I guess it had to happen sometime - book disappears from BoB online bookshelf

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Alfy

I really don't see it's a problem that companies don't garantee downloads after a certain time. You buy the book, you download it, and then it's your responsability to keep a copy somewhere (and I agree, a DRM-free copy is what you REALLY need). It really seems fair enough to me!

The problem is that when your reader breaks and have to be replaced (like my Cybook did after a year) it does not matter that I have saved a copy since it has DRM.

[RickyMaveety]

Just got off the phone with Amazon. They confirmed that in the unlikely event that a publisher pulled a book from circulation, it would also be removed from purchasers' media libraries.

So .... definitely, keep a back up of all purchases.

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by Alfy

I really don't see it's a problem that companies don't garantee downloads after a certain time. You buy the book, you download it, and then it's your responsability to keep a copy somewhere (and I agree, a DRM-free copy is what you REALLY need). It really seems fair enough to me!

True, but as mentioned earlier, its only really possible to have working backup copied of DRM free books.

You can backup DRM'd books all you want, but unless the seller is around to authenticate your newer devices in the future, as required by most DRM systems , you may as well not back them up as they are just occupying space.

Its this Imbalance that convinced Me (and other users) to only but DRM's books whose DRM has been cracked, to protect our rights and investment.

[bbusybookworm]

Originally Posted by tompe

Well, I do not buy DRM books since I do not read books directly but can wait 5 year to read a book I have bought. But people here have argued that big companies like Mobipocket will not stop selling Ebooks so in this case we still have the problem with books disappearing.

It is to much trouble to convert a book do a drm free book so I use other alternatives...

I wish I had your patience, but I really can't wait for an unknown number of years until a book comes out in DRM free format, if ever.

Still, Buying books in Mobi and eReader is easy, and usually just takes about 30 to 45 seconds per book to Strip off the DRM. My whole process, of Stripping and converting into various formats (DRM Free Mobi, LRF, HTML) usually just takes a couple of minutes, and most of it is just spent typing in the names.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by bbusybookworm

I wish I had your patience, but I really can't wait for an unknown number of years until a book comes out in DRM free format, if ever.

Still, Buying books in Mobi and eReader is easy, and usually just takes about 30 to 45 seconds per book to Strip off the DRM. My whole process, of Stripping and converting into various formats (DRM Free Mobi, LRF, HTML) usually just takes a couple of minutes, and most of it is just spent typing in the names.

The problem is more to update the DRM-removing programs when things change.

I still by a lot of paper books and my Cybook is mostly used to re-read books I own in paper versions and whose e-versions I have aquired in an alternative way.

And to my dismay I have read some paper books recently and noticed that I still find it much nicer and a better experience to read a paper book then reading a book on my Cybook. Really strange. I wonder if I have to test another reader to see if it is a problem with the ergonomics...

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by carandol

Don't panic! This has happened to me with BoB a couple of times. Apparently one of the sites they link through to (I think it's the Mobipocket site) has a tendency to update their database without telling BoB, and all the links disappear until they're updated. If you write to BoB and tell them what's missing, they should be able to reinstate the books in your bookshelf.

But stripping off the DRM and making your own backup does seem like a sensible Plan B for future use.

Yup, you're right - they answered back and asked for the title AND author and they'd fix the link and put it back in my bookshelf.

And to the other suggestions, well, of course!

However, ALL my books - original, cracked, etc. - are saved on the same drive. So if I lose that drive, I lose them ALL.

That is being remedied even as I type.