Have e-Readers been superseded by Tablets and Phones

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Switching is going to be difficult for those who are in a walled garden and don't know how to remove DRM from their previous purchases.

Has anyone been bitten by DRM? Under exactly what circumstances does the DRM manifest itself?

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Has anyone been bitten by DRM? Under exactly what circumstances does the DRM manifest itself?

I've not been bitten by it because I pull its teeth as soon as possible.

But imagine: you have a kindle (app), bought a lot of books from Amazon and then buy a Kobo. Thanks to DRM you cannot put your books through Calibre to get them from kindle format to epub format. So, you must de-DRM them first. Or vice versa, you have an epub ereader and want to switch to kindle.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by sl42

On the other hand, tablets and phones aren't exactly competing against ereaders, they are substitutes for them - in fact they vastly increase the pool of readers building up collections of text and becoming more used to the convenience of a digital library - and until battery technology improves, many of these people will buy ereaders to fix a limitation, and even after tablet battery life catches up enough there will still be many more readers who start by using their existing tablets and phones and wind up purchasing ereaders as second devices for the improved text/page quality. These are people who wouldn't have gone from paper to epaper directly, but might make that transition with the help of their tablet devices so they already have an existing elibrary built up that finally goads them into purchasing an ereader. Personally, I'm glad my tablet's battery was as bad as it was or I would never have switched over to a "real" ereader - now, of course, switching back would be out of the question until tablet displays improve enough to compete.

Good points!

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I've not been bitten by it because I pull its teeth as soon as possible.

But imagine: you have a kindle (app), bought a lot of books from Amazon and then buy a Kobo. Thanks to DRM you cannot put your books through Calibre to get them from kindle format to epub format. So, you must de-DRM them first. Or vice versa, you have an epub ereader and want to switch to kindle.

Thanks for the reply. I thought that DRM didn't allow you to copy books after a limited number of copies made.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Thanks for the reply. I thought that DRM didn't allow you to copy books after a limited number of copies made.

No, it limits the amount of devices. I've no idea how many (I know I have 6 devices listed on my kindle account).

[crossi]

DRM also prevents you from opening up the book file to edit it if all the OCR errors like
1's instead of l's or i's are driving you crazy. Or you smply want to change the paragraph formatting or font. Many, probably most, won't bother but some are really distracted by such errors and want to fix them in their books.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by crossi

DRM also prevents you from opening up the book file to edit it if all the OCR errors like
1's instead of l's or i's are driving you crazy. Or you smply want to change the paragraph formatting or font. Many, probably most, won't bother but some are really distracted by such errors and want to fix them in their books.

Last week I ran into the most terrible blunder I've seen in a good long while: the cover of the Kindle edition of 'Censoring Queen Victoria'

Funny thing is, the covers of the other versions are OK...

[Sweetpea]

It looks fine for me on Amazon...

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

It looks fine for me on Amazon...

It does? Follow the link I gave and look again (Hint: 'two' is plural...)

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

No, it limits the amount of devices. I've no idea how many (I know I have 6 devices listed on my kindle account).

Unlike others Amazon does not limit the amount of devices you can register to the same account. The limitation is on how many of your devices are allowed to read a certain book at the same time. Books sold without DRM have no limit, books with DRM have the default limit of 5 or 6 (think the default is 6) unless changed by the publisher. Some books may allow more or less. If you reach the limit you can remove a copy from one of the devices and put it on a different device.

[conan50]

I blame DRM on the publishers. Amazon and Google Books gives the author/publisher the choice of applying or leaving DRM off of books. I'm not sure anout B&N, I have heard they put DRM on everything.
The only excuse I can see for DRM is downloaded library books such as with Overdrive so they can manage how long you keep the book.

[Ripplinger]

I haven't bought anything from B&N recently, but last year I bought several DRM-free books from B&N.

[conan50]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I haven't bought anything from B&N recently, but last year I bought several DRM-free books from B&N.

That's good to know.
Has anyone uploaded ebooks there to know if they offer the choice for DRM or not?
Thanks.

[cromag]

I haven't uploaded directly, but publishers apparently have the choice. Analog and Asimov's SF magazines are DRM-free.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

It does? Follow the link I gave and look again (Hint: 'two' is plural...)

I read looked at the picture pixel by pixel and finally saw what you meant

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Unlike others Amazon does not limit the amount of devices you can register to the same account. The limitation is on how many of your devices are allowed to read a certain book at the same time. Books sold without DRM have no limit, books with DRM have the default limit of 5 or 6 (think the default is 6) unless changed by the publisher. Some books may allow more or less. If you reach the limit you can remove a copy from one of the devices and put it on a different device.

Ah, I always wondered how it worked... (as I "only" have 6 devices connected I never had problems with it )