Overdrive will Stop Supplying Fictionwise on 30 January 2009

[CleverClothe]

9/278 affected, 1 replacement. But it doesn't matter too much once I have them downloaded and backed up. I will get around to liberating them of their chains.

Originally Posted by Barcey

Hmmm.... Let's see what changed?

Fictionwise purchased eReader and went from being an Overdrive customer/retailer to being an Overdrive customer/retailer/competitor.

No that couldn't be it. Surely Overdrive wouldn't callously ignore the interests of the consumer over something like that. There must be a more simple explanation.

Maybe due to the worsening economy, they are downsizing their revenue stream.

[xianfox]

Originally Posted by kazbates

With the exception of a few ebooks I purchased when I first got my ebookwise-1150 all of mine were MS Reader, too. I guess it has more to do with the publisher.
Kaz

This includes some in Mobipocket, MS Reader, and Adobe Digital Edition formats. My 7 expiring titles are all MS Reader format.

[Lemurion]

All of mine were lit too.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How does one sign up/join the FW Group?

Bottom of the left-hand links column, under Miscellany, select newsgroup.

Snowman

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by kazbates

Has anyone else had this problem: I have 64 books that are expiring but only 49 of them have replacements. I thought they were going to replace all of them.
Kaz

Well, they have to get permission from the publishers to provide these books in eReader format. There is plenty of time before the end of the month but there is no guarantee that they will be successful. The eBooks are not expiring in the sense that you will no longer be able to read them. So long as you have a copy of the book authorized to your device you will be able to use it as long as the device will work. You will only have a problem if you lose the file or change your device.

Dale

[Justy]

Originally Posted by sianon

I am more concerned about the impact if this were to happen to Books on Board where the majority of my mobi books appear to be from overdrive (at least I presume that the OD stands for over drive)

I sent a message to BooksOnBoard asking them this same question and got this reply:

BooksOnBoard will continue to provide Overdrive files to our customers. Our relationship with Overdrive is healthy and we plan to be offering their titles for a long long time.

Looks like we are safe.

[AnemicOak]

Looks like I've got 18 of 215, all replaced. One mistake PDF and 17 LIT's. I'm glad I have unDRM'd backups of the LIT's already as I really have no use for eReader files at this time and their DRM removal isn't as handy or reliable as it is for LIT's (unless something's changed in the past few months).

I do applaud FW for doing something to try and get customers access to their books in some form.

[junkml]

I've got 30 books affected by this, 6 of which do not have replacements.

It's these kind of shenanigans that show how ridiculous it is to declare circumventing DRM as breaking the law! It's fair use, as far as I'm concerned.

[junkml]

Originally Posted by Justy

I sent a message to BooksOnBoard asking them this same question and got this reply:

Looks like we are safe.

I think it's more like you're safe..... For now.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Looks like I've got 18 of 215, all replaced. One mistake PDF and 17 LIT's.

Well, it's almost embarrassing to admit, but out of 1449 (eek!), only one was affected. And, like AnemicOak, it was an Adobe encrypted PDF I bought by mistake!

Almost all the books I have with DRM are eReader, since it has been my preferred format for years. Only with the advent of mobidedrm have I been willing to purchase a few of those mobi-only titles ...

[Seabound]

Is there a good reason why Overdrive is ceasing to serve Fictionwise, one of the more popular ebook sellers around? If not, shame on them. They also seem to have a monopoly on the ebook serving gig. I hope Fictionwise finds an acceptable alternative.

[Peter Sorotokin]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Well, it's almost embarrassing to admit, but out of 1449 (eek!), only one was affected. And, like AnemicOak, it was an Adobe encrypted PDF I bought by mistake!

Just in case someone bought PDF on purpose

PDFs are not really affected by this (or any other such future event), as long as you install Digital Editions, activate with AdobeID and import your files into Digital Editions (or purchase them with Digital Editions in the first place). You won't be able to redownload PDFs, of course; but you still will be able to transfer PDFs to your new devices even after the Jan 30th. Be sure to back up the PDFs after they are migrated into Digital Editions, though; Acrobat won't do for that.

[tech_au]

May I suggest that this is the first shot in the upcoming mobi vs Adobe war that is looming this year.
I suspect that every pdf and epub ebook I have purchased from various ebook stores in US,UK and Oz have been served by Overdrive.
Fictionwise have always been mobi, lit and ereader with very little support for secure Adobe and with their push to a new "epub-like" ereader format that may not sit well with the Adobe pdf and epub.
Maybe this is a bit "conspiracy theory" but who knows.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Seabound

Is there a good reason why Overdrive is ceasing to serve Fictionwise, one of the more popular ebook sellers around? If not, shame on them. They also seem to have a monopoly on the ebook serving gig. I hope Fictionwise finds an acceptable alternative.

Apparently they didn't tell FW why they were dropping them so who knows. It could be that since FW bought eReader they've also become a distro or maybe FW wasn't using them much and using their competitor, Lightning Source, and that somehow played into it. I know almost all the books I've bought in the last year or more from FW have been from Lightning Source.

Over Drive, also known as Content Serve, is one of the biggies along with Lightning Source. I'm not sure if there are any other big distro's out there for ebooks. I know Harper Collins is in big with OD, but don't know if their titles are distro'd exclusively by them or not. Hopefully now although FW has failed to offer some (all?) of Harper's new releases the past week or two.


The last big Over Drive problem I remember was back around '04 when the dumped eReader as a format so folks who purchased that format from FW, and maybe others, back then were out of luck. Thankfully when FW bought eReader they restored access to those books for folks, provided eReader still had rights to them.

[Seabound]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Apparently they didn't tell FW why they were dropping them so who knows. It could be that since FW bought eReader they've also become a distro or maybe FW wasn't using them much and using their competitor, Lightning Source, and that somehow played into it. I know almost all the books I've bought in the last year or more from FW have been from Lightning Source.

Over Drive, also known as Content Serve, is one of the biggies along with Lightning Source. I'm not sure if there are any other big distro's out there for ebooks. I know Harper Collins is in big with OD, but don't know if their titles are distro'd exclusively by them or not. Hopefully now although FW has failed to offer some (all?) of Harper's new releases the past week or two.


The last big Over Drive problem I remember was back around '04 when the dumped eReader as a format so folks who purchased that format from FW, and maybe others, back then were out of luck. Thankfully when FW bought eReader they restored access to those books for folks, provided eReader still had rights to them.

Ah, thanks for that.