Is Calibre right for me?

[JanieB]

I just had this problem with my Sony Library - it wouldn't open no matter what I did. If you follow This Link there are instructions for fixing it. Print out the directions, then follow along step by step. It worked for me, hopefully it'll work for you too.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by BooksForABuck

Just a couple of notes. First, Fictionwise offers a large number of books in its 'multiformat' option. These come without DRM. Second, not all publishers impose DRM (BooksForABuck.com, for example, does not). Third, there are significant non-technical (e.g., moral/legal) issues with removing DRM, even for those of us who find DRM a cost and inconvenience.

I would find no moral issues with removing Digital Restrictions Management. It's my book, I bought it and paid for it, and just like I can read a physical book at my desk, or in my bed, or on the beach, I have the same moral right to do so with an electronic book.

Legal, of course, is another matter. "To promote the progress of science and the useful arts" has somehow been hijacked to mean "to protect the profits of the largest corporations." That's something that needs to be addressed through the legislative process -- but since people who read are a minority these days, and don't have millions of dollars to pay for lobbyists, we're pretty much screwed in that regard.

The technical side of it is more of a nuisance, but I have a simple way of avoiding that, and applying the milligram of pressure one customer is capable of exerting on the marketplace: I do not buy DRM'd books (or music, for that matter). Aside from the DRM-free publishers and stores, there are tens of thousands of public-domain books -- the classics of centuries of literature -- available here on MobileRead, over on Project Gutenberg, on sites like Feedbooks and ManyBooks that scrape PG and tidy up the formatting, and elsewhere. That's actually why I bought an ebook reader in the first place: so that I could take my Project Gutenberg collection mobile.

As it stands now, most commercial ebooks cost as much or more than their paper equivalents (even though the publisher incurs no cost for printing, shipping, loss and damage, unsold inventory, or even warehouse space), and they give you less of what you pay for. You pay hardcover prices for them, they're never on the clearance shelf at Borders, you can't buy one in a used bookstore, you can't donate them to the library book sale when you're done with them, and if you buy from Amazon they can take the books back if they decide they don't want you to have them ... in short, they're a very, very limited substitute for real books.

So I'm still buying a lot of my books in physical form, where I have those rights that I don't have with DRM'd ebooks: the right to read them wherever and however I want to, the right to lend them to friends, the right to sell them or give them away when I'm done with them, and the right to keep them even if the store changes their mind (imagine if Barnes & Noble sent goons out to every customer's house to take their books away!). Until the day I have the same rights with an electronic book that I have with a physical one, or until the price of the ebook comes down to a level that is commensurate with what you actually receive, I won't buy DRM'd ebooks. And if that day never comes, well, I've still got centuries of great literature to get caught up on.

[Petey]

I finally got the nerve to install Calibre! Ok, so I've only used it once but I love it! I downloaded a book and got it onto my reader! At least now my PRS600 won't be a $300 waste! I think I love you all!