How Mobipocket DRM can drive away customers

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I agree with you, but you can make an informed decision about where to buy your books in the first place to avoid future hassle.

But unless you have a need to deal with what devices you have registered, most people won't know ahead of time that MobiPocket's site is a hassle.

Heck, until I plugged my Wife's reader into my account and authorized it, I had no idea how easy it was as the Connect store.

[JSWolf]

You have a PDA or cell phone, a Cybook Gen3 or Kindle, laptop or other small computer and your wife has 3 devices of her own as well. Which two devices do you not bother to register since there is too much of a limit?

[HarryT]

You can share DRM books among 4 devices. Which four you choose to register on an account is your choice (it's only 1 fewer than with Sony, since with Sony at least one of your 6 has to be a PC).

All DRM systems, as far as I'm aware, have limits on the number of devices you can have registered concurrently. I think it's 3 with Microsoft Reader.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You can share DRM books among 4 devices. Which four you choose to register on an account is your choice (it's only 1 fewer than with Sony, since with Sony at least one of your 6 has to be a PC).

All DRM systems, as far as I'm aware, have limits on the number of devices you can have registered concurrently. I think it's 3 with Microsoft Reader.

How nice of them to let me read my property on up to four devices! Isn't DRM great!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

How nice of them to let me read my property on up to four devices! Isn't DRM great!

That's the whole POINT of DRM, Nate - to stop someone from buying a book and giving a copy of it to 20 of their friends . You know as well as I do that there are plenty of people who abuse DRM-free eBooks - you have only to look at the eBook Usenet newsgroups to see how much, for example, of Fictionwise's DRM-free stuff is re-posted there.

Sadly it's the criminals who spoil it for the rest of us and make some publishers believe that DRM is necessary.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's the whole POINT of DRM, Nate - to stop someone from buying a book and giving a copy of it to 20 of their friends . You know as well as I do that there are plenty of people who abuse DRM-free eBooks - you have only to look at the eBook Usenet newsgroups to see how much, for example, of Fictionwise's DRM-free stuff is re-posted there.

Sadly it's the criminals who spoil it for the rest of us and make some publishers believe that DRM is necessary.

No, it's the publisher who spoils it for the rest of us. The criminal does not do anything to me. The criminal is the lucky one who doesn't have to put up with that s*&#. And HarryT, anyone who strips DRM falls under that label, not just the file sharers.

[HarryT]

I disagree, Nate. If nobody stole eBooks, there would be no reason for publishers to use DRM. It is the criminals who make publishers believe that DRM is necessary.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I disagree, Nate. If nobody stole eBooks, there would be no reason for publishers to use DRM. It is the criminals who make publishers believe that DRM is necessary.

If the publishers did not screw us around with ebooks so much there would not be the need to scan/OCR. The thing is, there are always going to be people wanting stuff for free. But for those of us who do it legally, are the ones getting screwed. I see a lot of people say they'd read ebooks except that they books they want to read are not available.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I disagree, Nate. If nobody stole eBooks, there would be no reason for publishers to use DRM. It is the criminals who make publishers believe that DRM is necessary.

They would still use DRM if nobody stole ebooks.

It is not the fact that some people steal ebooks that makes publishers use DRM. It is the fear that someone might that makes them do it.

[Liviu_5]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's the whole POINT of DRM, Nate - to stop someone from buying a book and giving a copy of it to 20 of their friends . You know as well as I do that there are plenty of people who abuse DRM-free eBooks - you have only to look at the eBook Usenet newsgroups to see how much, for example, of Fictionwise's DRM-free stuff is re-posted there.

Sadly it's the criminals who spoil it for the rest of us and make some publishers believe that DRM is necessary.

Sadly that's publisher (and more generally content providers and drm providers) propaganda taken in lock stock and barrel; DRM's main reason d'etre is to lock you into a format, force you to repurchase the content once in a while and more generally increase the control on content

If you look at the underground content, drm has nothing to do with it by and large, popularity has; anything popular and it's irrelevant if it's a drm ebook or nor, even if it exists as an ebook, and it will find its way there sooner or later.

Anything obscure and again it's irrelevant whether it's Fictionwise multiformat or drm'ed, no one will bother to upload it anyway.

Though again more than anything it's prices (both of dedicated devices and ebooks) and lack of an easy way of freely converting your library to digital, the way you can do with cd to mp3, that until now made commercial ebooks the butt of so many jokes; drm is a problem but the moment ebooks will be more popular, it will either go away or be broken immediately as we saw clearly just recently

[igorsk]

The main point of DRM is not stopping piracy (that's impossible) but the vendor lock-in.

[delphidb96]

igorsk,

Exactly. Because if it weren't vendor lock-in, then any ebook I legally purchased would be readable across all platforms, no matter which vendor got my money.

Derek

Originally Posted by igorsk

The main point of DRM is not stopping piracy (that's impossible) but the vendor lock-in.

[pwalker8]

Actually, in order to deactivate a device in Connect, you have to deactivate from that device. So when I had a problem with my windows computer and had to re-install windows, the old instance of windows is still on the list as a separate computer with no way to delete it. I have been trying for months to get it removed, but so far no luck. Fortunately, I'm not stuck since I still have two computers that are authorized, but for me, Sony has been one of the most non-responsive companies that I've ever had to deal with. It's a good thing that their hardware is so solid.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Sony seems to be better and better. I can go in and deactivate devices linked to my account no problem to free up that slot. Pluse we get one computer and FIVE devices. And if I have a problem, I can call them toll free and someone will sort it for me. Sorry MobiPocket, but to make someone wait a week is unacceptable.

[NatCh]

Wow. I had the same Windows crash/reinstall thing happen to me -- one quick call to the ConnStore support line and the old one was removed. Five minutes, no fuss, no muss.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I disagree, Nate. If nobody stole eBooks, there would be no reason for publishers to use DRM. It is the criminals who make publishers believe that DRM is necessary.

Don't think so.

People wanted to ban printing presses, photocopiers, etc., etc.

People steal paper books, they don't personally identify paperbacks to you though.