Sony Reader Lives on with Rowling!

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

And a HP database containing the personal information of all HP eBook fans wouldn't be a boon for unethical hackers?

'Course, if Sony is in charge of their firewalls, we shouldn't have anything to worry about.

I'm not going to argue about this further, mostly because I find it tiresome. Watermarking IS DRM, as far as I'm concerned, and any company who wants to keep with my personal information forever because they think I'm probably a thief can do without my money. I'll buy the books off Kobo when they come available there. I rather suspect they will eventually.

I'm with you. I am quite sick of companies treating me like a criminal and then getting laws passed that help maintain their position! (DMCA)

Treat me like a normal human being, and you'll get my business. I own a iPod, but I buy all my music from Amazon, because they don't watermark.

[apastuszak]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Apparently the fan-made ebooks are now error free, so it will be interesting to see if the official ones are up to that standard.

They'e not just error free. They contain all the artwork, properly formatted chapter heading. They look real, real nice, or so I am told.... :-)

I have the whole set in hardback on a bookshelf. She got her money out of me already.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

I don't have 'em on eBook period, legally or no, but I'm not going to buy from Pottermore (or Sony) without more indication than currently available that my CC# will be safe with them.

I assume that you are referring to the recent security breach at a sony web site that compromised the personal data of millions of customers, including CC#s. I note that sony is building the pottermore site.

Also, people may not remember that sony put rootkits on a number of audio CDs and never even got their hands slapped for that criminal act.

[Ditchleyportrait]

i bought a reader from sony and an extended warranty. totalling over 500 bucks. returned the poor excuse of a reader, and they never refunded my dad's cc until a month later when i called in. they're criminals. simple and plain. i don't even think they refunded the warranty to this day. i should've been more diligent. i think i was 19 and stupid. like now. simple and plain. do kids even read potter these days? her time has come and gone. its time for a new craze in adolescent reading.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by Ditchleyportrait

do kids even read potter these days? her time has come and gone. its time for a new craze in adolescent reading.

Between Harry Potter and Twilight, I'd much rather have the former.

[Ditchleyportrait]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Between Harry Potter and Twilight, I'd much rather have the former.

oh, for sure. hahaha. forget what i said. i forgot about those books.

[Ditchleyportrait]

twilight has always struck me as being young adult books written for adults, but i guess they have the movies, too, with the heartthrobs, etc.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I assume that you are referring to the recent security breach at a sony web site that compromised the personal data of millions of customers, including CC#s. I note that sony is building the pottermore site.

Also, people may not remember that sony put rootkits on a number of audio CDs and never even got their hands slapped for that criminal act.

Yep, that was why I name dropped Sony.

I love their eReaders, but they do NOT have a good track record of doing right by their customer's personal data. One of many reasons why I never buy directly from them. It's a personal choice; not pushing my opinion on anyone else.

[JSWolf]

I've never had a problem with buying eBooks from Sony. Also, the payment details Sony has for me is actually invalid now.

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by apastuszak

I'm with you. I am quite sick of companies treating me like a criminal and then getting laws passed that help maintain their position! (DMCA)

Well, I guess you don't go to supermarket either. They are watching you through those cameras, just in case you decide to put a can of soda in your pocket. Talk about treating you like a criminal!

The thing is, there are a lot of thieves out there. You may not be one of them, but hundreds of people are. And there are people who would on principle buy an electronic copy of a book or a song, and put it out there for everyone to copy. So, the companies have to watch out for their rights.

Just as supermarket security has to watch the shoppers. I don't think you are majorly inconvenienced by this fact.

[porkupan]

Originally Posted by Ditchleyportrait

returned the poor excuse of a reader, and they never refunded my dad's cc until a month later when i called in. they're criminals.

Calm down, please! I for one think that your KDX is a poor excuse of a reader. But I don't go around bitching about it at every opportunity. And, BTW, I am very happy with my Sony Reader.

Don't know which criminals didn't refund your dad's cc, but the fact is SonyStyle (or whatever place you'd purchased your unwanted Reader at) did refund your purchase when you called in, so that must have been a mishap, no criminal intent. The criminals would have charged you twice and then sold your dad's credit card to other criminals.

[Ditchleyportrait]

Originally Posted by porkupan

Calm down, please! I for one think that your KDX is a poor excuse of a reader. But I don't go around bitching about it at every opportunity. And, BTW, I am very happy with my Sony Reader.

Don't know which criminals didn't refund your dad's cc, but the fact is SonyStyle (or whatever place you'd purchased your unwanted Reader at) did refund your purchase when you called in, so that must have been a mishap, no criminal intent. The criminals would have charged you twice and then sold your dad's credit card to other criminals.

point taken.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by porkupan

Calm down, please! I for one think that your KDX is a poor excuse of a reader. But I don't go around bitching about it at every opportunity. And, BTW, I am very happy with my Sony Reader.

The KDX should be the flagship of the Kindle line, yet it's really no better then the the previous version and Amazon market it like it's equivalent to the K3.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by porkupan

Well, I guess you don't go to supermarket either. They are watching you through those cameras, just in case you decide to put a can of soda in your pocket. Talk about treating you like a criminal!

The thing is, there are a lot of thieves out there. You may not be one of them, but hundreds of people are. And there are people who would on principle buy an electronic copy of a book or a song, and put it out there for everyone to copy. So, the companies have to watch out for their rights.

Just as supermarket security has to watch the shoppers. I don't think you are majorly inconvenienced by this fact.

Well, first of all, not all supermarkets have cameras. My local farmer's market doesn't; and nor does the open air market that I visit in the spring. So -- respectfully -- you've got a bit of a hole in your analogy to start with.

Second of all, how long are they keeping the tapes? No, seriously. A few days? A week? A month? Maybe. Thirty years? Not likely. 24-hour surveillance from multiple cameras would be a bit of a pain to store.

CC#s are easier to store, so they COULD be kept forever, but they SHOULDN'T be. Generally, companies keep them for variable lengths of time. It's rare for a company to store your CC# from a purchase decades ago -- intentionally so, to protect your privacy in case their database is hacked.

IF -- if this is speculation -- but if the intention of the HP DRM is to tie every book sold forever and always to a person, they're going to (a) need personal data that doesn't change frequently and (b) they're going to have to store it for a very long time.

CC#s and SSNs (or the like, for foreign transactions) are pieces of personal data that don't change frequently. Names and addresses are very much less so. (I'm on my third name in, oh, 7 years? That sounds right.) IF -- again, speculation -- if the HP DRM database contains all that data forever and always in the hopes of hunting down pirates, they're going to need to employ some really crackerjack firewalls to keep out the unethical hackers. And with Sony and the good folks at "Pottermore" manning the helm, I'm... not confident.

All this is speculation. I truly hope that all this HP DRM simply boils down to user name watermarks and nothing more. BUT, I'm going to want to see some strong statements from the Pottermore site that they aren't store CC# information in their database for decades. AFAIK, they aren't legally required to purge that information regularly, but it's good industry practice.

Ultimately, your analogy fails because there's very few ways someone can hurt me if they hack into Walmart's computer and steal video files of me. I mean, they can 'shop my face onto a YouTube video, but what do I care? On the other hand, I've had my identity stolen before and charges racked up against me and it's a PAIN to sort out. Not planning to go through that again if I can avoid it.

A thought: One wonders if the Pottermore will accept gift cards. That might well be a way to satisfy my paranoia, if you can pick up Pottermore gift cards for cash at Walmart.

[Namekuseijin]

Well, guess I'll finally give Harry a chance if high sales for this means more authors giving ebooks a chance.

Although if price is too high, I won't. Otherwise I might be sending the wrong message that I'm a perfect dumbass willing to accept that it is perfectly ok for a digital file with copying and transfer virtually for free to bear the same price of a physical goodie with hefty costs of production and distribution.