B&N removed download option on all books in "My Nook" library

[Jane12]

Originally Posted by Difflugia

To add insult to injury, B&N doesn't indicate which titles have DRM and which don't. Even Kobo tells you that.

Yup. Though Kobo isn't without problems either.

I really wanted B&N to succeed. I wanted their brick-and-mortar stores to survive, and if publishers insist on DRM, then B&N's social variety was preferable (IMO) to Amazon and Adobe's. So I bought most of my books at B&N, even when it meant paying more. Words cannot express the depth of my disappointment in B&N.

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by Jane12

I really wanted B&N to succeed. I wanted their brick-and-mortar stores to survive, and if publishers insist on DRM, then B&N's social variety was preferable (IMO) to Amazon and Adobe's. So I bought most of my books at B&N, even when it meant paying more. Words cannot express the depth of my disappointment in B&N.

I'm with you. I still buy most of my books from B&N and will continue to do so until some show-stopper. For me, that will be something like no more epubs or DRM I can't remove, but I can't shake the feeling that even the shaky status-quo is on borrowed time.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Jane12

Yup. Though Kobo isn't without problems either.

I really wanted B&N to succeed. I wanted their brick-and-mortar stores to survive, and if publishers insist on DRM, then B&N's social variety was preferable (IMO) to Amazon and Adobe's. So I bought most of my books at B&N, even when it meant paying more. Words cannot express the depth of my disappointment in B&N.

What exactly is so bad about Amazon & Adobe DRM? Also, B&N DRM was based on Adobe's system.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

If you're able to sign in to Nookstudy, then you're good to go .... You can download your books with Nook for PC or whichever way you prefer. The key is for the account; it's not device or app specific, like kindle.

Unfortunately, this isn't true for me. I got switched to the new anti-social key two weeks ago. This was not a surprise (in fact, I expected it to happen months ago). What was a surprise is that my new key only works on books downloaded via NookStudy (for Mac) and not on books I download via greasemonkey or Nook for Mac. I ran several tests over several days to confirm it wasn't just a temporary glitch related to the switchover. Results were all the same: starting mid-February, as far as my books are concerned, NookStudy is definitely using a different key from books downloaded via greasemonkey or Nook for Mac.

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

What exactly is so bad about Amazon & Adobe DRM? Also, B&N DRM was based on Adobe's system.

Not really, they obtained it with their purchase of Fictionwise. "Secure eReader (PDB)" DRM was used on ebooks sold in .pdb files. B&N adopted it for their other formats as well. Adobe later added it to the Reader Mobile SDK, as of version 9.1.1 of the reader.

Luck;
Ken

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Unfortunately, this isn't true for me. I got switched to the new anti-social key two weeks ago. This was not a surprise (in fact, I expected it to happen months ago). What was a surprise is that my new key only works on books downloaded via NookStudy (for Mac) and not on books I download via greasemonkey or Nook for Mac. I ran several tests over several days to confirm it wasn't just a temporary glitch related to the switchover. Results were all the same: starting mid-February, as far as my books are concerned, NookStudy is definitely using a different key from books downloaded via greasemonkey or Nook for Mac.

That's really strange. When mine switched, everything switched at the same time (like you, I checked). I have a technical idea about what might be going on and I sent you a PM with an idea that might get your keys to sync up.

[odamizu]

Thanks Difflugia! I PM'ed you back. Maybe it's a technical snafu in my individual BN account, but after several days of testing with the same result, I'm thinking BN is transitioning to different keys for each download method.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Difflugia

Thanks to a tip-off from Nate, I downloaded the new NOOK app for Android.

From a few minutes of playing with it, it looks like B&N made some minor updates to the reader that came installed on the NOOK HD and released it for general Android use.

So far, the two big things for me are:

• The DRM hasn't changed
• NOOK-only titles (like children's books) can be downloaded with this app

You need a rooted device to retrieve the book files (stored in "/data/data/bn.ereader/files/B&N Downloads/Books"), but I was able to download books and import them into Calibre. I was also able to download books that wouldn't download to the previous app (like these free kids' books with audio), which was the only reason I ever booted my NOOK HD to its stock OS.

Also, B&N is giving a $5 credit to new Android customers that sign into the Android app for the first time before the end of March. I assume that this includes prior customers that had never downloaded NOOK for Android, but I can't check since it doesn't apply to me in any way.

Is there actually DRM applied the file? I should think that having them stored in what is ordinarily a non-accessible partition would be 'good enough' and allow them to avoid paying Adobe DRM royalties. In fact I would think it is the whole point of storing them that way.

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Is there actually DRM applied the file? I should think that having them stored in what is ordinarily a non-accessible partition would be 'good enough' and allow them to avoid paying Adobe DRM royalties. In fact I would think it is the whole point of storing them that way.

Yep. I'm sure B&N knows that rooting most Android devices isn't a huge technical hurdle. Since this is the same location that the NOOK HD software stores its books, I'm assuming that they just didn't bother to change it when they updated the app to work with general Android. For what it's worth, they actually put quite a bit of work into making the NOOK HD difficult to root, but still apply the DRM to books.

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by odamizu

Thanks Difflugia! I PM'ed you back. Maybe it's a technical snafu in my individual BN account, but after several days of testing with the same result, I'm thinking BN is transitioning to different keys for each download method.

Yeah, this is starting to look grim.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by Difflugia

Yeah, this is starting to look grim.

Well, maybe they won't get to you for a while. It took them 6 months to switch me from social DRM to anti-social

[eschwartz]

Makes sense they would use different keys -- the only reason ADE and B&N used identical keys in the first place is because books were supposed to be transferrable between devices. Not anymore for B&N.
Amazon has always (I think) used per-device keys.

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

What exactly is so bad about Amazon & Adobe DRM? Also, B&N DRM was based on Adobe's system.

The reason I always used to think B&N's old social DRM was better was because you never had to worry about a number of devices limit. And it was very easy to share books between family members. No DRM stripping necessary.

So far my B&N key is the same for Nook for PC, Nookstudy, Tampermonkey, and my Nook HD. I was switched to the anti-social DRM last fall when I changed my default cc.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

What exactly is so bad about Amazon & Adobe DRM? Also, B&N DRM was based on Adobe's system.

Amazon and traditional Adobe DRM tether you to a central server.

If BN and Adobe had succeeded with their original "social DRM" goal, you would have been able to read Nookbooks on any Adobe RMSDK device/app simply by inputting a passcode. While you still need a BN account to purchase and download Nookbooks (via direct web download link, no intermediary software required), you don't need a BN account or Nook to read a Nookbook that has social DRM. No registering devices/apps with BN, no authorizing devices/apps with an Adobe ID, no dealing with Adobe Digital Editions and .ascm files, no being locked in to the Amazon eco-system and having to use a registered Kindle device/app, no tethering whatsoever to an external server. All you need is a passcode.

Unfortunately, only a handful of RMSDK-based ereaders/apps enabled the passcode option (PanDigital, Jetbook, Bluefire Reader, Mantano, perhaps a few others). The major Adobe players, Sony and Kobo, left the passcode function disabled. As a result, the advantage of passcode-based social DRM was never fully realized. And now it's moot because BN has gutted it by obscuring the passcode and removing the direct download link.

[odamizu]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

The reason I always used to think B&N's old social DRM was better was because you never had to worry about a number of devices limit.

I agree. With Adobe, simply uninstalling/reinstalling ADE or unregistering/re-registering your device (e.g., if you have to do a factory reset) counts as an authorization. I've found Adobe support to be hit-or-miss with ADE. I heard it's because it's free software, so they don't offer the same level of support that they do for the software they sell.