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Old 12-21-2010, 10:32 PM   #1
Enkidu of Abydos
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buying digital books
Out of curiosity I tried checking out the Sony online bookstore (since I have the PRS-505) as I have never yet actually bought a digital book (I've read lots of free ones though) to check out what all the hubbub is about, and to check out the offer in case I was ever unable to find the book I wanted for free, and was shocked to discover how incredibly poorly stocked it was ! I tried a smattering of some of my favorite books (Robert Asprin "Myth Adventures", John Varley "Gaea", John Brosnan "Skylords") and almost none of them were on offer ! I knew the Sony store had a reputation for being poorly equipped in comparison to Amazon but this is ridiculous ! I'll stick with s thank you ! It seems they want me to as well !
Still, do you know of a well stocked online bookstore that has non-DRM books compatible with the Sony Reader ? Or a way to read Amazon's books on my e-reader or computer without installing that stupid disgusting "Kindle for PC" ? And the concept of selling books for only one reader (your own ) disgusts and irritates me, the choice of readers and books should be totally independent !
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Old 12-22-2010, 09:55 PM   #2
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Google calibre plugging drm tools v3

Buy from Amazon, convert to ePub, read on your Sony

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Old 12-23-2010, 08:04 AM   #3
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Your model is the PRS-505, so do you have the upgrade that allows you to read ePub books? Or what format are you looking for things in?
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Old 12-23-2010, 08:07 AM   #4
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If you can read epub then you can shop around. Kobo books is well stocked and I believe that Borders also offers epub.
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Old 12-23-2010, 10:41 AM   #5
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If you can read epub then you can shop around. Kobo books is well stocked and I believe that Borders also offers epub.
But the OP asked for non-DRM ebooks. Both of those stores use DRM (Kobo claims to have some non-DRM books but I've never found one and my question to their customer service people remains unanswered).
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Old 12-23-2010, 12:32 PM   #6
Enkidu of Abydos
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Your model is the PRS-505, so do you have the upgrade that allows you to read ePub books? Or what format are you looking for things in?
Not sure about .epub but I did one firmware update after purchase...
I'm generally looking for anything I can open in Book Designer and convert to any other format for reading on my computer or my e-reader (I usually get books as .lit, .rtf or .doc and convert to .lrf for reading on my e-reader).
Can Book Designer open .epub files ?
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Old 12-23-2010, 01:04 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Enkidu of Abydos View Post
Not sure about .epub but I did one firmware update after purchase...
I'm generally looking for anything I can open in Book Designer and convert to any other format for reading on my computer or my e-reader (I usually get books as .lit, .rtf or .doc and convert to .lrf for reading on my e-reader).
Can Book Designer open .epub files ?
BookDesigner cannot open ePubs. It's quite an old (but GREAT) program that hasn't been updated in the last 3 years.
I beleive there's only one firmware update for the 505 - the one that adds support for ePub, so your reader should be able to handle this format.
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Old 12-23-2010, 01:41 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase View Post
Google calibre plugging drm tools v3

Buy from Amazon, convert to ePub, read on your Sony

Lee
You would still need that "disgusting Kindle for PC" installed, since that is where it looks for the unlock code.
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Old 12-23-2010, 02:19 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Enkidu of Abydos View Post
Not sure about .epub but I did one firmware update after purchase...
I'm generally looking for anything I can open in Book Designer and convert to any other format for reading on my computer or my e-reader (I usually get books as .lit, .rtf or .doc and convert to .lrf for reading on my e-reader).
Can Book Designer open .epub files ?
Sony has pretty much ditched lrf for epub. Here's a great free epub from the MobileRead library. If you can view it on your device without converting it, you can view epubs. And then the world is your oyster....

(as in, there are quite a few legal DRM-free epub sites out there)
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Old 12-24-2010, 06:20 AM   #10
Enkidu of Abydos
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Still can't read'em on my computer though.
Anyone know a good app similar to Book Designer that can convert various book formats and open epub ? Preferably free ?
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Old 12-24-2010, 07:17 AM   #11
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Quote:
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Still can't read'em on my computer though.
Anyone know a good app similar to Book Designer that can convert various book formats and open epub ? Preferably free ?
To create, open and edit ePubs you have Sigil a great free, open source, multiplatform program by Strahinja Markovic, AKA Valloric in this forum.

You can also use Calibre by Kovid Goyal (also great, free, open source and multiplatform) to manage your library and perform format-shifting operations. Calibre includes a multi-format ebook viewer.
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Old 12-24-2010, 07:19 AM   #12
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If you have text, HTML, or RTFs, I really like Atlantis word processor for its simple UI. It's based on Word, but streamlined, and there's a "Save as Ebook" option that gives you a nice EPUB. Costs $30 (the trial version doesn't have the EPUB option)
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Old 12-24-2010, 10:25 PM   #13
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Still, do you know of a well stocked online bookstore that has non-DRM books compatible with the Sony Reader ?
Fictionwise's MultiFormat offerings include LRF. They're DRM-free, generally have no region restrictions, and you can download in any of several formats, as often as you like. And they have occasional deep discount coupons, like the current 60% off one good until Boxing Day.

I notice you seem to like sf/fantasy, and they've got plenty of older rights-reverted backlist titles from midlist authors from the 40s-90s. If you like Robert Asprin's comedic fantasy, you might like John DeChancie's Castle Perilous series or Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar, and for John Varley's quirkily cerebral sf, Greg Bear or Terry Bisson might be close enough for your tastes.

The usual sf/fantasy re-publishers who offer stuff on Fictionwise are e-Reads, Wildside Press, Mundania Press, ElectricStory, Wonder Audiobooks (golden age stuff), Small Beer Press, Double Dragon Publishing, and there are a couple of others.

Other places which have DRM-free formats you could convert to LRF are Baen's Webscription (they sell other books besides the ones they publish and have a couple of Robert Asprin books, last I checked, and RTF and lit for all the books) and BookViewCafé (consortium of sf/fantasy authors offering their works directly for sale; some titles include .lit and .lrf in the MultiFormat pack).

Quote:
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(Kobo claims to have some non-DRM books but I've never found one and my question to their customer service people remains unanswered).
Apparently they used to have some, but they've removed the downloadable versions from their store, due to issues with the redesign.

And they also add DRM to books which come from some DRM-free outlets which have proudly proclaimed their DRM-free-ness via their own website stores as a "DRM makes it harder to read; we trust the customer" point, such as Carina Press and Smashwords.

Given how Kobo's own blog has blathered on about cross-platform compatibility and openness and trusting the reader, I'm not sure whether this is ironic, hypocritical, or ironically hypocritical.
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Old 12-25-2010, 01:08 PM   #14
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As ATDrake probably knows, the DRM fiasco at Kobo came about as Kobo was making an attempt to make it more obvious to website users which books had DRM attached and which did not. Previously, all books available in ePUB format had a button or label which said "download ePUB). The customer had no way of knowing, prior to purchase, if they were getting a DRM book or not. The change they were trying to make was to have two different buttons and labels, one for Adobe DRM ePUB books, and one for ePUB editions without DRM. The same was true with two versions of PDF files.

Something apparently went dreadfully wrong in the process and suddenly all books had DRM attached. As far as I know, they were not aware of this until the middle of last week and they are working on it. The week before Christmas was a horrible time to have this happen, as they were also rolling out other website changes that would make the website easier to use.

It is the kind of huge problem every business has nightmares about. From my perspective, it does nothing to take away from Kobo's well known philosophical commitment to openness. Hypocritical, I think not.

PS: The Smashwords books at the Sony reader store have always had DRM attached. I'm hoping that when Kobo gets this mess straightened out, the Smashwords books are DRM free, but they apparently don't have to be.
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Old 12-25-2010, 02:20 PM   #15
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From my perspective, it does nothing to take away from Kobo's well known philosophical commitment to openness. Hypocritical, I think not.
Well, the other stuff is as you said, a recent mistake, but regarding the Carina Press situation, I'd have to say that Kobo talks a good game, but they're not practicing what they preach.

Here's Carina Press' own FAQ entry and official blog statement which says that they offer their books DRM-free to everyone and if another outlet puts DRM on them, that wasn't Carina's decision or preference.

Here's Kobo's official blogpost from September on "DRM if necessary, but not necessarily DRM" which claims that if someone offers Kobo their books DRM-free and says to keep it that way, then they do. Already in the comments there's someone pointing out that they've been DRM-ing Carina Press' DRM-free books.

Here's more anecdata that Carina Press' normally DRM-free books on Kobo are DRM-ed there, from people who tried taking advantage of a sale on them at Kobo and found they couldn't transfer/convert them as they thought they'd be able to.

I have one Carina Press freebie from Kobo (Last Days of a Rake, still free in the listings) and it is indeed DRM-ed at Kobo, but remains DRM-free at other non-Carina outlets.

So yeah, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call shenanigans on Kobo for this one, at least.
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