

[wgrimm]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

I'm curious if this attitude extends to the hungry and food. What, you can't afford cheese? Live on rice!

Nah- you got that wrong. If the peasants can't afford bread, let them eat cake <G>.

[CharlieBird]

BexBits, I do have B&N's PC app but hate it-- uninstalled it long ago. I have a few other B&N DRM'd books but they are all PDB format and I can read them on the eReader desktop app with just my name and credit card number.

Like AGB, "promised myself...I'd never buy another drm'ed B&N book" but this particular book I could find nowhere else; I really wanted to reread it and just assumed it was a PDB book because I didn't remember B&N even having the ePub option.

I do have the software(s) to strip the DRM and have been trying for a week to figure out how! It's really frustrating because most everyone says how simple it is, but I just keep going in circles, following threads, clicking links, hoping something break this mental block I've got.
d

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

I usually check google books and see if there is a preview available. A lot of times you can get a pretty big hunk of preview from there.

And often that is only if you are using a US ip address...

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by CharlieBird

BexBits, I do have B&N's PC app but hate it-- uninstalled it long ago. I have a few other B&N DRM'd books but they are all PDB format and I can read them on the eReader desktop app with just my name and credit card number.

Would you reconsider installing the older B&N PC app? My version is still 2.1.1.2 and when it downloads books from B&N, it still downloads them as PDBs. If I want the ePubs, I just download from the web with a right-click.

Then, you can read the PDBs from whatever app you wish.

[BexBits]

Originally Posted by CharlieBird

BexBits, I do have B&N's PC app but hate it-- uninstalled it long ago.

Can't fault you there as it is the reader I am least fond of even though it was the first I installed (I got into ebooks by impulsively installing the B&N app on my netbook and buying a book to read one day when I was sick and confined to bed.)I can't imagine why they produced such a stripped down unattractive option.

As for DRM stripping that was my experience when I briefly toyed with it. I'm usually at least adequately competent with software but I was quickly convinced that it wasn't worth the hassle.

[AGB]

Charliebird,

I have been thinking and thinking, trying to recall what steps I took.

If you use the "ignoble" files, it is necessary to have the Barnes and Noble reader installed to have the stuff do what it's supposed to. Otherwise it can't find the "key" which apparently reside inside the BN reader-app.

I hope that was the "block" that didn't make it work for you.

[GeoffC]

The only thing I trawl the :coughs: for are DRM :coughs: removal :coughs: ideas :coughs:

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

The only thing I trawl the :coughs: for are DRM :coughs: removal :coughs: ideas :coughs:

Would you like a throat lozenge?

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Would you like a throat lozenge?

It might go down well with the whisky !

damn DRM !

[Pagali]

Originally Posted by AGB

If you use the "ignoble" files, it is necessary to have the Barnes and Noble reader installed to have the stuff do what it's supposed to. Otherwise it can't find the "key" which apparently reside inside the BN reader-app.

I've been successful with the 'inept' and 'skindle' tools, and just found the need to try the 'ignoble' variant. However, the pastie.org links on the iCabbage blog no longer work, 'No server available'. Anybody willing to share those files? Please PM me.

[AGB]

Sorry, I don't have them anymore

[Nathanael]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I'm not the only one then

I've known the term since my early days in IT. Thirty five years ago, however, it meant something different from the way I've seen it tossed around on MR. A "darknet" used to be simply a network that wasn't directly accessible to the wider world -- such a a local LAN that either wasn't connected to the to ARPANet (I said this was thirty five years ago, right?), or perhaps one that was, but didn't respond to pings (and thus could not be "seen" from the outside).

So I googled the term. Sure enough, there's a Wikipedia entry which claims the term has recently come to be applied to file sharing (and by implication illicit file sharing) networks in general. And (surprise!), apparently it was a group of Microsoft employees who redefined the term.

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Aren't worms and virusses a thread for everybody who uses email, internet and even a mobile phone?

Nope. Only for Windows users. Computers don't get viruses. Windows does. I've run around naked on the Internet for years -- no antivirus protection, no malware or spyware detection, no firewall, and never a worry of infection. Because I don't do Windows.

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I've downloaded books that were out-of-print, but still "in copyright".

If the author is dead, I have no qualms about downloading his stuff, copyright or no. This whole "life of the author plus 70 years" is whacked. A scientist patents, say, Post-It notes, and he's gets 18 years to profit from his work. An author writes a novel and his great-great-great-great-grandchildren still own exclusive rights? Absolutely nuts.