The Kobo DRM-free epub fiasco

[doubleshuffle]

Originally Posted by darryl

You don't need to download both an .acsm file and an epub file. Granted, not a significant difference but a difference nevertheless.

For me no difference at all. I have set my system to open acsm files directly with ADE. No extra step required.

[murg]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

If that were the case, why does the bug happen with a brand new book which can only have been submitted by Tor a few weeks ago - like Elizabeth Bear's latest, which has been reported in this thread as suffering from the bug?

Because this is caused by a different, but identical, bug...

[darryl]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

For me no difference at all. I have set my system to open acsm files directly with ADE. No extra step required.

Congrats on partially automating the steps, though I expect creating file associations is beyond many Windows users. But if you were using Amazon with an actual Kindle on the account you could of course avoid opening the unnecessary (and odious) ADE at all.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by darryl

Congrats on partially automating the steps, though I expect creating file associations is beyond many Windows users. But if you were using Amazon with an actual Kindle on the account you could of course avoid opening the unnecessary (and odious) ADE at all.

I don't think you need to create a file association - I recently got a new computer and after installing ADE I just had to select open when I downloaded an an ebook. It opened in ADE automatically.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

Fascinatingly, I contacted Kobo and asked what the status of fixing this bug was, and they said that the bug that caused this problem was fixed last year.

Perhaps it was a problem with their ingest process that is fixed now, and Tor just needs to resubmit the same content through the process again to get it fixed. Might be worth dropping Tor an email. Either that or Kobo customer support really needs to read their emails more carefully.

With that said, their first response had nothing to do with the question I asked, so it would not be a surprise if their second response didn't, either.

Incidentally, the Nook folks fared equally badly when I asked this question, giving an answer that was equally unrelated to the question I asked, so it looks like nobody actually reads our emails before sending a canned response. I'm pretty sure I could put together an Eliza bot that would do better than these companies' customer service reps do. They definitely fail the Turing test, on average, which is probably a big part of the reason why so many trivially fixed bugs never actually get fixed.

I'll give Amazon some credit. They at least appear to pass on the feedback to the actual developers if you sound like you know what you're talking about. (Whether they actually do or not is another question, because the bugs still never seem to get fixed, but at least they say that they did.)

This is in keeping with my experience. Kobo CS seems to be taking the carousel approach of; "We're working on it" -- "I think that was fixed recently" -- "what bug?" with regard to this issue. Depends on who you ask (and what time of day you ask it)

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by darryl

If you have a Kindle on your account the process is:

1. Download file from Amazon to Computer.
2. Load into Calibre.
3. Load drm-free copy to device.

Do Amazon provide a direct download? I don't think I've ever noticed such an option.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I don't think you need to create a file association - I recently got a new computer and after installing ADE I just had to select open when I downloaded an an ebook. It opened in ADE automatically.

That means a file association was probably created by the installer, which makes my tongue in cheek comment about Windows Users and file associations irrelevant as the link is created for them on installing ADE.

I find this whole discussion quite amusing, as we are talking about very trivial differences indeed. Just a bit of harmless fun.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Do Amazon provide a direct download? I don't think I've ever noticed such an option.

I thought it was universal, but someone on another thread kindly pointed out that it is available only if you have an actual Kindle registered to your account. Then you get an option to download to your computer and "tranfer via USB". If you have more than one Kindle it then asks you which Kindle you intend to transfer it to, apparently for purposes of the DRM.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

Do Amazon provide a direct download? I don't think I've ever noticed such an option.

If you have a physical Kindle on your account, yes.

[BrodieKobo]

"Is Kobo at all considering offering direct downloads of EPUB3?"

Hi pssquirrel,

Yes Kobo is and should be offering epub3 for direct download.

In general if our item page has 'download options' (you can find this in the product info at the bottom of the page), the download option should work from the My Library page once purchased.

If the download isn't working where stated (i.e. 404 page not found errors or missing buttons) that's a problem and it needs to be fixed. We're investigating the issue now to determine root cause.

In the meantime if you come across a title that fails to download please PM me so I can escalate to our development team.

Thanks for your time and patience!

Brodie

P.S. Our plan as far as I've been told is to continue supporting purchase and download of ebooks for use on non-kobo eReaders (as long as publishers allow downloading of course, as there are some cases where we are not allowed).

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by BrodieKobo

Yes Kobo is and should be offering epub3 for direct download.

That's contradictory to what I was told by Kobo CS recently. If you could only point to an ebook for sale on Kobo that is in the EPUB3 format and can be directly downloaded as EPUB3 (with or without DRM), that would go a long way toward clearing this up.

Thanks

[Difflugia]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's contradictory to what I was told by Kobo CS recently. If you could only point to an ebook for sale on Kobo that is in the EPUB3 format and can be directly downloaded as EPUB3 (with or without DRM), that would go a long way toward clearing this up.

Thanks

Barbour Publishing's The KJV Study Bible is an EPUB3. When I bought it, it was kepub-only and had no download link. Something like a month ago, someone here reported that they started getting download links and when I checked, there was an ADE link. Here's the package element from the OPF file:

<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" unique-identifier="ISBN" version="3.0" xml:lang="en">

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Difflugia

Barbour Publishing's The KJV Study Bible is an EPUB3. When I bought it, it was kepub-only and had no download link. Something like a month ago, someone here reported that they started getting download links and when I checked, there was an ADE link. Here's the package element from the OPF file:

<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" unique-identifier="ISBN" version="3.0" xml:lang="en">

Great! I would love for the CS rep I talked to to be wrong (and for myself to wrong about Kobo's intentions with EPUB3).

Now we just have to find out what's up with:

as long as publishers allow downloading of course, as there are some cases where we are not allowed

That's the first I've ever heard anyone mention that a publisher can disallow the direct downloading of their titles. Is BrodieKobo saying that publishers can request that their book(s) only be made available in kepub for Kobo devices?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's the first I've ever heard anyone mention that a publisher can disallow the direct downloading of their titles. Is BrodieKobo saying that publishers can request that their book(s) only be made available in kepub for Kobo devices?

It's been stated before by Kobo CS that kePub only titles are that way because the publisher requested it be that way. Of course then they've gone on to contradict that by blaming it on ePub3 and other things so who knows what's what.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

It's been stated before by Kobo CS that kePub only titles are that way because the publisher requested it be that way. Of course then they've gone on to contradict that by blaming it on ePub3 and other things so who knows what's what.

Never let yourself get pinned down, eh?

"Yes we support direct downloads/sideloads of EPUB3 books. Except when we don't support it--like when publishers (who quite often allow the direct downloading/sideloading of their EPUB3 files from other retailers) tell us we can't. And maybe Tuesdays."