Sideloading: Own content or "from somewhere else"

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

In my personal, albeit limited, experience it's the other way around.

Those that do sideload carefully consider their purchase.

Perhaps you misunderstood me. I meant that of the people who DO sideload content to their devices, none of them have any more difficulty than others in doing so (especially not based on what device they have).

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

If people have to calculate, whether they can afford another 20 Euro for their hardware: How can they ever afford the content.
Maybe I'm a bit extreme in my spending frenzy.

I think people are often more cautious about a lump sum than the same (or more!) money spread over a period.

This certainly applies to me. I've spent around £300 on ebooks so far this year, but I'm using a nook ST Glowlight I bought for around £70 some time ago. I look at the new Kindles, but I don't buy, even though the cost is a lot smaller than my annual spend on ebooks.

[Purple Lady]

I'm very confused because of the wording of the questions. For example if I see "I download my content for free from "somewhere else", maybe convert to the target format and sideload to my hardware of choice", I think of the freebies I get from Amazon and convert to epub. Does "somewhere else" mean pirated?

[shalym]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Perhaps you misunderstood me. I meant that of the people who DO sideload content to their devices, none of them have any more difficulty than others in doing so (especially not based on what device they have).

Exactly. Most people who are inclined to sideload at all are very familiar with converting from one format to another. I agree that the presence of an external SD card does seem to be a consideration for some people, but I'm not sure that format really is.

Shari

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Does "somewhere else" mean pirated?

Yes, that's exactly what it means in this instance.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by shalym

Exactly. Most people who are inclined to sideload at all are very familiar with converting from one format to another. I agree that the presence of an external SD card does seem to be a consideration for some people, but I'm not sure that format really is.

Shari

I thought that I'd find the external SD slot on my Kobo H2O useful, but the reality is that I simply haven't needed it. The 2000-odd books that 4GB of storage permits are entirely sufficient for my needs.

[Hrafn]

I buy from my merchant of choice, strip from DRM and sideload to my hardware of choice.

This doesn't apply to me, because I buy only DRM-free content, which I then "sideload to my hardware of choice." Stripping DRM is illegal (at least under DMCA), so I see no point in paying somebody for something that I then have to break the law to use the way I want to.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

This doesn't apply to me, because I buy only DRM-free content, which I then "sideload to my hardware of choice." Stripping DRM is illegal (at least under DMCA), so I see no point in paying somebody for something that I then have to break the law to use the way I want to.

Does your self-imposed prohibition apply to all forms of DRM, or only to encryption-based DRM? Would you, for example, buy a book that employed watermarking?

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Yes, that's exactly what it means in this instance.

Thanks. I use Amazon mainly for cheap and free books and I hate trying to read on my Kindle so the statements with "somewhere else" seemed apply to me for that reason.

[Hrafn]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Does your self-imposed prohibition apply to all forms of DRM, or only to encryption-based DRM? Would you, for example, buy a book that employed watermarking?

The point has been moot to date, as I have yet to encounter a book I wish to read with non-encryption DRM. If the DRM did not interfere with what device/reading-software combination I could use it with (or otherwise interfere with my reading experience), I (i) would have no need to "strip from DRM" anyway, and thus (ii) would see no impediment to buying it.

How common is non-encryption/watermarking DRM? I've occasionally heard it mentioned, but yet to even encounter it in the wild, let alone had to make a non-hypothetical decision about it.

[sakura-panda]

I chose "I don't care about sideloading", "I buy from the merchant of my choice, strip and sideload to my hardware of choice" and "I don't mind paying for ebooks." I was a little stumped about the second one, because for me those three items are independent and not related to each other, but I chose it anyway.

My first ebook reader was sideload only; no wi-fi, so I had to download all content and connect to the computer to copy to my reader.

Now that I'm using all wi-fi devices, I pretty much just leave everything in the cloud. Every six months or so, I go through my email receipts and I download all of my purchases and import them into Calibre. I do use the tools on those books, but to be honest, most of the time if I want to actually *read* I book, I download it to my device from whatever vendor is holding it for me. I would like to someday have them all in Calibre, so that my library is in one place, but I haven't put the time into sorting those books yet.

The last time I sideloaded content was when I downloaded books that I bought for my son from Amazon (his Kindle Touch is linked to my account) and sideloaded them to his Kindle Fire (linked to his dad's account). Originally, setting up his devices to separate accounts made sense, since his dad has more apps in his account than I do in mine, but I didn't take into account the fact that Amazon does not allow the Kindle app to have a separate login from the tablet itself.

[Cesca]

Wouldn't "somewhere else" included public domain sites like Project Gutenberg? There are plenty of free sites that don't have pirated books. Manybooks, Girl ebooks, etc.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

The point has been moot to date, as I have yet to encounter a book I wish to read with non-encryption DRM. If the DRM did not interfere with what device/reading-software combination I could use it with (or otherwise interfere with my reading experience), I (i) would have no need to "strip from DRM" anyway, and thus (ii) would see no impediment to buying it.

How common is non-encryption/watermarking DRM? I've occasionally heard it mentioned, but yet to even encounter it in the wild, let alone had to make a non-hypothetical decision about it.

Apparently it's pretty common in some European countries. One of our members from Latvia told us that the main bookstore there uses it for all their books.

One very popular series of books that uses watermarking in the English-speaking world is J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series. She sells these from her own site, and the books are watermarked.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

...Does "somewhere else" mean pirated?

Yes, that's what interested me.
I didn't want to phrase it that openly, but in the meantime the term has been used repeatedly.
That's why I put it in quotation marks.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

...Stripping DRM is illegal (at least under DMCA), so I see no point in paying somebody for something that I then have to break the law to use the way I want to.

That (purchasing legally, but then stripping from DRM) was exactly what I did in the past.
a.) I didn't feel guilty, because I had paid for it.
b.) I'd hope for some kind of quality, whereas content from the darknet can be "hit and miss".