Over 160 O'Reilly Books Now in Kindle Store (without DRM)

[anurag]

I'm happy to announce that more than 160 O'Reilly books are now available on Kindle, and are being sold without any DRM (Digital Rights Management). Though we do offer more than 400 ebooks direct from our website, the number for sale on Kindle will be limited until Amazon updates Kindle 1 to support table rendering ("maybe this summer" is the most specific they would get).

From
http://toc.oreilly.com/2009/04/over-...n-the-way.html

Also includes some interesting commentary on formatting issues with Kindle 1.

[wallcraft]

The following surprised me:

While we will also update our ebooks with Amazon as changes are made and errors fixed, they currently have no way of updating that content for customers who already purchased it.

I did not think the Kindle store actually stored backups of each individual ebook you bought but rather regenerated them from a master if they needed re-downloading. Or perhaps Andrew Savikas just means that the new DRM-free versions can't be used as replacements for the existing DRM-ridden ones.

[sirbruce]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The following surprised me: I did not think the Kindle store actually stored backups of each individual ebook you bought but rather regenerated them from a master if they needed re-downloading. Or perhaps Andrew Savikas just means that the new DRM-free versions can't be used as replacements for the existing DRM-ridden ones.

I don't understand it either. Furthermore, the AZW files are all tagged with a version number so the same book with the same ASIN can exist in different versions. Yet I'm told Amazon doesn't use this mechanism currently.

[timezone]

The O'Reilly Head-First books are DRM free PDF files. You don't need a Kindle. O'Reilly is doing a great job allowing the customer the freedom of fair use. When I get a new reader I won't have the hassle of the license issue. I don't want to sound preachy but this is what we all want and O'Reilly has stepped up to the plate. They are taking a chance on us. I hope a few don't ruin it for the rest of us by making copies for friends. In order for this model to succeed we all have to be honest and do the right thing. If this model is successful then maybe other publishers will join in.

[Kris777]

Originally Posted by anurag

From
http://toc.oreilly.com/2009/04/over-...n-the-way.html

Also includes some interesting commentary on formatting issues with Kindle 1.

Good news! I hope other publishers will do the same.

[timezone]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The following surprised me: I did not think the Kindle store actually stored backups of each individual ebook you bought but rather regenerated them from a master if they needed re-downloading. Or perhaps Andrew Savikas just means that the new DRM-free versions can't be used as replacements for the existing DRM-ridden ones.

This is a long shot guess - If you remember Fictionwise has a situation where a set of books are not now available for download because access has been, in case I do not have it quire right, allegedly denied. They said they do not hold the digital inventory for all the books. The Fictionwise web site for some publishers sends the user in the background to the publisher site. Maybe the DRM books were held and maintained by Amazon but the DRM free books will now come directly from the publisher or visa versa. This disconnect may break the original version control of the inventory. Just a wild guess.

[dister]

Originally Posted by timezone

This is a long shot guess - If you remember Fictionwise has a situation where a set of books are not now available for download because access has been, in case I do not have it quire right, allegedly denied. They said they do not hold the digital inventory for all the books. The Fictionwise web site for some publishers sends the user in the background to the publisher site. Maybe the DRM books were held and maintained by Amazon but the DRM free books will now come directly from the publisher or visa versa. This disconnect may break the original version control of the inventory. Just a wild guess.

I assume Amazon stores the books directly, I can't believe they depend on the publisher to offer a download service as that would be too unreliable and only causes issues in the future if publishers go out of business or change their infrastructure. As the O'Reilly books are DRM free this can't be a problem.

[sirbruce]

Reposted from another thread, but also relevant here:

Amazon corrected the downloads of both "Tha Hobbit" and "The Fellowship of the Rings"; this involves not just changing the filename but the data in the MOBIs themselves. People who download the incorrect versions, if they delete the bad file, will redownload the CORRECT versions.

So unlike what was claimed above, it seems that Amazon can INDEED do this. Perhaps only big name authors like Tolkien are given this consideration, though.

[ProDigit]

I'll probably expect people to jump on those 160 books now they are DRM free?

Is there currently a way to create free ebooks for the kindle?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

I'll probably expect people to jump on those 160 books now they are DRM free?

Is there currently a way to create free ebooks for the kindle?

O'Reilly already sold them as DRM free.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by ProDigit

Is there currently a way to create free ebooks for the kindle?

If as a publisher you upload your ebook to DTP it will be DRM-free on the Kindle unless you upload a DRMed MOBI. However, all MOBIs that get to the Kindle via mobipocket.com have DRM because MobiPocket has no way to accept DRM-free ebooks (i.e. you can't upload a DRM-free MOBI to mobipocket.com).

[bhartman36]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The following surprised me: I did not think the Kindle store actually stored backups of each individual ebook you bought but rather regenerated them from a master if they needed re-downloading. Or perhaps Andrew Savikas just means that the new DRM-free versions can't be used as replacements for the existing DRM-ridden ones.

I just took it to mean that when they update it on the site, it isn't automatically updated on your Kindle. I assumed that if you re-downloaded it, you would get whatever version is on Amazon's site at the time. In other words, if you do nothing, you'll have the version you initially downloaded.

It wouldn't make sense to me if Amazon kept track of which version of a book you had, and then fed you that version again. (Of course, hat brings up the question of what they would do if a new version came out that was greatly expanded.) I suppose it's possible that they actually keep track of what version of a text you have, but that wouldn't fit with the publishing-on-demand model I thought they were using for this.