Using my B&N eBooks (ePubs) on other devices?

[ZeroTX]

Hi all,

I cannot figure out how to strip DRM from ePubs purchased on Barnes & Noble so that I can use them on another app (Stanza) and/or archive them for a day when a Nook might no longer be my main device.

When I try to open the books in Adobe Digital Editions, it just complains that it cannot, even though I use the same email for my B&N account as my Adobe account.

I'm new to this, but reasonably tech savvy.

Thanks,

Michael

[ATDrake]

Hi. Unfortunately, for the forum's own protection, we can't discuss DRM-circumvention in detail.

However, B&N uses a completely different DRM-scheme than ADE, and the tools are likewise different, though they are easy to use, and it is easy to remove.

Hope this helps, and welcome to MobileRead!

[ZeroTX]

Well, how about a legal question then... how do I use Library ePubs on my Color Nook considering that their encryption is different. I thought that Nooks natively supported library books?

[ZeroTX]

I also thought you could buy books from any ePub vendor (such as Kobo) and use them on a Nook? Does this also require stripping DRM or is it natively compatible?

[ATDrake]

Library books and Kobo/Sony/other ADE-DRM purchases are natively compatible on the Nook. You won't have to do any stripping or conversion to get them on, because B&N licensed the ADE scheme for the NOOK device.

It's just that they use their own B&N-DRM for their own books, and most other reader device/apps haven't licensed that (although it's supposed to be included in a future version of ADE), so it's trickier to get B&N's files to work elsewhere than vice versa. I think only the JetBookLite of all the other readers supports it so far.

For what it's worth, they do have the most flexible and lenient and easy to remove DRM out there.

[ZeroTX]

5 minutes of web searching and I figured it out :-) I have the scripts and such installed now and successfully de-DRM'd a couple of B&N books I bought, so hopefully that doesn't change too much over time. I choose to buy CD's and rip to MP3 or buy non-DRM MP3 and import into iTunes for the same reason: I don't want to be locked into a platform!! Who knows what the dominate music player will be 10 years from now but I do not believe that Apple will have a near-monopoly forever. Ditto on books!

[ZeroTX]

Speaking of that, even Apple is moving to non-DRM music purchases. Do you think non-DRM ePub will eventually become the norm?

[ATDrake]

We can only hope so. Depending on what you like to read, you might want to start looking at the (relatively few) publishers that sell/allow their books to be sold without DRM.

If you like science fiction and fantasy, Baen's Webscriptions carries books not just from their own imprint, but others like Subterranean Press and Nightshade. Pricing is $6 each (less if you buy in bundles) and they openly allow you to download in whatever format you need that they support, all DRM-free. And they have an extensive Free Library which encourages you to download the first few books in a series to try out, in the hopes that you'll splurge on the rest of the series if you like them. Truly the best publisher/e-bookstore out there.

Fictionwise's MultiFormat selections are also a good choice. It's mostly backlist work by sf/fantasy/romance and some mystery authors, though there's the occasional bit of non-fiction and other stuff.

There's also lots of smaller press genre publishers/specialty e-bookstores who do likewise because licensing the DRM is expensive, and it's just cheaper and easier not to bother with it.

Oh, and if you like computer books, O'Reilly seems to insist that their books be sold without DRM. Plus if you buy directly from their website instead of another store, you get free access to all future updates and a copy of the book in each format they support, without ever having to rebuy. And they have sales and coupons and apparently you can get a discount if you already own a paper copy.

While currently it's mostly relatively fringe stuff that does this, if you want to support publishers and authors who do offer their works DRM-free, there's plenty of places to start.

But it really does help if you like sf/fantasy, romance, and tech books. Mainstream literary fiction readers, I'm afraid, are kind of screwed.

[Catlady]

Does the B&N scheme depend on the credit card you have on file with them, or the card actually used for the purchase, if an alternate card is used? Suppose you pay with a gift card?

[ATDrake]

Card on file, which you can change at any time. If perhaps someone stole your wallet and you had to cancel all your old cards, you can set a new one as default and re-download your books, though the old files you previously downloaded will merrily still open with your old CC details forever after, without having to "re-authorize" anything with B&N's central server.

Gift card payment doesn't matter. Your CC won't be charged unless your GC runs out, but the book will still be DRM-ed to the Name/CC# entered in your account. I think I've read some international people on this forum have problems getting B&N books with only GC and no CC, because the system won't let them, even though they have the money, but I could be misremembering.

Basically, the B&N scheme works just like a username/password combo where they hope you value that info enough not to pass it around. Because Nook devices and apps do accept multiple different combos and even stores the hash so that if you trust someone, you can basically do a book-swapping back-and-forth with their files on your reader and vice versa.

[Catlady]

Thanks for the information. I have a gift card and I intend to change my CC on the B&N account, and I wondered just how complicated things could get--I was afraid I'd have to remember which books were bought with what method.