Newbie question on all this Amazon DRM stuff

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Oh, that is why I spent an entire evening looking for and installing and uninstalling and reinstalling version 6.0, and it didn't work!

It wasn't me!

No it wasn't you. I even went over to my husbands precious desktop, (Has XP) installed mobipocket read ver.6, downloaded books and plugged in the K.

Came up right away, and sent fine.

Damn Vista.

[JSWolf]

Has anyone with Vista, a K1, and Mobipocket Reader 6.0 actually set Mobipocket reader to XP compatibility?

If anyone owuld like to send me a K1, I can try Mobipocket Reader 6.0 on Windows 7 beta.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

No it wasn't you. I even went over to my husbands precious desktop, (Has XP) installed mobipocket read ver.6, downloaded books and plugged in the K.

Came up right away, and sent fine.

Damn Vista.

You bet. I spent an entire evening (and most of a thread) trying to do something related to PDF. Everyone was so helpful, but nothing worked. Someone finally did it for me. He sent it to me - it was blocked. I had to go to a computer running XP to pull it up. What is wrong with this picture?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If anyone owuld like to send me a K1, I can try Mobipocket Reader 6.0 on Windows 7 beta.

Sure Jon... I'll ship mine right out to you.... NOT!

BOb

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

You bet. I spent an entire evening (and most of a thread) trying to do something related to PDF. Everyone was so helpful, but nothing worked. Someone finally did it for me. He sent it to me - it was blocked. I had to go to a computer running XP to pull it up. What is wrong with this picture?

I'll tell you whats wrong with this picture....when I bought this laptop, in November, it was impossible to get XP....Vista was the only option.......unless I wanted to buy a copy of XP for $150 and then have them uninstall and reinstall.

Now I want a netbook so I can get XP It could be my "dedicated book storage, Calibre and MobileRead center"

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

I'll tell you whats wrong with this picture....when I bought this laptop, in November, it was impossible to get XP....Vista was the only option.......unless I wanted to buy a copy of XP for $150 and then have them uninstall and reinstall.

Now I want a netbook so I can get XP It could be my "dedicated book storage, Calibre and MobileRead center"

If felt sorry for my daughter when I saw her netbook had XP rather than Vista. I thought it was because the netbook was trying to cut corners. No, it is because the netbook wanted Windows to work!

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

If felt sorry for my daughter when I saw her netbook had XP rather than Vista. I thought it was because the netbook was trying to cut corners. No, it is because the netbook wanted Windows to work!

'sigh. Well, I'm sure, (just like Amazon), that Microsoft knows whats best for us!

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

If felt sorry for my daughter when I saw her netbook had XP rather than Vista. I thought it was because the netbook was trying to cut corners. No, it is because the netbook wanted Windows to work!

It's more a resources issue. XP usese alot less memory and processing power than Vista does. So, most Netbooks ship with XP. But, that will change when Win7 comes out because that issue has been delt with.

BOb

[cerement]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

It's more a resources issue. XP usese alot less memory and processing power than Vista does. So, most Netbooks ship with XP. But, that will change when Win7 comes out because that issue has been delt with.

Or we could be going in another direction entirely. Majority of the eInk readers already use Linux, Linux is really light on resources, several of the earlier netbooks came with Linux on them (including eeePC) as a means of taking another $100 off the price tag, OLPC XO-1 uses Linux, AND several people have now pointed out that it is strangely trivial to install Google's Android on netbooks ...

[pboss]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

'sigh. Well, I'm sure, (just like Amazon), that Microsoft knows whats best for us!

We shouldn't forget Google either. Google knows everything.

[Gaurnim]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Now I want a netbook so I can get XP It could be my "dedicated book storage, Calibre and MobileRead center"

This is exactly what I use it for.
1 hour daily train commute is perfect time to sort your ebook library and also your music files.

[rana]

Talldog - first of all, welcome to these forums ... you came to the right place

I am not sure if someone here has already covered what I am going to mention (I have only read the first two pages of this thread and will need to finish later) ... so pardon me if this is duplicate information.

To answer what this means strictly for someone in your position (avoiding any discussion on why DRM is bad and why we shouldn't support anyone advocating more DRM ) - here is how I see it.

By buying a Kindle and by buying books only from Amazon, you are totally at Amazon's mercy for how long you have access to these books and how long you can read them. Amazon decided to use a (semi) closed format which no one else will (legally) be able to support. So you are in effect really "renting" the books that Amazon decides to sell, and only on devices Amazon approves of, for as long as they want to support you. You don't really "own" the books or the device. You can't return them to Amazon if you don't like it, but Amazon can take away your rights to read those books any time they so choose.

If Amazon decides to get out of the ebook business (they have done it before) and stop their DRM server, you are dead in the water. If Amazon decides to change the format going forward and for Kindle 3/4/5 decide to use the new format, you may not be able to get one of those devices couple years down the road and read the books you purchased today. If Amazon feels they have captured the market sufficiently and starts raising the prices of their books, you are still legally forced to buy books from them and them only for reading on the Kindle.

Worst case, if Amazon doesn't like what you have in your Kindle or what you are doing with a device you supposedly "own" (you can't return it after a certain point, can you ?) and determines you violated their "TOS" they can come and delete all the books you purchased and not let you read them any more.

So in effect, if you realize all these and are still okay "renting" the books from Amazon and realize that you have NO GUARANTEE WHATSOEVER from Amazon that you will have access to your purchased books for as long as you want ... then by all means go with it. Just don't be under the misconception that you actually "own" anything controlled by DRM ... and that includes the Kindle itself and all the books you buy on it

Originally Posted by Talldog

I've been reading all of these threads about Amazon, DRM, KindlePID and everything, but I can't figure out what, if anything it means to me. The K2 is my first dedicated ebook reader, and I ended up choosing it because it seemed like Amazon has the largest selection of books. I have no specialized requirements (textbooks, professional journals or papers, etc.) or library of ebooks to convert. I have no issue with paying Amazon's prices, and I'm not interested in taking a principled stand against DRM (no offense to those who choose to take that stand). I just want to read books, and I wanted to be where I have the greatest chance of finding the books I want.

It seems like the books I'm most disappointed about not seeing on Amazon (Hobbit/LOR, Harry Potter, Nero Wolfe) aren't available anywhere because of rights issues, while most books that are available in ebook form can be purchased from Amazon or are available in unprotected format.

So what am I missing? Is there some significant selection that is available at MobiPocket or other sellers, but not Amazon? Do I really need to care about this?

[Talldog]

Originally Posted by rana

Talldog - first of all, welcome to these forums ... you came to the right place

Thanks for the welcome, but I guess I did a really poor job of asking my question. I'm a long time corporate IT guy (MCSE, build my own computers, etc.) and I understand what DRM is, although not down to the bits and bytes level. I don't like it, but I imagine it's a fact of life until enough pressure can be brought on DRM proponents, like what happened with Apple and the iTunes store.

What I was really trying to get at (and failing miserably, apparently) was that I am new to dedicated ebook readers, and all the stuff I was reading about DRM, competing ebook formats, and what can and can't be read on different readers had me confused about whether I purchased the right reader. I'm still in the return period, and I was trying to determine whether I should switch devices, although it seems that my question was interpreted as "what's the big fuss about DRM?".

At the end of the day, I just want to own the device that gives me the best chance of getting the books I want, and it looks like the Kindle is probably it. Library books aren't really an option, since I don't live anywhere near any libary with an extensive ebook collection, and my online travels didn't turn up much, unless I want to pay $100/yr to the New York Public Library. I've checked a lot of the ebook sellers like Fictionwise, MobiPocket, Books on Board, etc. and couldn't find a single book I might be interested in that isn't also available at Amazon. I even downloaded those Python scripts in just in case the lawyers end up getting them outlawed, but where could I even legally purchase DRM mobi books that aren't also available at Amazon?

At some point, Amazon is going to lose this war anyway, just like Apple did.

[susan_cassidy]

I think at this point, pretty much library books are the only use of the python scripts.

Keep in mind that Fictionwise has multiformat books that are readable on the Kindle as is, also Baen Books for science fiction/fantasy. No DRM, good prices.

[larisa0001]

Yeah, what the DRM issue means to you, and to everyone else, is this - it is illegal for you to convert a Kindle-format e-book to another format. Even if you paid $10 for the ebook and own it legally. Even if you just want to read it on another gadget that you also own. Even if the Kindle goes out of production. It is never, ever, ever OK for you to decrypt an encrypted file. Moreover, it is never, ever, ever OK for you to have on your computer any application that can decrypt an encrypted file. That is copyright infringement.

I ran into this issue with my PalmPilot when I had a nasty case of eyestrain and couldn't read my ebooks on the screen. I wanted to print them out so I could read them on the page (which is what I did with my plain-text ebooks). But because they were eReader files, I could not print them out without breaking the DRM, which is illegal.