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[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I don't remove DRM or back up. I read books. Then I read other books. I have been (willingly) paying for the one-off experience of reading a book for all of my reading life.

If you never reread and only buy books as you read them, then it's pointless to remove the DRM and amass a huge collection. I reread often, I also have thousands of books in my library not yet read.

I remember your saying that you're always sure of being able to buy a book at any future point in your life. I'm not sure of that at all. The books I want to read might become unavailable to me, even on paper (it's not so long ago when most foreign ebooks were not available in my country). I might not have a sufficient income to buy books at all. The libraries in my country are not an option if you mostly want to read fiction in English (because there just isn't enough genre fiction in Estonian). Overdrive is not available either. And the selection of English-language paper books in local bookstores is not exactly huge. Besides, I don't want to read paper books anymore.

So yes, I hoard while I can. Granted, these concerns may be mostly nonexistent for someone living in the US, but they're very real for me.

[DiapDealer]

Have at it. I never said anyone was foolish for their habits. Merely answering questions asked. I'm perfectly fine with buying a license to read a book. Others are not. Such is life.

[Apache]

There is nothing wrong with never reading books more than once. It isn't my thing though. Some people like to watch movies more than once, I prefer to reread books. My situation was similar to Sirtel. I live in a small town that only had one poor excuse of a bookstore. I had to drive at least 90 miles to find a decent bookstore. I guess I learned to love rereading good books because there were times I did not have new books available to me. If we were all the same the world would be very boring.
Apache

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

If you never reread and only buy books as you read them, then it's pointless to remove the DRM and amass a huge collection.

I agree completely with the last part of your statement (the huge digital collection amassing part). But the first part is not actually true. It ignores those who wish to buy from whomever they want, and read on any device outside of the ecosystem the place they buy from tries to limit them to with DRM. It's not an issue I have, but I wouldn't tell those who do that their drm-removal habits are pointless. Regardless of whether they reread or not.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I agree completely with the last part of your statement (the huge digital collection amassing part). But the first part is not actually true. It ignores those who wish to buy from whomever they want, and read on any device outside of the ecosystem the place they buy from tries to limit them to with DRM. It's not an issue I have, but I wouldn't tell those who do that their drm-removal habits are pointless. Regardless of whether they reread or not.

Yes, you're right, I forgot that (while doing it myself regularly!)

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, you're right, I forgot that (while doing it myself regularly!)

I can, however, totally relate to forgetfullness.

[haertig]

Wow, it looks like I am under-paranoid ... I only have my book library saved on three different computers.

I rarely re-read, however I often times do buy books well in advance of when I actually get around to reading them. Sometimes I'll sit on a purchase for several years before getting around to reading it. I'm not willing to lose these books due to DRM problems or some other reason Amazon decides I shouldn't be able to read them, simply because I didn't read soon enough. Because of this, I remove DRM and backup.

If I buy a book while living in the USA, then decide to move to Antarctica, I do not plan on giving that book back to Amazon - no matter what their license says. It is my choice to be a criminal in this case, and ignore that part of their license. They can try to hunt me down and shoot me if they want. (Wait, since Antarctica doesn't have any countries, I might still be safe from the Amazon kill squad if I moved there!)

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I don't trust any automatical backups. Always manual for me. That way I can be sure the necessary things really are backed up.

Yeah, I'm obviously more paranoid than you!

I didn't say that I only backed up automatically, just that you need automatic backup so you don't forget. I've got a nice program for syncing two sets of directories. I can set it up to sync in one direction, so new files get copied over, but deleted files remain in the backup.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by haertig

I rarely re-read, however I often times do buy books well in advance of when I actually get around to reading them. Sometimes I'll sit on a purchase for several years before getting around to reading it.

This is me too - I have nearly 200 books bought from Kobo over the last 2-3 years, usually during special sales etc. Rather than simply trust that all of them will be available when I'm ready for them, taking steps to ensure they are seems prudent.

[theducks]

I still have my paper copies just in case of an EMP

[Apache]

Originally Posted by theducks

I still have my paper copies just in case of an EMP

Me to. Mine are in alphabetical order by author regardless of genre. I do keep hardbacks separate from paperback. If I have jury duty I need paper since my county does not allow jurors to have electronics of any kind while in the court room.
Apache

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by theducks

I still have my paper copies just in case of an EMP

I should be fine living in my Faraday cage

[shalym]

.

Shari

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Gandulf

My question is are you also only buying a licence from places like kobo, B&N etc?

Yes. And a much more restrictive licence than you get from Amazon.

Amazon say that anyone may read a book you've bought, so long as it's on a device registered to your Amazon Account. Everyone else says that only the purchaser is permitted to read the book.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Yes. And a much more restrictive licence than you get from Amazon.

Amazon say that anyone may read a book you've bought, so long as it's on a device registered to your Amazon Account. Everyone else says that only the purchaser is permitted to read the book.

Yes. Amazon is actually fine with family reading, i.e. I buy a book and anyone in the family can read it as long as their device is registered to my account. That's how I bought books for my mother to read. Of course, you might need a separate account for those books you don't want your family to know that you bought. I read that this became an issue when 50 shades of gray (aka mommy porn) was popular.