ePub Confusion

notsure · 05-24-2009, 10:01 AM

I'm a little confused (more so than my normal confused state) about something and I'm wondering if someone might be able to explain what's going on.

So this morning, thanks to this wonderful forum, I noticed that BoB had a free Sherlock Holmes book. Now, I'm a linux user and since they don't (currently) have an ADE version available for linux I simply downloaded the book and it saved on my system as an .epub file. Because I assumed this book had DRM on it, I never expected to read it anywhere but I'm new to ebooks wanting to experiment and free was the right price. :-)

When I added the book to calibre, I can read it there. This was unexpected.
When I transfered it to my Sony 505 I noticed I cannot read it there. This was expected.
Using calibre to convert returns an error that the book contains DRM and cannot be converted. This was also expected.

So, can anyone explain why I can read this book directly on Calibre from my linux machine?

Thanks!

wallcraft · 05-24-2009, 11:04 AM

The ebook is DRM-free, which BoB indicates by not including a padlock after the ebook type on its details page. In fact, any ebook you can download as an .epub without ADE is DRM-free (DRM-ridden Adobe ebooks don't start out as .epub, they only become ePubs when ADE pulls a copy from Adobe's servers).

So it should be readable on your PRS-505, but perhaps it violates some of the filesize limits that mobile ADE has. Calibre should be able to fix this for you, and I don't know why this isn't working.

notsure · 05-24-2009, 11:16 AM

Well isn't that odd... I converted from epub to epub (???) and I was then able to transfer it to my PRS505.

Thanks!

Now if only there was a way to remove the DRM from epubs in Linux. :-)

wallcraft · 05-24-2009, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notsure

I converted from epub to epub (???) and I was then able to transfer it to my PRS505.

Calibre's ePub to ePub can convert the ePub so that it is PRS-505 compatible. So this is expected.

05-24-2009, 10:01 AM	#1
notsure Zealot Posts: 123 Karma: 76 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Sony PRS-505, PRS-350	ePub Confusion I'm a little confused (more so than my normal confused state) about something and I'm wondering if someone might be able to explain what's going on. So this morning, thanks to this wonderful forum, I noticed that BoB had a free Sherlock Holmes book. Now, I'm a linux user and since they don't (currently) have an ADE version available for linux I simply downloaded the book and it saved on my system as an .epub file. Because I assumed this book had DRM on it, I never expected to read it anywhere but I'm new to ebooks wanting to experiment and free was the right price. :-) When I added the book to calibre, I can read it there. This was unexpected. When I transfered it to my Sony 505 I noticed I cannot read it there. This was expected. Using calibre to convert returns an error that the book contains DRM and cannot be converted. This was also expected. So, can anyone explain why I can read this book directly on Calibre from my linux machine? Thanks!

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05-24-2009, 11:04 AM	#2
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,975 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	The ebook is DRM-free, which BoB indicates by not including a padlock after the ebook type on its details page. In fact, any ebook you can download as an .epub without ADE is DRM-free (DRM-ridden Adobe ebooks don't start out as .epub, they only become ePubs when ADE pulls a copy from Adobe's servers). So it should be readable on your PRS-505, but perhaps it violates some of the filesize limits that mobile ADE has. Calibre should be able to fix this for you, and I don't know why this isn't working.

05-24-2009, 11:16 AM	#3
notsure Zealot Posts: 123 Karma: 76 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Sony PRS-505, PRS-350	Well isn't that odd... I converted from epub to epub (???) and I was then able to transfer it to my PRS505. Thanks! Now if only there was a way to remove the DRM from epubs in Linux. :-)

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