Amazon and DRM changes

[DNSB]

Whereas the rest of us get to see posts from Amazon Kindle users that are about how great promised features are going to be. Please check some of the recent posts about the Scribe. One example being "Besides, I hope that, as with every Kindle so far, each update will bring something interesting and further enhance the capabilities of this marvel." Remind anyone else of the lyrics of The Preacher and the Slave.

IRL, one of my customers returned the 3 Scribes they purchased to test for use in their corporate environment. When they found the admin assistants and paralegals would have to send their internally generated PDF documents to Amazon before the Scribe would allow decent annotations and those annotations could not be shared to/from their internal corporate site, never mind the security nightmares of sending any documents offsite, the response was, being kindly, extremely negative.

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Whereas the rest of us get to see posts from Amazon Kindle users that are about how great promised features are going to be. Please check some of the recent posts about the Scribe. One example being "Besides, I hope that, as with every Kindle so far, each update will bring something interesting and further enhance the capabilities of this marvel." Remind anyone else of the lyrics of The Preacher and the Slave.

This sounds like classic non-native English to me, it must be very difficult to gauge the nuances correctly in another tongue.

Originally Posted by DNSB

IRL, one of my customers returned the 3 Scribes they purchased to test for use in their corporate environment. When they found the admin assistants and paralegals would have to send their internally generated PDF documents to Amazon before the Scribe would allow decent annotations and those annotations could not be shared to/from their internal corporate site, never mind the security nightmares of sending any documents offsite, the response was, being kindly, extremely negative.

This system is no use from a business confidentiality standpoint, that’s for sure.

It’s a great reader for pleasure, however. And a good basic note-tasking device.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by innocenat

I also have one very good reason for not buying Kobo. (And this is my actual reason for not owning a Kobo device).

"Punishing" Kobo for the rants of someone afflicted with delusions of omniscience makes about as much sense as that person's own bizarre tirades. If Kindle or other devices are the best option for you personally, go for it.


But to boycott a possibly or potentially superior product simply because someone completely unconnected with them behaves like a boor and a bully is, to use an English idiom, 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'. It would be like vowing never to eat vegetables again because of the intemperate evangelizing of some vegans.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

But to boycott a possibly or potentially superior product

What is that supposed to be?
Like others, Kobo builds so poorly that you just don't notice it.
Under my broken devices there are only Kobos (4 of 5)

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by issybird

It’s fine for comparative purposes and it’s useful as a comparison to the US prices you cited. That is, this does both; it’s a comparison of prices within his country and a comparison to US prices. So it provides even more information than prices in the local currency.

It's not that helpful as most countries include VAT to their prices but US does not. You cannot compare prices in european countries to US prices by simply doing a currency conversion.

[Mari123]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I commented previously on some of the possible issues that might arise in purchasing a Kindle for the purpose of obtaining files suitable for DRM removal. Here are my thoughts on which models would be the most desirable in case someone still wants to go ahead with that.

Given the recent restrictions on Download & Transfer I recommend obtaining a model that allows books to be downloaded to the device directly from Amazon over WiFi in KF8 format which can be accessed via USB.

I would avoid the 1st and 2nd generation Kindles and the DX. They only support the old MOBI format and may no longer be able to connect to Amazon.

The Kindle Keyboard (3rd gen), Kindle Touch (4th gen), and Kindle (4th & 5th gen) are workable. However they may require manually installed firmware updates to be usable. And as older models they are more likely to be cut off from service in the future.

The Paperwhite 1 (5th gen) is the most desirable option in my opinion. It is the newest model that does not support KFX format.

I would avoid newer models than that. Most of them support KFX out of the box that cannot be disabled. Some models that didn't can be reverted to older firmware that does not support KFX, but that requires jail breaking which is more difficult to set up and risks bricking the device.

Okay, there are a lot of information and replies and I'm getting a lot mixed up!. Sorry for asking and bothering you all, but you can de drm KU by using a PW1(EY21), right? Get the book on the device and drag the file to Calibre?

[Cetacea]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You buy a Kindle PW (unless it's the PW1) and you won't be able to download KU or Prime eBooks other then in KFX. You have to buy a Kindle that supports KF8 but not KFX.

I'm aware of that. But I'll not buy an old Kindle just to be able to download Kindle e-books that I then can import into calibre. Because I'm very sure that option is going to be cut sooner or later anyway. When I buy the Kindle PW Signature, I'll use it to actually read books.

Currently I own about 6000 e-books. 5000 +/- are Kindle e-books already. Most oft them I bought while they were also part of KU resp. published through a Amazon owned publisher. I never had KU, because I don't want to "lend" books and the restricitions about only being able to lend 10 books at the same time, never worked for me. The other 1000 e-books are epubs from the Kobo store, B&N and local book stores.

Any new kindle e-books that I will buy (and I have pre-orders up to next year actually), will be on the Kindle PW instead of the Kobo. I'm sure I'll get used to the Kindle book management just like I got used to the calibre book management. As long as I can sort the books on Kindle in collection based on the authors name, I'll be fine.

It's also true, that I had several Kobo up and die on me, so I know they are not perfect either.

[rantanplan]

What I find weird is that people recommend Kobo because you can easily decrypt the books from the device and don't have to bother with Adobe Digital Editions, but then again they put themselves into a situation where it would be quite easy for Kobo to push an update to their supported devices that just fixes the DRM scheme.

If DRM-free is your goal it's not that smart to put all your eggs in the basket of any vendor that has full control over their eco-system. If "but Kobo has ADE downloads on their website" is your backup then I'd recommend buying somewhere else because Kobo puts DRM on books that are sold somewhere else without it.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Rhooo

DRM and Amazon domination-related, I was recommended a DRM-free ebook site by a friend (Weightless Books) when I said that I wanted to support more DRM-free book vendors. Only to be slapped in the face with "we won't sell to you because we can't be arsed to handle VAT" as soon as I got to their site. [...]

Shopping indie, at least as far as books are concerned, is almost always a US-only benefit at this point.

I've shopped indie from Smashwords a lot, and they handle GST just fine.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

What I find weird is that people recommend Kobo because you can easily decrypt the books from the device and don't have to bother with Adobe Digital Editions, but then again they put themselves into a situation where it would be quite easy for Kobo to push an update to their supported devices that just fixes the DRM scheme.

If DRM-free is your goal it's not that smart to put all your eggs in the basket of any vendor that has full control over their eco-system. If "but Kobo has ADE downloads on their website" is your backup then I'd recommend buying somewhere else because Kobo puts DRM on books that are sold somewhere else without it.

Kobo has supported non-Kobo devices since before they were called Kobo. While it be easy for them to change their DRM I think if they tried to remove ADE downloads without fair warning they could end up in a pickle with non-Kobo device havers.

With Amazon they've never supported a non-Amazon device/app so they can pretty much do whatever whenever.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

It's not that helpful as most countries include VAT to their prices but US does not. You cannot compare prices in european countries to US prices by simply doing a currency conversion.

Actually, I can. Don’t tell me I can’t.

Spoiler:

I live in a no sales tax state.

There’s still info there aside from the relative value within a country, but it’s interesting rather than useful. It’s not as if it would be worth it to the overwhelming majority to order internationally, as shipping costs would kill any savings. In any case, the poster was responding to a post that cited US prices.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Whereas the rest of us get to see posts from Amazon Kindle users that are about how great promised features are going to be. Please check some of the recent posts about the Scribe. One example being "Besides, I hope that, as with every Kindle so far, each update will bring something interesting and further enhance the capabilities of this marvel." Remind anyone else of the lyrics of The Preacher and the Slave.

...

And that was in a Kindle Scribe thread, wasn't it? Seems acceptable to me in a thread titled "Kindle Scribe". I think what most people object to is the adnauseum repeated posts about superiority of Kobo in the Kindle and non-Kobo sections.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by Mari123

Okay, there are a lot of information and replies and I'm getting a lot mixed up!. Sorry for asking and bothering you all, but you can de drm KU by using a PW1(EY21), right? Get the book on the device and drag the file to Calibre?

Yes, it is possible to do that.

But I would recommend that it not be done because the author won't be paid unless you read the book on a Kindle app or device.

[Lys]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

Kobo puts DRM on books that are sold somewhere else without it.

Can you give an example? Because all TOR books I purchased through Kobo store were available without DRM as requested by the Publisher.
I bought them, and I downloaded the epub file from my account. (if i buy a drm protected one, I get the acms file, as expected)

[hleo12]

Originally Posted by rantanplan

It's not that helpful as most countries include VAT to their prices but US does not. You cannot compare prices in european countries to US prices by simply doing a currency conversion.

I don't get the confusion?

I listed the prices on my country for those devices. Wouldn't it also be logical that any taxes over those devices would also be the same? I didn't even mention importing. I live in a country where the price tag is final. Taxes are already included for everything.

I converted those prices to USD so more people would have an idea on how much they are. Even if I posted the prices in my currency, nothing would change as I will still be paying the same amount.