Books yours to keep or just "on loan"?

[CarolB]

If you were to back up these files on a flash drive or a memory card, wouldn't that bypass the problem of the upgrading computers and the files not working on them? Just curious.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by CarolB

If you were to back up these files on a flash drive or a memory card, wouldn't that bypass the problem of the upgrading computers and the files not working on them? Just curious.

No because the files are encrypted and embedded with the device they are to be run on. It would be just like someone with a different reader trying to open a file that is for your reader.

[sirmaru]

The moral of this story is, if you intend to upgrade your PC, first finish reading all books. Then do the upgrade.

The MAC number of your PC is probably embedded in your book files.

Also, don't forget to unregister your PC with the Sony store before the upgrade. Then register your new PC when ready.

[CarolB]

Once you register the new PC, the books will no longer be available to you at all? Or is there something you have to do to make it so they will be? That just seems REALLY involved! We are planning on getting a new PC in the next 4 or 5 months, I JUST got my Sony, it would be awful to loose everything so soon!

[nick101]

Originally Posted by CarolB

I ask becuase someone has led my sister to believe that with a Sony and not a Kindle that the books are not yours to keep, they are merely on loan to you and that should the publisher change their minds that they can take the books off your account and you're out of luck.
I thought that as long as you backed them up, that they are yours to keep regardless. Which leads me to several more questions.
First, is having them in your Reader Library considered being backed up on your computer?
Second, can you put Sony files on Calibre and if so, is that a permanent place for them?
Do you need to put them permanently onto a memory card to keep them?
It seems as though there were other questions, but I think this does it for now. Any help would be appreciated!
Thank you!

Calibre works very well with the Sony readers, and is more transparent about where your books are stored, so backup is just a matter of copying files. Keeping them in the Reader library on the computer isn't enough really. I would recommend keeping copies on an external disk (or memory card).

Whether you own the ebook in a pure legal sense depends on the terms of both the publisher and the seller, and I expect that there are as many variations of terms as their are stars in the sky.

For practical purposes, other than the Kindle, if you buy an ebook its' yours, and no-one can take it away from you once it's on your reader/computer. Because Kindle has this over-the-air system, Amazon have the capacity to withdraw books (as they famously, but 'accidentally' did with 1984).

[nick101]

Originally Posted by CarolB

Once you register the new PC, the books will no longer be available to you at all? Or is there something you have to do to make it so they will be? That just seems REALLY involved! We are planning on getting a new PC in the next 4 or 5 months, I JUST got my Sony, it would be awful to loose everything so soon!

It's *stupidly* complicated.

The DRM registration is to your Adobe ID (set up when you installed Digital Editions), not to your computer.

Adobe DRM allows you to register up to 6 devices (computers and readers) to your ID. There's some very useful explanatory info on the Adobe website here:

http://www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions/faq/

You can de-authorise a computer with CTRL+SHIFT+D (Windows) or Command+SHIFT+D )Mac). And you can de-authorise a reader by connecting it with ADE running and do CTRL+SHIFT+E/Command+SHIFT+E.

So, when you get your new PC, just authorise it in ADE

[sirmaru]

I just downloaded the latest Adobe Digital Editions. It will not allow me to open DRM protected PDF books purchased from another registered computer which I used to own. It only registered my present PC for new books. Adobe will let you have 6 devices registered but the particular books can only be read on one device.

Also, if you buy a new PC, you will have to re-download those books files. It appears that Sony discontinues many books over time and those particular books will not be available for download. It appears that once sales taper off for a particular book, Sony removes them from their inventory.

Before scrapping the old PC be sure to unregister it from the Sony store. Then register the new PC when it is set up. You will have to re-download the book files. However, Sony allows one to register up to 5 other portable devices (eReaders) and all books can be read on all 5 of those devices. It appears that only one computer can be registered at one time and books cannot be shared between computers.

Also, Sony and BN now have 3G connectivity over the air just like Amazon so all three can remove books from your inventory at will if they are so disposed.

The way I see it is the pBooks are yours to keep until the paper deteriorates which could be hundreds of years if properly preserved. The eBooks are disappearing assets due to changes in fomats, software and hardware. We buy them for the READ and that is all. However, our very lives are also disappearing assets so there is really no problem at all reading eBooks. Few ever go back to re-read any book in any event other than a Bible.

[nick101]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

I just downloaded the latest Adobe Digital Editions. It will not allow me to open DRM protected PDF books purchased from another registered computer which I used to own. It only registered my present PC for new books. Asobe will let you have 6 devices registered but the particular books can only be read on one device.

I can't speak for DRM-protected PDFs, but I have several DRMed ePUBs that I have opened on more than one PC. The FAQ to which I linked in my earlier post has a discussion of Adobe Easy Activation, which sounds like your issue. AEA is an earlier form of activation which has now been replaced with Adobe Named Activation, which works as I described earlier.

Also, if you buy a new PC, you will have to re-download those books files. It appears that Sony discontinues many books over time and those particular books will not be available for download. It appears that once sales taper off for a particular book, Sony removes them from their inventory.

Again, this has not been my experience. And you seem to be working on the basis that if one uses a Sony Reader, one can only purchase DRM ebooks from the Sony site. That's not the case - you can get them from anywhere that sells any of the formats that the Reader can understand.

Before scrapping the old PC be sure to unregister it from the Sony store. Then register the new PC when it is set up. You will have to re-download the book files. However, Sony allows one to register up to 5 other portable devices (eReaders) and all books can be read on all 5 of those devices. It appears that only one computer can be registered at one time and books cannot be shared between computers.

Unregistering is good advice. However, you should not have to redownload the book files (unless you're changing formats as per the recent switch by Sony to ePub.

Also, Sony and BN now have 3G connectivity over the air just like Amazon so all three can remove books from your inventory at will if they are so disposed.

No. They can't. The Sony 600, 300, 500, 505 don't have network connections. And your books are backed up elsewhere. Aren't they.

The way I see it is the pBooks are yours to keep until the paper deteriorates which could be hundreds of years if properly preserved. The eBooks are disappearing assets due to changes in fomats, software and hardware. We buy them for the READ and that is all. However, our very lives are also disappearing assets so there is really no problem at all reading eBooks. Few ever go back to re-read any book in any event other than a Bible.

Changing formats are an issue, but you can keep an ebook as long as you want so long as you have the facility to read it. And despite 40 years of mucking about with electronic formats, there aren't many old electronic documents that you can't find a reader for.

And where you get the idea from that few people re-read books I don't know. Most of the people that I know that read at all go back again and again to their favourites.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

....

..

..The eBooks are disappearing assets due to changes in fomats, software and hardware. We buy them for the READ and that is all. ....

Few ever go back to re-read any book in any event other than a Bible.

Don't presume to speak for everyone. Perhaps you never reread a book, but many do. I re-read one now and then myself and why would the bible -- a book of stories -- be any different.

[sirmaru]

I see some of you do re-read books. I have never done that. Even when I used to subscribe to Book of the Month Club 60 years ago, I used to throw out the old book as soon as I received the new book.

I never saved any pbooks and certainly don't save any ebooks now. Even now I tend to delete ebooks over one year old.

I do read the Bible over a 2 year period for the last 60 years since I regard it as the Wisdom of the Ancients and helpful for my Faith. However, even there I throw out old Bibles regularly and buy the latest and the greatest as they are introduced.

These days technology is making Bibles better and better. Zondervan introduced an ePub NIV recently and it makes that old TNIV bible I bought from Sony just 2 years ago obsolete. As soon as I buy the new one I will delete the old one. My latest pBible from Zondervan is Thinline with large print making most other pBibles obsolete AND disposable. Its light and compact and easily read.

I always upgrade to the latest technology in everything and deep six the old technology. I am aware some other folks do not do this.

Thus, I eagerly await my new PRS 900 and will soon pass on my OLD PRS 505 to my grandkids. They have been eager recipients of my OLD cameras, computers, TV's and cars.

[omk3]

I'm happy to report that I have not read the whole bible even once, but have reread some of my favourite books three or four times and plan to do so again. So, everyone is different, and that is a good thing. Back to whether ebooks are ours to keep now...

[CarolB]

As long as you still have a devise the books work on, and have them backed up to something (a memory card for instance) that will always work with it, and the devise continues to work, won't your books be good for a long time? Also, with technology progressing, in the future, can't we just reformat the books we own to be used on the currant technology? Wouldn't Sony later, update the books we've bought like they've done this time with the epub change?

[omk3]

Originally Posted by CarolB

As long as you still have a devise the books work on, and have them backed up to something (a memory card for instance) that will always work with it, and the devise continues to work, won't your books be good for a long time?

They will definitely work on the device, as long as you don't update the firmware to something that potentially changes the supported formats. Similarly, if you don't update the software you use, it will still work with your downloaded books. Hopefully even if you do update, but you can't be sure.

Originally Posted by CarolB

Also, with technology progressing, in the future, can't we just reformat the books we own to be used on the currant technology?

We already can, if we remove the drm first. The drm doesn't allow you to tamper with the book in any way.

Originally Posted by CarolB

Wouldn't Sony later, update the books we've bought like they've done this time with the epub change?

Probably. It definitely should. But you're depending on the goodwill of sony.

[kennyc]

Just more reason to ban DRM!!!