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[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Yes. Amazon is actually fine with family reading, i.e. I buy a book and anyone in the family can read it as long as their device is registered to my account. That's how I bought books for my mother to read. Of course, you might need a separate account for those books you don't want your family to know that you bought. I read that this became an issue when 50 shades of gray (aka mommy porn) was popular.

My wife and I have family sharing turned on and we can share eBooks between accounts. No need to have my Kindle registered to her account.

[issybird]

I’m also in the minority camp of mostly not bothering to download and strip anymore, but unlike DiapDealer, I do have a large library of unread books. However, years after the grand shakeout, my library now mainly consists of Kobo and Amazon books and in the worst case scenario, it could mostly be reconstituted. The biggest issue going forward would be if I could no longer de-DRM Kindle purchases to read on my Kobos which is essentially the only time I still bother, but it also wouldn’t kill me to read my Kindle books on an app. A minor nuisance and a risk worth not having to spend the time on maintaining a perfectly curated Calibre library.

And, I’ve come to the point where I’m no longer worried about accessing books to read. My regrets are more in regard to the paper library I’ve augmented and carted around for decades, where I’ll never read most of the books again. The books have degraded, the print is too small, they no longer appeal - or I’ve replaced the best-loveds with a digital copy at that. It took decades, but I’ve finally internalized the lesson of not being too invested in maintaining a library.

[JSWolf]

I do remove the DRM. But given how it's done, it's just happens. I have a library where all my eBooks go and from there I copy to another library where the eBooks then can go on my Reader. This library I make any changes I want and then add to Reading List, plug in and they get sent to my Reader. It's no hardship to remove the DRM. I just use Calibre 4.23 for adding to the library and 5.x for everything else.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by issybird

My regrets are more in regard to the paper library I’ve augmented and carted around for decades, where I’ll never read most of the books again. The books have degraded, the print is too small, they no longer appeal - or I’ve replaced the best-loveds with a digital copy at that. It took decades, but I’ve finally internalized the lesson of not being too invested in maintaining a library.

I come from there as well. But while I never really enjoyed maintaining a paper library, I do enjoy maintaining a digital library, and gladly invest my time in it. I just like tinkering with it and with Calibre, aside from the need to keep a backup of my books. It's become a hobby in itself, quite apart from reading.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I come from there as well. But while I never really enjoyed maintaining a paper library, I do enjoy maintaining a digital library, and gladly invest my time in it. I just like tinkering with it and with Calibre, aside from the need to keep a backup of my books. It's become a hobby in itself, quite apart from reading.

I get that. In fact, I took some pleasure in maintaining my Calibre library until several years ago when an eye issue kept me from using a computer for nine months. Once I was able again (and had to face the hash of my files that had just been dumped for the best part of a year), I rethought my commitment. It no longer seemed worth the time. So my Calibre library, such as it is, is something of a time capsule.

[Tarana]

Mine are DRM-free on 2 computers plus a hard drive here and a hard drive off site (this includes audiobooks and photos as well, not just limited to ebooks).

Curating my library is kindof fun but I do delete ebooks in the cloud periodically. All the samples and books not part of a series with a rating below 3 get ditched. Another handy thing about Calibre is that I can rate them and sort by rating. Makes the ditching in the cloud much easier.

It is BECAUSE of my diminishing eyesight that I maintain my Calibre library. If one day I can no longer afford to buy ebooks, at least I have a fall back position. I just need my library on a flashdrive. Easy enough to pay a teenager with a laptop to transfer stuff over.

I think if you look a few years back in the news section, a UA Federal judge ruled it ok to make archival copies. If that means removing the DRM to do so, I think that was alright as well. I think eventually the licensing aspect of things like ebooks will change - unlike other software, it is static.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Mine are DRM-free on 2 computers plus a hard drive here and a hard drive off site (this includes audiobooks and photos as well, not just limited to ebooks).

Curating my library is kindof fun but I do delete ebooks in the cloud periodically. All the samples and books not part of a series with a rating below 3 get ditched. Another handy thing about Calibre is that I can rate them and sort by rating. Makes the ditching in the cloud much easier.

It is BECAUSE of my diminishing eyesight that I maintain my Calibre library. If one day I can no longer afford to buy ebooks, at least I have a fall back position. I just need my library on a flashdrive. Easy enough to pay a teenager with a laptop to transfer stuff over.

I think if you look a few years back in the news section, a UA Federal judge ruled it ok to make archival copies. If that means removing the DRM to do so, I think that was alright as well. I think eventually the licensing aspect of things like ebooks will change - unlike other software, it is static.

I never really got into the free books orgy like many did. Way back when I bought the first Sony PRS-500, it came access to 100 PD books. None of those ever made the change over from LRF to EPUB. I have some PD classics, but I'm as likely to invest in a quality penguin version as a freebie. I never purged by Calibre library, but then again, I have never thrown away the mediocre paperbacks that I've bought over the years either. For the most part, the only organizing that I do is to enable me to find books when I want to, rather than have books just so. When I replace a paper book with the ebook version, the paper book gets put in a plastic crate. I did donate a bunch of hard back duplicates to a library, but that was mostly because a friend asked me to since it was a fund raiser for her local library.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by issybird

I get that. In fact, I took some pleasure in maintaining my Calibre library until several years ago when an eye issue kept me from using a computer for nine months. Once I was able again (and had to face the hash of my files that had just been dumped for the best part of a year), I rethought my commitment. It no longer seemed worth the time. So my Calibre library, such as it is, is something of a time capsule.

Yeah, life can happen. I've occasionally had periods in my life when I've not had the time to manage my ebooks for several months (true, not quite nine) and I've also just dumped the files. The last time it happened it took me half a year to get my library more or less up to date again. It seemed like a second full-time job. But I didn't mind. Without a properly curated library I'd have no idea which books I already have and which I don't, as I buy from several different places, and I would have bought many duplicates over the years.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah, life can happen. I've occasionally had periods in my life when I've not had the time to manage my ebooks for several months (true, not quite nine) and I've also just dumped the files. The last time it happened it took me half a year to get my library more or less up to date again. It seemed like a second full-time job.

Yep. A major factor in my giving up. Maintenance would have been one thing; digging out was a task too far.

But I didn't mind. Without a properly curated library I'd have no idea which books I already have and which I don't, as I buy from several different places, and I would have bought many duplicates over the years.

I wouldn’t say it’s been many, but it’s happened. Mostly because I didn’t think to check; it wasn’t so much that I didn’t have a Calibre library, as that I was forgetful and lazy.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I never really got into the free books orgy like many did. Way back when I bought the first Sony PRS-500, it came access to 100 PD books. None of those ever made the change over from LRF to EPUB. I have some PD classics, but I'm as likely to invest in a quality penguin version as a freebie. I never purged by Calibre library, but then again, I have never thrown away the mediocre paperbacks that I've bought over the years either. For the most part, the only organizing that I do is to enable me to find books when I want to, rather than have books just so. When I replace a paper book with the ebook version, the paper book gets put in a plastic crate. I did donate a bunch of hard back duplicates to a library, but that was mostly because a friend asked me to since it was a fund raiser for her local library.

I moved often enough that my paper books were regularly purged, only keeping the unread (few) and the favorites. My late sister always lived with my parents and never got rid of any books (thankfully mostly paperbacks). 59 boxes of books. I got that job. It started off fun, but by box 25, I was pretty sick of it.

I'm the keeper of the library. So, I don't do a lot, but I do download the metadata and fix the tags, titles and authors. Most of this is done while on hold.

[Thasaidon]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I come from there as well. But while I never really enjoyed maintaining a paper library, I do enjoy maintaining a digital library, and gladly invest my time in it. I just like tinkering with it and with Calibre, aside from the need to keep a backup of my books. It's become a hobby in itself, quite apart from reading.

I am much the same. I have retained a small library mostly of Ace double SF and/or signed paperbacks. I am unlikely to read any of them any more but I like to see them on my bookshelves.

[Sarmat89]

Originally Posted by Apache

Backing up and stripping DRM means you never lose your books.

But that is stealing.

[binaryhermit]

It's not stealing, and while it probably is copyright infringement, I'd argue that there can be a case made that it's not morally wrong

Edit: as long as the backup is for personal use only, obviously.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Gandulf

Came across an interesting article sometime ago. The person had all her books deleted off her kindle. The reason was she bought them from Amazon in a different country.

Turns out Amazon don't sell ebooks they sell licences and the ebooks where not licensed for her country. Yes that icon you click on " buy the ebook" really means buy a licence for the ebook.

My question is are you also only buying a licence from places like kobo, B&N etc?

This thread seems to have developed into a discussion of backup strategies and DRM removal. However, it seems to me that one issue has not had much discussion. I posted on this in another thread some time ago. At that time removing DRM clearly breached the Amazon license agreement, but avoiding geographic restrictions did not. Clearly for Amazon to delete someone's e-books from their Kindle there should have been a clear breach of the license agreement. I do not have sufficient time or leisisure to go through the various agreements again now. However, I would be interested what term of the license is breached per se simply by buying from Amazon in a different country.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

But that is stealing.

In what way? Is it written in the law somewhere that you can only keep your purchased ebooks for a certain time period and no longer? In the case of library books, yes, of course. I'm not aware of any such law regarding purchased books.