Mobipocket ebooks useless after firmware upgrade

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Apple used to be in the same situation with the iPod and itunes DRM, which they finally got rid of. I think the difference is that Apple wanted to get rid of DRM (never wanted it in the first place), and the music industry finally gave up on it. The question is whether or not Amazon wants to get rid of DRM, and if the publishing industry is smart enough to learn anything from the music industry.

Amazon does have to get rid of DRM to allow Mobipocket to be on all the readers in the world. They just have to change their internal policy.

Dale

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Amazon does have to get rid of DRM to allow Mobipocket to be on all the readers in the world. They just have to change their internal policy.

Dale

True. I thought the question I was responding to was the long term existence of DRM in general though, not the Mobipocket format in particular.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

True. I thought the question I was responding to was the long term existence of DRM in general though, not the Mobipocket format in particular.

Oh, the thread title is about losing DRM mobi books after the software upgrade that includes ADE support. I would presume the topic is the thread title but perhaps I am wrong.

[K-Thom]

The future of Mobipocket (as a site and as a format) and the future of DRM are somewhat connected.
With the decline of prc in favor of epub we experience the first major eBook store and one of the most popular eBook formats to gradually vanish and lose significance. Should Mobipocket.com ever close its doors, no other major eBook store will mainly support prc.

As one format among others, of course. But will shops still stick to DRM prc then? More, will customers even WANT to rely on DRM prc?
Should Mobipocket.com ever have to close, Amazon loses its major asset to capitalize on prc, especially on DRM prc. The exclusivity clause simply would become irrelevant then. As long as there are non-e-Ink devices out there , there's a market for DRM prc, but it will steadily decrease.

There's quite some lessons to be learned from this "casus DRM prc" in the months to come, and I do hope that shops, publishers and manufacturers are willing to look closely and avoid any unfortunate decisions in the future.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I think anyone who can read (and follow instructions) can convert ebooks with Calibre.

Would you be kind enough please to point me to the 'instructions' on converting books with Calibre? I can read, but am having a lot of trouble converting books from XHTML/CSS to Mobipocket, especially in getting the Table of Contents right.

So any help you can give would be appreciated.

Regards, Alex

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Oh, the thread title is about losing DRM mobi books after the software upgrade that includes ADE support. I would presume the topic is the thread title but perhaps I am wrong.

Threads are supposed to stay on topic?

[ThomasMc]

Amazon is evil. Anybody who didn't already know that, isn't paying attention.

[catsittingstill]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

It's mostly just speculation at this point, but iRex customers will likely be in the same boat soon. They are also adding Adobe ePub/PDF support to the DR1000, and will likely have to remove Mobipocket DRM support. No official word from the company, but that's the only scenario I can see happening.

It sounds like a lot of devices are dumping the Mobi format. I'm sure their insistence on the exclusivity term in their license is causing a lot of this. Makes you wonder if Amazon will drop that term in order to try and save the format, or if they'll just let it die. I'm not sure how much Amazon really cares about Mobipocket other than what they do with it on the kindle.

I just had a nasty suspicious thought. What if, once DRM-Mobipocket support isn't available anywhere else, Amazon changed the Kindle firmware so people could read DRM Mobipocket e-books on it? Do you think they would pick up those readers with pre-existing DRM Mobipocket ebooks who can't read their old books on any other new reader?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by catsittingstill

I just had a nasty suspicious thought. What if, once DRM-Mobipocket support isn't available anywhere else, Amazon changed the Kindle firmware so people could read DRM Mobipocket e-books on it? Do you think they would pick up those readers with pre-existing DRM Mobipocket ebooks who can't read their old books on any other new reader?

You would have to go to all the eBook shops you purchased your eBooks, put in the new PID and redownload. And if the shop is not there or the book is not there, you'd be out of luck.