The Kobo DRM-free epub fiasco

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Does that make it better or worse?

If we only knew. Perhaps it depends on how you feel about chaos or just a random universe...

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by pssquirrel

Oh wow. That hadn't occurred to me. I couldn't figure out why Kobo was doing what they were doing, but this scenario makes total sense. Thanks for the insight!

Please note, that that's only my personal opinion. I have no special insight or inside info. But it makes sense to me. New format ... in-house drm/fulfillment for said format. What need have they for Adobe once that format starts becoming the norm for submission instead of the exception?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Fbone

I finally got this to work somewhat but I don't care for it. In my case, Calibre doesn't delete after adding so it keeps adding the same books to whatever library is showing. It adds the same titles it just added a few minutes ago to the same library. This requires me to babysit (deselecting and deleting duplicates) until it completes all tasks.

Went back to manual. Opening K4PC, syncing and adding to Calibre by title.

Well then, something is deeply wrong.
calibre absolutely deletes them, or is supposed to, for this exact reason.

Maybe the files are locked by some process, maybe K4PC itself?

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Well then, something is deeply wrong.
calibre absolutely deletes them, or is supposed to, for this exact reason.

Maybe the files are locked by some process, maybe K4PC itself?

Perhaps, it's my cloud storage Copy?

First, I couldn't get it to start now I can't get it to stop

[eschwartz]

hehe.

Wait -- are you saying you put the My Kindle Content folder into Copy? What for -- they have per-device/app encryption anyway...

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Locked In by John Scalzi is ePub 3.

Oh yep, I remember now, in the Kobo Aus store the publisher is Orion, it's an epub 2, and costs AUD $16.99.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

That is a funny definition of "walled garden" you have, if it doesn't include ADE DRM.

It was always a walled garden, but now they are raising the walls higher.

Note that Amazon has long had walls only modestly higher than Kobo/B&N, which now look short by comparison.

The walls at Amazon are the second highest with Apple bring the highest.

B&N has moved being just as high as Amazon. Kobo is not yet as high as Amazon & B&N. Google's walls as smaller then all the others mentioned.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Oh yep, I remember now, in the Kobo Aus store the publisher is Orion, it's an epub 2, and costs AUD $16.99.

New Tor eBooks are being produced as ePub 3. None of the ePub 3 I have seen are using any ePub 3 features that would cause them to fail with an ePub 2 rendered unless that renderer was checking if the ePub was ePub 2 and not allowing ePub 3.

These ePub 3 do not use any features that will not work with an ePub 2 renderer. If these publishers producing ePub 3 do start using features not compatible there will be hell to pay as there really aren't enough programs out there and in use that would render these features. It would be rather idiotic for these publishers to produce an ePub 3 eBook that would not work with the current ePub 2 rednerers out there. There are a lot of RMSDK that is pre-ePub 3 still in use today.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The walls at Amazon are the second highest with Apple bring the highest.

B&N has moved being just as high as Amazon. Kobo is not yet as high as Amazon & B&N. Google's walls as smaller then all the others mentioned.

Feel free to view the walls however high you like.

Personally I but note that Amazon works fluidly on all generic platforms other than linux, and is readily strippable.
So does Google Play books.
Kobo and Nook, not anymore.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Feel free to view the walls however high you like.

Personally I but note that Amazon works fluidly on all generic platforms other than linux, and is readily strippable.
So does Google Play books.
Kobo and Nook, not anymore.

I disagree. Kobo eBooks are trivial to deal with. You just use Kobo Desktop to download. Any that do not have a download button or a working download button, you use Obok to strip the DRM and then Modify ePub to strip all the kepub added stuff and it's back to a standard ePub.

B&N might be slightly harder to setup to remove the DRM, but once set, it's no harder than Amazon.

So when it comes to stripping DRM, the best OS to use is Windows.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So when it comes to stripping DRM, the best OS to use is Windows.

Yes. DRM removal should be at the top of the list of considerations when deciding upon an O.S.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Yes. DRM removal should be at the top of the list of considerations when deciding upon an O.S.

Well, it makes life easier. According to Kovid, a small percentage of Calibre installs are Linux and most of the support issues are from Linux users.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

According to Kovid, a small percentage of Calibre installs are Linux and most of the support issues are from Linux users.

But it still works on Linux, now doesn't it? Do your OS-thumping somewhere else.

[eschwartz]

Um, pardon me -- but all I said was that all the ebookstore platforms are walled gardens, and that Amazon tends to have lower walls at this point than anyone other than Google, and all of a sudden someone starts yammering on about which OS is the best for removing DRM???? What am I missing??? Where does one logically flow from the other???

(I fear I am missing nothing, and that it is just Jon being Jon again... )

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

But it still works on Linux, now doesn't it? Do your OS-thumping somewhere else.

I never said Linux didn't work. I said Windows was easiest to use and it is.