Kindle Store France and DRMs

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by avantman42

Consumers can do it by boycotting the company and buying from their competitors.

That works for most everything, except media. Music, books, or movies cannot be easily bought from a competitor unless one is willing to completely change the product. I don't like DRM, so I refuse to buy best sellers, I will take my chances with a lesser known author. That simply doesn't work, IMHO. If it works for you, more power to you.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

That works for most everything, except media. Music, books, or movies cannot be easily bought from a competitor unless one is willing to completely change the product. I don't like DRM, so I refuse to buy best sellers, I will take my chances with a lesser known author. That simply doesn't work, IMHO. If it works for you, more power to you.

I agree, and tried to say that in my previous post, but couldn't find an elegant way to say it. Luckily, you did it for me

Like I said, I don't boycott DRM'd ebooks. Like Harry, I have a setup where the DRM is stripped automatically, so I don't even notice whether or not they have DRM.

[TheSFReader]

Originally Posted by avantman42

Like I said, I don't boycott DRM'd ebooks. Like Harry, I have a setup where the DRM is stripped automatically, so I don't even notice whether or not they have DRM.

So, when a friend hops on the ebook train, you leave him with the DRM threat without any warning ? Or you do some software installations with the plugins for him without any exmplanation ?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by TheSFReader

So, when a friend hops on the ebook train, you leave him with the DRM threat without any warning ? Or you do some software installations with the plugins for him without any exmplanation ?

But it simply doesn't matter to most people. The typical user buys a Kindle, then buys books exclusively from Amazon's Kindle bookstore. They don't give a damn about DRM. I have many friends and work colleagues who've bought Kindles. I've offered to show several of them how to strip DRM, but they just aren't interested. People here at MR are not typical of the average eBook owner.

[TheSFReader]

Originally Posted by HarryT

But it simply doesn't matter to most people. The typical user buys a Kindle, then buys books exclusively from Amazon's Kindle bookstore. They don't give a damn about DRM. I have many friends and work colleagues who've bought Kindles. I've offered to show several of them how to strip DRM, but they just aren't interested. People here at MR are not typical of the average eBook owner.

Yes, and when Amazon decides to close shop or switch to an other incompatible format, they'll come to you, asking why you didn't try harder ;-)
And the fact that there is NO indication anymore will stand in the way of any further attempts of explaining...

[HarryT]

Don't get me wrong - I too prefer to buy DRM-free books. But given the extreme ease of DRM removal, I can't raise myself to the level of saying that it's something that I actually care about.

[TheSFReader]

I understand. I do. But I care not only for myself or my close family, but also for other ones, who don't know squat about DRMs. And also for the 'cultural hole' historians will find for the current period if all they get is jumbled bits... Think Champollion, with encrypted Rosetta stone.

[Kirtai]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It strikes me as being on the level of refusing to buy apples on the grounds that they have a manufacturer's sticker on them, when it takes about 2 seconds to peel off the sticker after you've bought it.

I suppose the difference is that you can't be prosecuted for removing the label from your apples

[vxf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That just strikes me as "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

In Italy, we say "Cutting off your ..... to spite your wife".
Interesting cultural difference, there.
Frankly, I am with Italy there. "Spite your face"? What the heck does that even mean?
The Italian expression, on the other side, strikes me as better conveying the stupidity of the trade-off.

But I second your sentiment.
DRM is evil. Many things are. This one is easy to defeat. Get Calibre & Alf.

BTW, heard about the debacle about The Hobbit in Italy/France/Germany? Apparently, many movie theaters did not receive the codes to unlock the digital rights lock on the movies on release date. So had to refund people who bought tickets and cancel showings.
Every time DRM fails, it makes my day. If they keep screwing up, perhaps it shall go away?
As a DRM-hater, I hail the demise of SONY. But that's a different discussion.

Yes, stores suck, they don't tell us about DRM. Easy to fix.

[xendula]

This is a quick reminder that removing DRM is against the law in some countries, especially in some European ones, which were the ones mentioned in the OP.

That said, I would be very much interested in your workflow, Harry. Could you share it?

[HarryT]

Sure - I buy my books at Amazon, and have them sent to Kindle for PC. I then run K4PC (this downloads the books), run Windows Explorer, go to the "My Kindle Content" folder, and drag the new books from there into Calibre (this removes the DRM, if there is any). In Calibre, I have a quick look at the book, edit its metadata if necessary, check that the margins and line spacing, etc, are OK. Finally I plug in my Kindle and send it from Calibre to the Kindle.

This took longer to write than it actually takes to do .

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sure - I buy my books at Amazon, and have them sent to Kindle for PC. I then run K4PC (this downloads the books), run Windows Explorer, go to the "My Kindle Content" folder, and drag the new books from there into Calibre (this removes the DRM, if there is any). In Calibre, I have a quick look at the book, edit its metadata if necessary, check that the margins and line spacing, etc, are OK. Finally I plug in my Kindle and send it from Calibre to the Kindle.

This took longer to write than it actually takes to do .

That is interesting, thank you for sharing. The interesting part is the checking of layout. How many books (rough%) do you think need adjusting for margin etc.? Or are you very picky about a certain look when reading?

update: I am still disappointed about Hunger Games. That line spacing is absolute crap. It is roughly 1.5 or 2 line spacing at Kindles lowest setting. To be honest though, I looked into a print book the other day and it is there as well. WTH were they thinking? So you can make notes inside the text?

[xendula]

Thanks for sharing, Harry. I'd also be interested why you check the layout: does Calibre mess it up, or do you just want it to be a certain way?

[jmilica]

I would also like to learn the steps in checking the layout. I get really irritated when I purchase a book - and this is especially case with Harper Collins ebooks - when it doesn't even have the justified text...Now, that, I learned to do in Calibre but I'd appreciate if Harry could share the rest of his knowledge *at least the important parts* - with us...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by xendula

Thanks for sharing, Harry. I'd also be interested why you check the layout: does Calibre mess it up, or do you just want it to be a certain way?

No, Calibre doesn't mess it up. But, for example, some publishers use space between paragraphs and no indent, whereas my preference is to have no spacing and a first-line indent on a paragraph. Calibre makes it very easy to change things like that.