Sideloading: Own content or "from somewhere else"

[mr ploppy]

I do it to fix the layout. There seems to be a craze at the moment for Kindle titles that won't let you change the font while you're reading. Converting them to epub and back seems to be the only way around it.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by rixte

I'm confused by your 'don't use Kindles because they don't have any advantages' - because I have a Kobo and a Kindle and the sideloading process for them is equally easy....

I have both, Kobos and Kindles (and a few others), so I only can quote my "pirate" friends:
a.) When doing batch downloads, it's easiest to download already in the target format. You find way more ePUBS than MOBI or AZW files for download.
b.) When managing tons of files, it's easiest to do so with an SD card. My friend can give this SD card to his brother or duplicate it right ahead. Connecting a reader and such is way less convenient.

There are some other arguments about file system, OS and the likes, but I didn't really listen.

The harshest statement was: "Why would anyone buy a Kindle if not for the store?". Personally, I love my Kindles. But I've heard this a few times.
I guess, Kobo is considered the "underdog" and enjoys some support. Whereas Amazon may be in the same league as Apple (or Microsoft before) = being to powerful...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by rixte

Because I read "your own content" as having been written BY me?

Or scanned and OCR'ed for personal use.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

a.) When doing batch downloads, it's easiest to download already in the target format. You find way more ePUBS than MOBI or AZW files for download.

This is evidence for pirates preferring the EPUB format. Or maybe evidence for pirates not preferring Kindles. The side-loading is mostly for pirated material" theory is still sketchy at best.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

This is evidence for pirates preferring the EPUB format. Or maybe evidence for pirates not preferring Kindles. The side-loading is mostly for pirated material" theory is still sketchy at best.

I think it is evidence that the OCR tools prefer the EPUB format. I doubt the pirates care.


I have never seen an AZW file in the wild, though. They all tend to be named .mobi, wherever you may get them from.

Probably because only Amazon's servers bother to name them that.
Being as it isn't an actual format, just an extension rename.

[Byrdie]

Don't feel bad, I just voted and also took "somewhere else" to mean legit sources of freebies other than my usual bookstore. Like Amazon, a few indie stores & the library. And I am also the lone "I try to avoid paying for ebooks ..." vote because I took it to mean bargain hunting & borrowing whenever possible, not pirating. Oops!

[Cosimo]

I don't sideload or use Calibre. I buy all my books and sync them.

At the end of the month I download that month's purchases and back them up.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Byrdie

Don't feel bad, I just voted and also took "somewhere else" to mean legit sources of freebies other than my usual bookstore. Like Amazon, a few indie stores & the library. And I am also the lone "I try to avoid paying for ebooks ..." vote because I took it to mean bargain hunting & borrowing whenever possible, not pirating. Oops!

If I were in the habit of getting lots of freebies I would've said the same.

Good job standing up for the fair interpretation of that option.

Interesting take on the avoid-paying thing.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

This is evidence for pirates preferring the EPUB format. Or maybe evidence for pirates not preferring Kindles. The side-loading is mostly for pirated material" theory is still sketchy at best.

I'm into figures.
Let's play statistics:
My "test group" of about 10 guys easily has 150.000 eBooks amongst them.
How many does the "honest" reader have?
200 on average?
This would need 750 (!!) honest sideloaders to make up for the same number of books.
Of course my test group will have lots of doubles, but so do the honest sideloaders. Probably even more so. The more people, the more likely to find Harry Potter and other high runners.
So, if we take the number of books as the base of comparison, the hoarders/pirates probably outweigh the honest sidelaoders.

Instead, we could use number of users as base of comparison.
Definitely a more favorable (towards honesty) picture.
I know lots of people, who wouldn't even sideload, not to mention strip from DRM. They buy on the reader, not even on the PC and that's it.
Is this the majority of users?

I still dare say: If someone sideloads (tens of) thousands of eBooks, it's most likely (at least partially) pirated content. Yes, there's HarryT with his collection of 6.000+ legally obtained books. Yes, there's the occasional Gutenberg project collector.
But are there dozens of them for each pirate, to outweigh their tens of thousands of pirated books?

I dare say as well: Pirates most likely sideload. Would someone load (tens of) thousands of books over the cloud, directly on the reader? Or will most of them batch-download on the PC and then sideload?
So, in this case, question would be about ratio between pirates and honest sideloaders.
I hope, pirates are an insignificant minority. Certainly not the 90%+ I see in my "test group". But probably not that small either. And bigger amongst sideloaders, than in other groups...

That's what I would have liked to quantify. But since the regulations in MR wouldn't allow statements about illegal activities, most pirates wouldn't openly admit it and MR of course should have a better quota than the general public, it only can be a positive picture...

[Little.Egret]

Originally Posted by shalym

I buy my books mostly from Amazon, some from

Adobe's process REQUIRES that a reader be connected to a PC, and I just absolutely reject that as a process that should need to be used in modern times.

Shari

No it doesn't

I read DRM'd EPub books on both my Nook and on my Kindle Fire with various Apps. Neither go anywhere near my PC.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Byrdie

Don't feel bad, I just voted and also took "somewhere else" to mean legit sources of freebies other than my usual bookstore. Like Amazon, a few indie stores & the library. And I am also the lone "I try to avoid paying for ebooks ..." vote because I took it to mean bargain hunting & borrowing whenever possible, not pirating. Oops!

Obviously I've phrased it too ominously, while trying to avoid phrases like "pirated books".
But out of curiosity:
The headline of the poll says:
Your own content or "from somewhere else"?
What was your interpretation, where I wanted to hint at with "own content" (vs. "somewhere else") and why I put "somewhere else" in quotation marks? Maybe I should have put a "wink" behind the "somewhere else"? But then the interpretation would have been, I play pirating down or even recommend it...

And like I wrote before:
The "for free" in "I download my content for free from "somewhere else"" has been added by a moderator. I think "I download my content "from somewhere else"" right after "I buy from my merchant of choice..." would have been more distinct...

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I think it is evidence that the OCR tools prefer the EPUB format. I doubt the pirates care...

The pirates do care.
It's about finding as many of the books you like to have, with as little effort as possible.
They will convert, if necessary. Most certainly have the skills to do so.
But they aim for finding their stuff, forwarding and spreading it.
And if I listen to their descriptions, availability of ePUBS outweighs any other format at least tenfold.

Okay, of course I can't speak for "all pirates".
But the picture in my tiny test group is absolutely unambiguously.
Imagine, you have to touch hundreds of downloaded books - every single day.
(Well, they probably don't download every day, but you get my point).

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Obviously I've phrased it too ominously, while trying to avoid phrases like "pirated books".
But out of curiosity:
The headline of the poll says:
Your own content or "from somewhere else"?
What was your interpretation, where I wanted to hint at with "own content" (vs. "somewhere else") and why I put "somewhere else" in quotation marks? Maybe I should have put a "wink" behind the "somewhere else"? But then the interpretation would have been, I play pirating down or even recommend it...

And like I wrote before:
The "for free" in "I download my content for free from "somewhere else"" has been added by a moderator. I think "I download my content "from somewhere else"" right after "I buy from my merchant of choice..." would have been more distinct...

Maybe instead of saying your own content you could have said your purchased content or legally obtained free books. That way you didn't have to say pirated for the other books and it would have made it more clear to me anyway what you meant by "somewhere else".

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

...I have never seen an AZW file in the wild, though. They all tend to be named .mobi, wherever you may get them from....

I've asked my friend about a rough overview.
He didn't want to count, so it's just a rough estimate.
He thinks, he's got about 45.000 books now.
About 80% ePUBs.
Maybe 10% PDFs (lots of comics).
Maybe 5% MOBIs. He says, there are almost as many AZWs as MOBIs, he doesn't care (or know) the difference.
The rest some exotic formats, some of them long gone. But he downloads anyway, it might proof useful some day. And some specific titles he only finds in a single format. Then he takes whatever he can get.
He's not converting yet, still enough easily accessible books for years.

He doesn't have any problems about pirated eBooks:
a.) He wouldn't buy them digitally anyway, so he's not harming any potential purchase. And he still buys his occasional paper book.
b.) He doesn't download movies, though. Too risky and not worth it, as movies are cheap to rent via flatrates. He's checking out PRIME and similar services and if they come to the level of movies (prices, availability, ...) he might stop downloading pirated books.
c.) He doesn't consider himself a hoarder. He doesn't download in such huge quantities, "to have it all". He batch-downloads out of convenience. Obviously there are "leeching" programs, that intelligently can download lots of quantities from different sources without much interaction.And then it's simply more convenient, to save another 500 books to the SD card, instead of actually manually checking them. He only checks when looking for a specific book. Then he tries the most likely keywords for search and doesn't bother much about the location of the file.

BTW: He's downloading every single day.
From the very same sources.
Quote: "If I would care for the quantity, I could download thousands of books every single day."
In his procedure, he can see at a glance, what he had downloaded before from the very same source. So he only downloads the new stuff. There's still the occasional double, but less than when using other sources.

[cromag]

So, here's the problem. The ereader I do almost all of my reading on, my JetBook Lite, doesn't have either an associated online store or wifi, so I have to "sideload" (via USB or by loading onto an SD card) anything I want to read.