Kobo + ADE - how does it work?

[Kindleing]

I apologize for the basic questions, but I have only used Kindles so I'm not familiar with Kobo in particular or ADE DRM in general. I have been thinking about buying a Kobo of some flavor for access to ebooks I cant readily convert for a Kiindle. So, today I ran across a book I was tempted to buy but it is only available as an epub with ADE.

I understand Kobo comes with ADE, but how does it work? If I were to buy and download a book from some source other than Kobo, what is the process for getting it into a Kobo reader and then into Caliber (or the other way around)?

I have avoided ADE because a few years ago I read where the ADE software was sending Adobe a full list of titles found on a device even when there was no DRM involved. As I recall, Adobe said that was a bug and claimed they had "fixed" it. Are users generally comfortable these days that Adobe is not "spying" on their reading habits? I'm not talking about keeping a record of authorized DRM approvals - of course they have that - I'm talking about side-loaded titles that are DRM-free and have no connection to Adobe or ADE.

Thanks,
Wally

[davidfor]

When you buy a book that has Adobe DRM, you will download an ACSM file. This is used by ADE to download the actual book. You then connect the device while running ADE and authenticate the device to you Adobe account. After that, you use ADE to send the book to the device.

Of course, removing Adobe DRM from a book is simple, but, you need to do two download steps first. And you want to use ADE 2.0.somethingorother. DRM removal from later versions isn't possibe.

As to what ADE reports, I don't know. I don't remember any discussions about it, one way or the other.

[Kindleing]

Thanks, that helps. I've done a little more reading and it's getting a little more clear.

Wally

[John F]

Originally Posted by davidfor

...

Of course, removing Adobe DRM from a book is simple, but, you need to do two download steps first. And you want to use ADE 2.0.somethingorother. DRM removal from later versions isn't possibe.

...

To expand on the above...

I believe many people are using ADE version 3.X (and above) and are able to remove DRM?

There may be future concerns about ADE and DRM removal, but for now ADE DRM removal is possible from most sellers (Kobo, Google, ...) regardless of the version of ADE.

[mathil]

Originally Posted by John F

To expand on the above...

I believe many people are using ADE version 3.X (and above) and are able to remove DRM?

There may be future concerns about ADE and DRM removal, but for now ADE DRM removal is possible from most sellers (Kobo, Google, ...) regardless of the version of ADE.

I'm using the latest ADE version (4.5.8 or something) and I've had no issues removing DRM from my purchases. I believe the problem emerges when using a Linux distro, though.

[John F]

Originally Posted by mathil

I'm using the latest ADE version (4.5.8 or something) and I've had no issues removing DRM from my purchases. I believe the problem emerges when using a Linux distro, though.

And that later versions of ADE supports an additional form of DRM, which next to no sellers are using.

[latepaul]

The situation as I understand it is this:

Sellers can run a version of the server software that supports new and old types of DRM. ADE 3.0 and above can deal with new and old type files. ADE 2.0 can only deal with the old type. Only the old type can be stripped of DRM (at the moment).

Sellers can choose in their server settings to support old, new or both types of files. I don't think anyone is supporting only new. Let's say there's a seller that supports both and you buy an ebook from them.

If you're running 2.0 and open the ascm file it will connect to the server, check the authorisation and send you an old style file.

If you're running 3.0+ and do the same it will send you a new style file. One you can't strip DRM from. Not only that but it remembers you have a newer client and if you later try to use 2.0 it will refuse to send you the old style file.

What's happening at the moment is that most sellers haven't switched on support for the new DRM and so even if you connect with 3.0+ you get an old-style file that can be de-DRM-ed. But it's a risk. Sellers can turn that on at the flick of a switch.

The risk on the other side is that sellers could decide to switch off support for old style files and force people to upgrade. That's probably unlikely for a while. Because we're not only talking about computers with ADE installed we're talking about devices, like Kobo, where the firmware has to support the new DRM. Or 3rd party apps for phones and tablets. If there's no new firmware for your device, or no new version of your favourite app then you'd be screwed if an ebook store switched off the old DRM. Which is to say, they'd lose a customer.

So there is a chance that by using ADE 3.0 you could not be able to strip the DRM. There's a smaller (IMHO) chance that you could not be able to download the file. So a lot of people don't want to upgrade beyond ADE 2.0.

Of course none of this matters unless you want to strip the DRM.

[stumped]

good summary

I fail to see what if any benefits there are to the end customer in upgrading i.e. what can ade 3 or 4 do for me that ade 2 can't

except decrypt books from non existent ade 3 only vendors ?

I doubt the ability to render books to read on PC screen has improved at all since version 1 ? or that its primitive librarian facility is of any use to any one ?

my limited experience of adobe ( ade, flash...) is that their site was invariably down when I needed to contact them , and that their customer support is useless)

but at least we don't have to worry about debuggng flash any more

[Lady Stardust]

Originally Posted by stumped

good summary

I fail to see what if any benefits there are to the end customer in upgrading i.e. what can ade 3 or 4 do for me that ade 2 can't

except decrypt books from non existent ade 3 only vendors ?

I might be wrong but I think that ADE 2.0 is 32 bit. For Mac users who upgrade to Catalina 32 bit apps will not work so they will be able to open books only in newer ADE versions.

[petercreasey]

I tried later versions of ADE and had problems. ADE 2.0 works fine for me with Windows 10 Home 64-bit and KA1.

[stumped]

[QUOTE=petercreasey;3877275.... ADE 2.0 works fine for me with Windows 10 Home 64-bit....[/QUOTE]

and for me
I use the specific 2. something version that plays nicely with overdrive

[Lady Stardust]

I envy you both.
I have to decide about Catalina.
If I go for it and there is nothing new for dedrm for ADE 3.0, then I will have to buy only from Amazon, at least while it still lets me just download the book file (without me having to first open it in some 64 bit app like updated Kindle for Mac). For now, that's at least advantage of Amazon for Mac Catalina users.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by Lady Stardust

I envy you both.
I have to decide about Catalina.
If I go for it and there is nothing new for dedrm for ADE 3.0, then I will have to buy only from Amazon, at least while it still lets me just download the book file (without me having to first open it in some 64 bit app like updated Kindle for Mac). For now, that's at least advantage of Amazon for Mac Catalina users.

I wonder if you could use Kobo Desktop and make use of the Obok tool from Apprentice Alf?

Sent from my moto g(7) power using Tapatalk

[John F]

Originally Posted by stumped

good summary

I fail to see what if any benefits there are to the end customer in upgrading i.e. what can ade 3 or 4 do for me that ade 2 can't

except decrypt books from non existent ade 3 only vendors ?

I doubt the ability to render books to read on PC screen has improved at all since version 1 ? or that its primitive librarian facility is of any use to any one ?

my limited experience of adobe ( ade, flash...) is that their site was invariably down when I needed to contact them , and that their customer support is useless)

but at least we don't have to worry about debuggng flash any more

I'm not sure about you in particular, but I was having problems having using ADE and CLoudLibrary on the same computer (I was running ADE 2.x). ADE 4.x solved the problem. If I run into problems in the future, I'll downgrade to 2.X.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by latepaul

The situation as I understand it is this:
.....
Of course none of this matters unless you want to strip the DRM.

Thank you for that thorough explanation, I don't think I'd ever seen a good reason why before this. I had upgraded to 3.0 before reading about any issues and figured since it still worked fine for me, I'd let it be. But after reading your explanation, I just downgraded to 2.01 to be safe.