Format: How important is knowing the format before purchase

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by taming

You may also want to look at the posting guidelines for the site. There is a lot of good information regarding where to post, the MR positions on duplicate postings etc. It's against the rules to publicly call someone out on posting "violations". Mods take care of it when it happens.

Ah no, either i was unclear in my message or you're interpreting it differently to what i intended.

My intention was merely to canvas others opinions as to whether this whole thread be moved to the General Discussion sub forum for a wider airing because the notion of knowing the format of an ebook pre purchase is an industry issue

[samhy]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Huh.... I've been checking some books, and that text is there with all of them.

Has it been there all along, with nobody noticing (can't believe it), or has it been added recently?

I can see it now in France, but not so long ago it wasn't displayed (on the new web site). I've always known that on the former version of the web site.

[taming]

When I began to bring my concerns to Kobo web staff, I did a run around various other sites to see how they were handling this sort of thing. Kobo seems to be the only one that makes two different formats (mostly) routinely available of course, but I did learn some interesting things.

• Google Play, which uses Adobe Adept, is now letting folks know if a book is reflowable or non-reflowable, rather than just saying epub or PDF. This made sense to me as we are beginning to see non-reflowable epubs and reflowable PDFs. They don't seem to provide drm status, but I may not have run into it yet. See: https://support.google.com/googlepla...s_formats&rd=1
  
• Sony does list the format, for example, Adobe DRM EPUB. I am checking some of this with the book Pride and Prejudice, and I did wonder if Smashwords intended for this free book to have drm applied.
  
• Amazon doesn't sell epubs, but I understand there are some questions regarding which of the various Kindle formats are being provided.
  
• The amount of information available through Overdrive seems to be up to the individual libraries. My local library gives choices for format and has a separate listing for drm free books available digitally, but not through Overdrive. The Toronto library I looked at gives very specific information on the devices the books can be read on, but does not make a distinction between Kobo tablets and Kobo eink devices.
  
• Barnes and Noble seems to list books pretty much like Kobo does. For the free book available through Smashwords, no drm status was indicated and the format was eBook. This was also the case for a book that cost $15.00 from Random House.

I'm pretty sure Kobo will make a change; when it happens and what it looks like remains up in the air.

[Katsunami]

The new / US version of the Kobo site is crap. Or at least, buggy.

[tnhh]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

I think in addition to the comment about no devices showing means a PDF, the ePub and kpub are differenced by the blackberry sign. With means an ePub, without means a kpub.

I don't think that this is always true. This book is missing the Blackberry icon but when you visit the old site, it says that it is DRM-free ePub.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by taming

Amazon doesn't sell epubs, but I understand there are some questions regarding which of the various Kindle formats are being provided.

Yes for Amazon the only way to know if the ebook will be a .mobi or .AZW3 file is to download the preview.
Regarding the DRM status, it can be guessed by looking at the details (sharing ability or limited number of devices, but I don't remember clearly).

[samy2]

Originally Posted by taming

[LIST][*]Google Play, which uses Adobe Adept, is now letting folks know if a book is reflowable or non-reflowable, rather than just saying epub or PDF. This made sense to me as we are beginning to see non-reflowable epubs and reflowable PDFs. They don't seem to provide drm status, but I may not have run into it yet. See: https://support.google.com/googlepla...s_formats&rd=1

At least in Germany you can see "for E-Reader. Than it should be EPUB mit ADEPT-DRM:
https://play.google.com/store/books/...d=UvK1Slvkz3MC

[Canuck_in_Japan]

I don't care as I've yet to download a book that was anything other than an epub. DRM doesn't bother me as I take care of that little bit of bother with Calibre!

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

I don't care as I've yet to download a book that was anything other than an epub. DRM doesn't bother me as I take care of that little bit of bother with Calibre!

That's the problem, it seems.

Sometimes, a book appears to be available only in KEPUB format. That is not Adobe DRM, and you can't de-DRM it using Calibre.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by samhy

Although I think knowing the format before the purchase should be common sense and expected from every seller, I would like to point that of the about 80 ebooks that I've bought at Kobo *all of them* came as epub as well as kepub. The epub file being downloaded with ADE or directly from other web sites if it's DRM-free.

However it seems like many people have experienced trouble recently, ending up with only a kepub ebook. Could that be related to the transition to the new web site? Something like an issue with the database? Because I can't remember that many issues being reporter here before.
Anyway, I hope that Kobo will get their act together soon so we can go back to shopping without having to worry about technicalities.

Getting a kepub book is not because of their new website. I can still see their old website on some browsers and for the book Heaven Is Paved with Oreos, the old website still shows that it can be read on generic ereaders.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

I've been wondering if this thread should be in the General Sub-section because it seems to me that knowing what the format of an ebook is prior to purchase is relevant to all purchasers of ebooks (and not just Kobo)

However, a reason for keeping this thread in the Kobo device sub-forum is that Kobo reps who come a wandering are more than not likely to come across it, whereas in the General Section they wouldn't realise such a thread/poll was taking place because of their decision to remove format and DRM info from their latest website update.

What do you think?

I had a thread in General a while back - you could maybe add a link to this thread to let people know?
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...68#post2586368

[chromedome]

I don't care what format an e-book is in, although for my Kobo, I do prefer the kepub format.

I find the price that suits me best and purchase from that site, be it Amazon, Kobo or wherever. If the price is near-about the same on Kobo and Amazon then I'll buy Kobo for kepub. Wherever I purchase from, I just do the necessary "Alf'ing of the file and hey presto it's available for any of my devices to read at my leisure. I do not give lend or sell these copies to people outside my immediate family, unlike p-books which I often giveaway or donate to charity.

I don't care for DRM and would not purchase from a place where it became impossible to remove. Thus if Amazon, for example, find some way of stopping DRM removal then they'd just lose my custom. IMHO the practice of DRM embedding should be stopped as it mostly has with mp3's (because it doesn't work) I believe that the prices of e-books should be lowered slightly to remove temptation for pirating from the vast majority of honest people that are willing to pay for what they consume.

[samy2]

Originally Posted by chromedome

I don't care what format an e-book is in, although for my Kobo, I do prefer the kepub format.

...

I don't care for DRM and would not purchase from a place where it became impossible to remove. Thus if Amazon, for example, find some way of stopping DRM removal then they'd just lose my custom.

So you know a way to remove DRM from ebooks with just KEPUB from Kobo? If not you should care if its only KEPUB or not.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by samy2

So you know a way to remove DRM from ebooks with just KEPUB from Kobo? If not you should care if its only KEPUB or not.

There are a couple of tools out there for removing DRM from kepub books. One is a batch file that works under Windows XP and requires several programs to be available. The other is a Python script (just search for obok and python). I've played with both and prefer the Python script since it will work under multiple operating systems. I found it a useful tool when I was wanting to look at the structure and contents of a DRMed kepub to compare to a non-DRMed kepub.

Regards,
David

[paola]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I found it a useful tool when I was wanting to look at the structure and contents of a DRMed kepub to compare to a non-DRMed kepub.

do you know how an original epub and a liberated kepub compare?