PRS-650 Mine is in the mail, but what about books?

[elizilla]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

Anything special to know about buying from Amazon without owning a Kindle?

There are a couple of books, that are only available for Kindle I wouldn't mind getting.

Pinecone, I don't know what you run for your operating system, but Amazon offers an assortment of free downloadable "Kindle-for-X" software packages that you can use to read Kindle content on your computer. So you don't have to have their dedicated device to read their content.

Porting the content onto a Sony Reader instead of reading it on your computer screen, takes digging into things this forum doesn't discuss.

Maybe someday Amazon will see their way clear to adding epub format to their store. I mean, it's widely believed that the real profit for Amazon is in selling content, and that they sell their devices at what is quite possibly a loss or a barely-break-even price, because that herds people into their store to buy their content. Seems like it would be worth it to them, to also gather business from everyone else's devices, if the content sales are where the cash is.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

Anything special to know about buying from Amazon without owning a Kindle?

There are a couple of books, that are only available for Kindle I wouldn't mind getting.

If you are in the U.S. it's not hard at all. The basic idea is to purchase the book using the free Amazon Kindle App software for your PC or Mac, then use a DRM stripping script to 'unswindle' your purchased book to remove the DRM, so that you can load it into the free Calibre library software on your PC and convert it to EPUB format and transfer it to the Sony Reader.

This forum avoids posting hard-links to the scripts needed to 'unswindle' your Kindle content, but you can Google around and find them.

Unfortunately, if you are outside the U.S. you may not even be able to purchase the book from Amazon in the first place due to international publishing rights restrictions.

There are usually ways to get around this and purchase 'U.S. only' Kindle books from outside the U.S. I personally think Amazon deliberately leaves sleazy loopholes open to purchase U.S. only versions of published books, because they like having an unfair advantage over their other competitors like Kobo who DO at least try to play by the rules.

If you can't see the U.S. Kindle store at all from your country, you may be able to use a TOR proxy relay with a U.S. exit node to gain access, then some have reported using an international credit card to purchase a domestic Amazon 'gift card' and then using that to pay for their Kindle book.

This all requires quite a bit of work and technical expertise; just to FORCE them to TAKE YOUR MONEY and let you legally purchase your book.

Sadly, by refusing to recognize that we are now living in a single GLOBAL media market, the Authors, Publishers, and Book Sellers are just cheating themselves, because most folks don't bother, electing to either do without, or just rip off the title in question using Anonymous P2P or USENET.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

Anything special to know about buying from Amazon without owning a Kindle?

There are a couple of books, that are only available for Kindle I wouldn't mind getting.

Originally Posted by delphin

If you are in the U.S. it's not hard at all. The basic idea is to purchase the book using the free Amazon Kindle App software for your PC or Mac, then use a DRM stripping script to 'unswindle' your purchased book to remove the DRM, so that you can load it into the free Calibre library software on your PC and convert it to EPUB format and transfer it to the Sony Reader.

you don't need to "unswindle" anymore to load it into calibre, there are plugins that do it automatically. just look for "apprentice alf". the tools come with readme files that explain exactly how to use a plugin with calibre. all you need to do then is to load your ebook into calibre and drm is magically gone.

[elcreative]

Apprentice Alf has retired after becoming a little too famous... there's even a thread about it on here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=117117

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

you don't need to "unswindle" anymore to load it into calibre, there are plugins that do it automatically. just look for "apprentice alf". the tools come with readme files that explain exactly how to use a plugin with calibre. all you need to do then is to load your ebook into calibre and drm is magically gone.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Apprentice Alf has retired after becoming a little too famous...

His blog lives on, and is still the best single source for DRM-related info.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

you don't need to "unswindle" anymore to load it into calibre, there are plugins that do it automatically. just look for "apprentice alf". the tools come with readme files that explain exactly how to use a plugin with calibre. all you need to do then is to load your ebook into calibre and drm is magically gone.

I generally don't recommend or discuss them here on this forum, because the author of Calibre most adamantly does NOT want these unauthorized third-party DRM plugins discussed in conjunction with his software.

Now that it has come up . . . Yes, if you can find and get the plug-ins to work, this is indeed the easiest and most seemless way to go They seem to be archived at fewer sites than the generic unswindle script, but they can be found by Googling around a little.

But, please, please, please do NOT ask for support in finding direct link, or in getting the plugins installed and working here, as it really is not something that should be further discussed.

The plugins are more of a sensitive issue than the generic unswindle script, because no one wants to see development on the excellent Calibre program halted due to some unauthorized plugin causing a stupid legal action under the DMCA.

Nuf said.

[Pinecone]

OK< didn't think about the Kindle on PC reader, to use to purchase the books.

I won't talk about any plugins that I may or may not have installed or what they may or may not do.

[MrsPartridge]

Originally Posted by ArmadilloPilot

I checked for books (current) by authors that I like to read and find that the Sony store will charge $3 to $10 more than the same book on Amazon. And some books I can't even find for the Sony. Why does it have to be like that? I have this sinking feeling in my gut that I might have made a poor investment.

Remember that Kindles can only buy their books at one place. You can buy from many places. I look at Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Sony stores and compare prices.

Also, you can use the library if it offers ebooks now.

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by MrsPartridge

Remember that Kindles can only buy their books at one place ...

Kindle owners can buy e-books from other sources, for example BeWrite Books, which sells DRM-free books such as this one, in MOBI format (for Kindle).

[peitsao]

Has anyone bought books from google books yet? I notice that they are adding a large selection, but how well are they formatted? The reason I like Sony and Nookbooks is the format esp author notation.

[ArmadilloPilot]

Yesterday, Fedex tracking said my PRS-650 was somewhere around Chicago. Today, watching the news, I saw a Fedex truck stuck on the interstate up there. I'll bet my new reader is in that truck.

Getting back on track to this thread -- I've learned a lot from all the responses. Thanks I will be able to shop now in different sites to find best prices.

I still wish there was a way that one person who had read an ebook could then sell his book to someone else, and so on just like we do with paper books. I'm not talking copying - I mean passing the DRM tag (or whatever it is that controls copyright) on to someone else. I buy many good books second-hand. Why not ebooks?

[fafaforza]

But then how would the companies make money from the used sales market? They wouldn't. That's why they only allow you to lend books for ONE week, ONE time only. Just something to quiet people down. A token 'you can lend books!' feature for those that don't dig any deeper.

You're really buying a license to read a book. You don't own anything. Hopefully, with time, books will become cheaper. They should, too. Most of them today originate on the computer. So you have the digital copy of it, and would take you 10 minutes to create a finished ePub out of it. Perhaps publishers might have a point in keeping prices high by claiming that they have to digitize older books, but hopefully, eventually the prices will come down to rational levels.

[ArmadilloPilot]

I didn't know there was any ability to lend books you have paid for. Is the one week rule universal from wherever one happens to purchase the ebooK?

BTW - My reader has made through the storms and Fedex forecasts they can deliver it tomorrow...only one day late.

[delphin]

Originally Posted by ArmadilloPilot

I didn't know there was any ability to lend books you have paid for. Is the one week rule universal from wherever one happens to purchase the ebooK?

BTW - My reader has made through the storms and Fedex forecasts they can deliver it tomorrow...only one day late.

Barnes and Noble started the one time for two-weeks deal, and that forced Amazon to grudgingly commit to doing the same thing, the Sony doesn't offer this as far as I know, and sadly you can't buy directly from either of the Book Sellers who do yet, because they are resisting Adobe's efforts to standardize Ebooks DRM. (though B&N has said that they intend to sort this out with Adobe, so there is some hope).

Most folks just strip the DRM, but you shouldn't go crazy here and start passing around books to little known acquaintances, or posting any kind of copyrighted materials on P2P, because there is also a nasty little technology called stenographic watermarking that can rear it's ugly head.

Basically, by using a number of invisible formatting changes in the original EPUB or AZW file, the seller can encode the purchasers name at the time of download in such a way that it's impossible to easily find and remove.

Remember, due to the DRM, they have to create a custom encoded copy for your download anyway, so it's not really that much more complicated to make some minor tweaks to the file to encode your account info.

The DRM stripping scripts or pluggins can remove the DRM from a file by simply reading your local crypto key and decrypting the file, but this does nothing to remove any possible watermarking.

Later if that file shows up all over the Internet, they would be able to show in court that it was YOUR copy that was pirated, and you could potentially be liable for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages and fines.

So I would be the first to agree that they should get their act together and come up with a legal method of sharing ebooks that works for all formats.

In the U.S. they passed the "Bonehead Mickymouse Protection Act." a few years back to make copyrights run nearly FOREVER but how about a "copyrighted materials purchaser's bill of rights"?

Like telling the CLOWNS at Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, Borders, etc, that if they tell you that you are "Buying" a book then you REALLY OWN THAT BOOK and can share or sell it!

It is a universal world wide precept of commercial law, that if you OWN something, and have clear title to it, then you can SELL it.

Heh, guys and gals, I know these are tough times, so surely there is a least ONE starving lawyer out there that would like to clear a cool million or two on a class action consumer fraud lawsuit against Amazon.

If we can sue Taco Bell for supposedly misrepresenting the percentage of BEEF in their TACOS, how the hell does Amazon get away with claiming you are 'buying' a Kindle book, WHEN YOU CAN'T THEN TURN AROUND AND SELL IT?

Buy it once, read it ANYWHERE? Yeh, right how about SELLING it on the 'used Kindle book' market so it can be read on SOMEONE ELSE'S KINDLE.

Or just lending it out a few times when you are not reading it?

Or GIVE it to a friend to read on his or her Kindle?

Can it be read THERE Amazon?

[ArmadilloPilot]

Thanks Delphin. You have expressed my sentiments better than I could have.

I guess I would like to say that I want to share eBooks as opposed to distribute or duplicate eBooks. I would like for you to be able to sell me your one and only copy of the book you happen to have. And then I could pass that one copy on to someone else. But never should we expect to be able to post a copy of the book for anyone and everyone to download.

Now...why can't the publishers work a system for that?

Oh well......I have my PRS650 now, so I have to learn how to use Sony books and Calibre and who knows what else. It looks nice, but I guess It's going to keep me more busy than I had planned for the next week or so. Lots of features to learn and get used to