Must I abandon Clara?

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Chi Cygni

Oh dear. Poland has been selling watermarked only books for more than 12 YEARS now and you can download 3 formats after purchase (epub, mobi, pdf) No DRM of any kind, long gone.

We were talking about library books, not store bought. I'm pretty sure library books come with DRM of some kind in Poland, too, because that is how they manage the lending time, after which the book disappears from your reader.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

We were talking about library books, not store bought. I'm pretty sure library books come with DRM of some kind in Poland, too, because that is how they manage the lending time, after which the book disappears from your reader.

Here they use proprietary apps for library books, which means no eink, unless it's an Android eink tablet. Fortunately for me, I dislike borrowing books anyway and prefer to buy them.

Purchased books are watermarked epubs, no DRM.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Here they use proprietary apps for library books, which means no eink, unless it's an Android eink tablet. Fortunately for me, I dislike borrowing books anyway and prefer to buy them.

Purchased books are watermarked epubs, no DRM.

I guess I'd have a Boox or Inkpad then. No library books would get me into debtors prison pretty fast.

[Chi Cygni]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

We were talking about library books, not store bought. I'm pretty sure library books come with DRM of some kind in Poland, too, because that is how they manage the lending time, after which the book disappears from your reader.

I don't know about libraries for e-books in Poland but surely the library e-books will be DRMed, agreed. Only that books for purchase are watermarked which means no need to strip, just download and read on whatever e-reader. Which also means easy access to purchase and less need to rent from library, prices are reasonable and there are at least 10 competing stores/sellers with daily fluctuating prices (promos, discounts etc) I wish it was the case in the rest of EU.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

I guess I'd have a Boox or Inkpad then. No library books would get me into debtors prison pretty fast.

That's why I mostly buy in English. Estonian ebooks are pretty expensive. But lots of ebooks in English are quite cheap, unless one insists on buying only newly released tradpubs. With tradpubs I'm content to wait until the price has dropped.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Chi Cygni

...prices are reasonable and there are at least 10 competing stores/sellers with daily fluctuating prices (promos, discounts etc) I wish it was the case in the rest of EU.

Me too. I'd buy more local authors then. But the Estonian market is tiny and ebooks aren't popular. There are only a handful of local booksellers, the prices are mostly the same with no sales to speak of and the selection in ebooks is far from good. So I mostly read in English.

[lbschenkel]

Originally Posted by marp68

Thanks for any suggestion

It seems that there has been some pressure coming from the libraries or some other stakeholders. In late March they're going to be introducing EPUB support with Adobe DRM:

https://info.biblio.app/sv/news/adob...der-utveckling

So in theory you should be able to keep using your Kobo to read the books if you authorize it with ADE.

Note that they mention that each library has to opt-in to this (I think they charge extra), and they also say the EPUB support is "temporary" until they have to implement the EU accessibility directive — which doesn't make the slightest sense (even if you took their argument for granted that no reader software is accessible enough) as providing an EPUB option doesn't preclude offering the app/website option with all the accessibility features.

I strongly suspect they are dancing the tune played by the publishers and are using EU law as a convenient excuse to justify why they simply don't want to offer the option, as they want to have a fully closed environment with total control.

Spoiler:

Off-topic rant:

If libraries were invented today, they would be illegal. Publishers hate that a library can simply buy a book and multiple people can read it without the publisher getting a cut each time somebody checks out the book.

They're absolutely making sure that this can't happen with digital books. Nothing short of total control with full monetization will ever appease them. And of course this will means ripping off libraries and patrons. They actually want the business model to fail, as they see this as competition to book sales...

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by lbschenkel

It seems that there has been some pressure coming from the libraries or some other stakeholders. In late March they're going to be introducing EPUB support with Adobe DRM:

https://info.biblio.app/sv/news/adob...der-utveckling

So in theory you should be able to keep using your Kobo to read the books if you authorize it with ADE.

Note that they mention that each library has to opt-in to this (I think they charge extra), and they also say the EPUB support is "temporary" until they have to implement the EU accessibility directive — which doesn't make the slightest sense (even if you took their argument for granted that no reader software is accessible enough) as providing an EPUB option doesn't preclude offering the app/website option with all the accessibility features.

I strongly suspect they are dancing the tune played by the publishers and are using EU law as a convenient excuse to justify why they simply don't want to offer the option, as they want to have a fully closed environment with total control.

Spoiler:

Off-topic rant:

If libraries were invented today, they would be illegal. Publishers hate that a library can simply buy a book and multiple people can read it without the publisher getting a cut each time somebody checks out the book.

They're absolutely making sure that this can't happen with digital books. Nothing short of total control with full monetization will ever appease them. And of course this will means ripping off libraries and patrons. They actually want the business model to fail, as they see this as competition to book sales...

That's great news!

Or as great as they can be, considering the circumstances. It seems obvious that you are correct. What could possibly be non-accessible about offering an extra download option?

It's ridiculous to even call Biblio accessible. It's a closed system (non-accessible) with basically zero customization options for reading. Want to load in your own fonts? Forget about it - that's not accessible! Want to adjust the margins? Heretic, learn about true accessibility! Use your phone's volume buttons as page turn buttons? You wish! Read on e-ink, and disable page turn animations? In your dreams!

The reading software is a joke. It's so bare-bones I would've thought it to be beta software at best.

[marp68]

Originally Posted by lbschenkel

It seems that there has been some pressure coming from the libraries or some other stakeholders. In late March they're going to be introducing EPUB support with Adobe DRM:

https://info.biblio.app/sv/news/adob...der-utveckling

So in theory you should be able to keep using your Kobo to read the books if you authorize it with ADE.

Note that they mention that each library has to opt-in to this (I think they charge extra), and they also say the EPUB support is "temporary" until they have to implement the EU accessibility directive — which doesn't make the slightest sense (even if you took their argument for granted that no reader software is accessible enough) as providing an EPUB option doesn't preclude offering the app/website option with all the accessibility features.

I strongly suspect they are dancing the tune played by the publishers and are using EU law as a convenient excuse to justify why they simply don't want to offer the option, as they want to have a fully closed environment with total control.

Spoiler:

Off-topic rant:

If libraries were invented today, they would be illegal. Publishers hate that a library can simply buy a book and multiple people can read it without the publisher getting a cut each time somebody checks out the book.

They're absolutely making sure that this can't happen with digital books. Nothing short of total control with full monetization will ever appease them. And of course this will means ripping off libraries and patrons. They actually want the business model to fail, as they see this as competition to book sales...

Interesting. Still it seems that it is only a temporary solution and that this opt in solution will be removed in the future.

At the moment the Stockholm municipality are still using ADE, so at least I can still borrow from there.

Regarding installing Tolino software on my Kobo Clara, that would be interesting to try when I am out of options. If it would work, how would that solve the problem with the LCP DRM protection? I thought I still needed to open it in the Biblio app on an Android device.

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by marp68

Interesting. Still it seems that it is only a temporary solution and that this opt in solution will be removed in the future.

At the moment the Stockholm municipality are still using ADE, so at least I can still borrow from there.

Regarding installing Tolino software on my Kobo Clara, that would be interesting to try when I am out of options. If it would work, how would that solve the problem with the LCP DRM protection? I thought I still needed to open it in the Biblio app on an Android device.

It won't solve it.

Biblio requires you to use either their website or their Biblio app. They could allow downloading LCP protected files, but they're just choosing not to.

Using either the app or the website would be horribly slow on any Kobo hardware. It's slow on my Onyx Boox devices, which are much faster than any Kobo device.