Question about side loading

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Can you elaborate/clarify?

They were there, then they weren't, and they were not available to redownload when I logged into the website. I just wrote it off as a learning experience and downloaded everything else I'd bought up to that point. And have done so since.

[haertig]

I would not trust anybody to keep my books for me. I learned from Barnes & Noble experience, and it looks like at least some people have had issues with Kobo as well.

Download it, strip the DRM, and keep it locally. Side load it from there. That's my plan. I don't want to be dependent on somebody else who may go out of business, or may not share the same respect for purchased items that I do.

[cfrizz]

When I first started buying books, it was from the now gone Fictionwise. When I read over the terms it said to always immediately download your books, that it wouldn't guarantee that the books would still be there if you waited.

So that is what I have always done no matter where I get my books. Therefore, I wasn't one of those doing a mad scramble to download piles of books when Fictionwise said they were going to close and you had X amount of time to download your books.

What I don't understand is if you are buying the books, why wouldn't you want to download them to your personal pc/site whatever that way you KNOW you have them.

[issybird]

Welp, I’ll offer the alternative POV. Right now, the overwhelming majority of my books have been purchased from Kobo or Amazon, and I’m not all that worried about accessing them. And in regard to my purchase history, all of my Fictionwise books are at B&N, all of my Borders books are at Kobo, most of my Sony books are at Kobo, i.e., most of them are accessible. I just can’t get that exercised about it.

As for Kobo, it’s true that they announced at one point that they were going to cut off access to PDF purchases, and I did have some - I bought them because they were cheaper than the ePub/kepub (more fool me; at least that’s a lesson learned). But in the grand scheme, when I think about all the ebooks I’ve bought and how the overwhelming majority are still available to me, it’s a powerful argument to let it go. Even more so, now that there are so many fewer purveyors.

Ι figure the worst worst case scenario still gives me notice, and in the short to medium term, neither Amazon nor Kobo is going anywhere. Essentially, I’d rather be reading than fiddling.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

They were there, then they weren't, and they were not available to redownload when I logged into the website. I just wrote it off as a learning experience and downloaded everything else I'd bought up to that point. And have done so since.

Have you asked Kobo about it? It is probably an error. It might have happened when they had the new versions uploaded and messed up. Or it could be like the infamous edition of 1984 that Amazon withdrew because it was not a legitimate edition. In either case, they should be fixing it, or at least explaining it.

Or, any chance of posting an example or two? Maybe one of use have the same book and can see.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Have you asked Kobo about it? It is probably an error. It might have happened when they had the new versions uploaded and messed up. Or it could be like the infamous edition of 1984 that Amazon withdrew because it was not a legitimate edition. In either case, they should be fixing it, or at least explaining it.

Or, any chance of posting an example or two? Maybe one of use have the same book and can see.

Sorry, it was nearly 2 years ago now and as they were obscure, VERY cheap impulse buys, bought primarily to get a handful of BP to reach what I needed for a target book, I didn't care much at the time, even less now.

[ownedbycats]

I've had books I previously bought become unavailable on Kobo Store. While I was still able to re-download them, it makes me very glad that I have a DeDRM'd backup.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Sorry, it was nearly 2 years ago now and as they were obscure, VERY cheap impulse buys, bought primarily to get a handful of BP to reach what I needed for a target book, I didn't care much at the time, even less now.

Have you looked for these books since? It could have been temporary. And if it is an problem in their system, I know Kobo are interested in fixing it. If I had a list of ISBNs or titles, I can get them to someone to look at.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by issybird

Welp, I’ll offer the alternative POV. Right now, the overwhelming majority of my books have been purchased from Kobo or Amazon, and I’m not all that worried about accessing them. And in regard to my purchase history, all of my Fictionwise books are at B&N, all of my Borders books are at Kobo, most of my Sony books are at Kobo, i.e., most of them are accessible. I just can’t get that exercised about it.

As for Kobo, it’s true that they announced at one point that they were going to cut off access to PDF purchases, and I did have some - I bought them because they were cheaper than the ePub/kepub (more fool me; at least that’s a lesson learned). But in the grand scheme, when I think about all the ebooks I’ve bought and how the overwhelming majority are still available to me, it’s a powerful argument to let it go. Even more so, now that there are so many fewer purveyors.

Ι figure the worst worst case scenario still gives me notice, and in the short to medium term, neither Amazon nor Kobo is going anywhere. Essentially, I’d rather be reading than fiddling.

I don't bother either. I occasionally will backup my books but not every purchase. I haven't lost any books I paid for either despite using ebooks for over a decade. The only books I've "lost" is some freebie books I got from Kobo back when they were called Shortcovers. Like you I don't expect Amazon or Kobo to disappear overnight with no warning.

I use an Android eReader so I can just easily switch between the appropriate companies apps so I don't even need to sideload some books on. It also works for stuff I can't remove DRM for and wouldn't be able to read on a device like a Kobo at all anyways.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by issybird

Essentially, I’d rather be reading than fiddling.

I share this pov, but don't consider the handful of clicks it takes to do a batch de-drm to be much "fiddling"

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I share this pov, but don't consider the handful of clicks it takes to do a batch de-drm to be much "fiddling"

I can't read unless an ebook is formatted the way I like and I won't have to fiddle with the settings on my ereader every time I start a new book. Plus of course backing up.

And I actually like fiddling with my library, as opposed to fiddling with my ereader. I don't enjoy the latter all that much. Once I've chosen a font size, font type, margins, line spacing etc, I want them to remain the same across all my reads and don't like to change them, especially as I generally have 3-4 different books going. Fiddling with the book before loading it on my reader is a small price to pay for this convenience, in my view.

[leebase]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

What I don't understand is if you are buying the books, why wouldn't you want to download them to your personal pc/site whatever that way you KNOW you have them.

Ok, here is my why. I realize your pov makes a lot of sense. I did have to scramble to get my fiction wise books. Did so successfully, thankfully.

But it's a hassle. My home computer situation isn't stable. I mostly use work provided laptops. But I change jobs fairly frequently. So I'm always installing Calibre and setting things up, and again and again.

It's not Calibre's fault.

I do not how to get a copy of a book from places not to mention. If I bought a book, I feel no quilt about such activity.

Since I don't like to read on the Kindle app...I do MUCH of the time, download the books to liberate them so I can read them in my favorite app. Even so, it's a hassle and sometimes I just don't bother.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

Welp, I’ll offer the alternative POV. Right now, the overwhelming majority of my books have been purchased from Kobo or Amazon, and I’m not all that worried about accessing them. And in regard to my purchase history, all of my Fictionwise books are at B&N, all of my Borders books are at Kobo, most of my Sony books are at Kobo, i.e., most of them are accessible. I just can’t get that exercised about it.

As for Kobo, it’s true that they announced at one point that they were going to cut off access to PDF purchases, and I did have some - I bought them because they were cheaper than the ePub/kepub (more fool me; at least that’s a lesson learned). But in the grand scheme, when I think about all the ebooks I’ve bought and how the overwhelming majority are still available to me, it’s a powerful argument to let it go. Even more so, now that there are so many fewer purveyors.

Ι figure the worst worst case scenario still gives me notice, and in the short to medium term, neither Amazon nor Kobo is going anywhere. Essentially, I’d rather be reading than fiddling.

If you bought eBooks from Amazon (pre-Kindle), Books-On-Board, or Paperback Digital, they are gone. There are other stores where the eBooks are gone and didn't get transferred to Kobo.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by issybird

But in the grand scheme, when I think about all the ebooks I’ve bought and how the overwhelming majority are still available to me, it’s a powerful argument to let it go.

I hope this logic does not carryover into general computer backups. "I've never had a harddrive go bad on me, so I don't bother backing mine up."

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by haertig

I hope this logic does not carryover into general computer backups. "I've never had a harddrive go bad on me, so I don't bother backing mine up."

Well, I've never had a hard drive go bad on me.

That said, I'm pretty anal about backups of any kind (I'm a pessimist by nature). Also I tend to have several laptops and tablets in use and buy new ones every few years (electronic devices, ebooks and cat stuff are the only areas in my otherwise pretty frugal life where I splurge), so backups come in handy there too. I usually have a new computer long before something happens to the old one. But I need to move all my stuff to the new one regularly, of course, because of this habit.

Many people I know use their work laptops for personal stuff. IMO that's stupid, but it's not my business. And many people don't even have that much personal stuff on their hard drives. Most of their photos are in Facebook or Instagram, and there's really nothing else worth keeping. Me, I'm a nerd and a hoarder, so I have tons of various stuff. But I think I'm an exception rather than the norm.