What are we going to do about Adobe?

[BasilC]

I can't be the only person who is thoroughly fed up with Adobe and the problems with their DRM system. I have spent large amounts of money on DRM'd pdf books and am unable to read any of them. I can't get their stupid new Digital Editions to work, and I can't transfer any new books to my Palm pda.

I think we need to organise a campaign to stop publishers using PDF for DRM'd ebooks. Their customers are getting ripped off, but it's the fault of Adobe, not the publishers.

Any thoughts?

[igorsk]

Check this thread too.
http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc4a07a

[Nate the great]

If you were in the US, I would recommend that you sue Adobe in small claims court. Since you're in England, I don't know what your legal options are, but I still think you should sue them.

I'm serious. Okay, several thousand nuisance lawsuits is not the best way to get their attention. But I do think it would bring negative publicity, and that would get through to them.

[ProfJulie]

I accidentally encountered this problem when I checked some ebooks out of the library. I've got Adobe Acrobat 7.0 installed on my computer and, for some reason, Adobe's new Digital Editions software was automatically installed to my computer (without my knowledge). When the Digital Editions software was installed to my computer the file association for PDF files and EBT files was changed to Digital Editions. When I opened up the library books, they opened up in Digital Editions. I couldn't figure out why I could not read them in Acrobat 7.0 or why I could not send the books to my pocket pc. Later, after spending quite a lot of time looking for answers on the internet, I figured out what happened.

This is what you need to do:

If you installed or upgraded to Adobe Acrobat 8.0 or Adobe Reader 8.0, uninstall the software and go back to Adobe Acrobat 7.0 or Adobe Reader 7.0. You can still download this version of Adobe Reader from Adobe's website.

Then uninstall the Digital Editions software completely from your computer.

Open Adobe Acrobat 7.0 or Adobe Reader 7.0 and disable the feature that automatically updates the software (to prevent your software from being upgraded to 8.0 without your knowledge):

Edit > Preferences > Updates > select the option "Do not automatically check for critical updates"

Change the file association for PDF files back to Adobe Reader 7.0 (or Adobe Acrobat 7.0): open up File Explorer > select Tools > Folder Options > File Types > find and highlight the PDF file type > select the "Change" button and select Adobe Reader 7.0 or Adobe Acrobat 7.0.

This won't fix the books you've already opened in the Digital Editions software, but now when you download DRM protected PDF files, you can use them as you are accustomed to.

[charlieperry]

Digital Editions is awful. What use is an ebook which you can't print or put on a device? I'd love to take them to the small claims court.

[ProfJulie]

Well, Adobe now has released a Beta of the next iteration of Digital Editions which is supposed to overcome the limitations of the existing version. I won't be giving it a try because I don't want to mess up any of my PDF books that have DRM (I don't have many of them and won't be buying any more). But you can learn more about this new Beta version here:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/d...tions/install/

And there is a discussion thread here about the new Beta version:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20540

[HarryT]

I am a little puzzled by this. A number of people on this forum have confidently stated that DE will be available on the Sony Reader by the end of Feb, but that certainly doesn't seem to fit in with what appears to still be a rather early beta product! Could anyone clarify?

[igorsk]

AFAIR there were some vague promises of a firmware update this month, possibly with improved PDF viewer shown at CES. I don't think there was anything definite on DE or epub support.

[NatCh]

My own recollections match igorsk's -- the DE stuff was just speculation.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by NatCh

My own recollections match igorsk's -- the DE stuff was just speculation.

exactly true with my recollections as well. A lot of people jump to conclusions that are not in the original. There should a modified PDF version soon for the Sony platform that does reflow but that is all I remember from the original announcements.

Dale

[vivaldirules]

Two threads about this from last month after the CES:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19023
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18615

Skimming these I see no mention by Sony about Adobe DE support in the planned software update that was hoped for by late February.

[Nate the great]

I'm surprised that no one remembers that we discussed this here. Sony demoed reflowable PDFs at CES, with an expected release date of "soon". DE support was given a release date of "eventually".

[vivaldirules]

For me hope frequently leads to delusion.

[SpiderMatt]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

If you were in the US, I would recommend that you sue Adobe in small claims court. Since you're in England, I don't know what your legal options are, but I still think you should sue them.

I'm serious. Okay, several thousand nuisance lawsuits is not the best way to get their attention. But I do think it would bring negative publicity, and that would get through to them.

Today's sue-happy society in the U.S. is completely reprehensible and disgusting. Adobe has done nothing wrong and has certainly done nothing illegal. It's so sad that when consumers make a bad purchase that their first instinct would be to sue the company they purchased the product(s) from. I don't like DE, although I don't mind Adobe. I don't buy DE books, though, and I expect this to be an adequate way to show my distaste. I don't go out and buy something I don't like and then sue the company. Such a solution is so mind-bogglingly stupid, it gives me a headache just to consider it.

But hey, maybe if you're lucky tons of people will sue Adobe to the point that Adobe loses enough money to result in layoffs. When people start losing their jobs as the economy seeps lower into a recession, it'll definitely prove you're sticking up for the little guy!

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by SpiderMatt

Today's sue-happy society in the U.S. is completely reprehensible and disgusting. Adobe has done nothing wrong and has certainly done nothing illegal. It's so sad that when consumers make a bad purchase that their first instinct would be to sue the company they purchased the product(s) from. I don't like DE, although I don't mind Adobe. I don't buy DE books, though, and I expect this to be an adequate way to show my distaste. I don't go out and buy something I don't like and then sue the company. Such a solution is so mind-bogglingly stupid, it gives me a headache just to consider it.

But hey, maybe if you're lucky tons of people will sue Adobe to the point that Adobe loses enough money to result in layoffs. When people start losing their jobs as the economy seeps lower into a recession, it'll definitely prove you're sticking up for the little guy!

If I pay money for an ebook and it stops working, I have suffered a loss. If the Adobe DRM on the file is the reason it stops working, then Adobe has caused my loss. Very few ebook retailers will give a refund, and none will because of DRM problems. Why shouldn't I sue Adobe?

You say that Adobe has done nothing wrong. Given all the many ways that a PDF can stop working due to the DRM, I must disagree.

P.S. Please note that I said small claims court in my previous post. I want people to sue Adobe only for the money spent on the PDFs. I did not suggest suing for absurd amounts of money.