Archive for the ‘Adobe Digital Editions’ Category
OverDrive to Add DRM-free eBooks no comments
OverDrive has released a press release covering some of their new initiatives. One interesting and I think new item is that they will be adding non-DRM ePub and PDF ebooks to their collection of titles available to libraries. This will be good as these titles should work on ereaders that are not Adobe Digital Editions compatible. From the press release:
DRM-free eBooks in both EPUB and PDF formats are being added to OverDrive’s catalog for libraries. These OverDrive "Open eBooks" will be compatible with nearly any eBook reader or software that can display EPUB and PDF files. Titles from Harlequin’s Carina Press, Saddleback Educational Publishing, and Rourke Publishing will be among the first DRM-free eBooks available to libraries.
Possibly Related Posts:
Borrowing Library eBooks on the DR800SG eReader no comments
Since I have ADE up and working again I wanted to try borrowing something on my Irex DR800SG from the public library to see how well it works.
The Los Angeles County Library system currently has something over 700 fiction and nonfiction ebooks available. This is not a lot, but they are slowly building the collection. With California having fallen off into an ocean of red ink I’m sure that the library’s budget has been curtailed.
I borrowed Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Yes, this is a public domain title and I could get it elsewhere, but I wanted to make sure library downloads work okay on the DR800SG ereader and there was no waiting list for this title. I read many of Hesse’s works when I was a teenager – it was the thing to do back then. I’ve wanted to revisit them to see how they hold up, but many of Hesse’s titles do not seem to have made the jump to ebooks yet. I seem to recall that Narcissus and Goldmund and Steppenwolf were my favorites.
After a few clicks I was able to download the ebook to my PC and then to my ereader. Pretty painless and everything works as advertised.
I also found a few other new titles that I want and put myself on the waiting lists. Neal Stephenson’s Anthem was available with no waiting list, but at a thousand plus pages this is a nut I did not want to try cracking in view of my present reading backlog and the 14 day loan period. I will probably just buy this one later.
When borrowing library ebooks for your ereader you are probably going to find yourself in the position of having to drop whatever you are presently reading to jump on your requested book when it becomes available and finish it in the allotted time.
Having access to public library ebooks is a great feature, but I’m not sure if I would make it a priority when choosing which ereader to buy – at least not at the present time. You can find out how much material is available at your local library by visiting Overdrive’s site and entering your zip code in the search widget.
Possibly Related Posts:
The Problem With DRM no comments
A few days ago Adobe finally let me back into my Digital Editions account so that I could once again access the content that I had bought and paid for. This after four weeks of waiting and some very irate emails on my part. I only have a few titles in my ADE account as I have not used it since I got rid of my Sony Touch a few months ago, but I did have unread books to get to.
I received no explanation for the problem or advice on how to avoid it in the future, but I presume what happened was that ADE counted the unsuccessful attempts to activate my Bebook Neo ereader as actual activations and after a few tries locked me out of the account with the dreaded “too many activations” error.
I should point out that this is not simply a Neo ereader problem. If you look at Adobe’s Digital Editions forums you will see that a number of people have had similar problems with other devices, including PC’s and quite a few Sony ereaders.
Several years ago when I had about $30 worth of digital music downloads I had bought one day become useless because of broken DRM and could get no help from the seller, I decided that I would have no more DRM’ed music in my collection. Fortunately, Amazon started selling DRM-free music at about the same time.
With ebooks I am more accepting of DRM as, unlike my music which I listen to repeatedly, I will probably read an ebook only once. In the past when I have wanted to reread a paper book after some years, I have usually had to buy a new copy as I had probably given away or otherwise disposed of the original. This could perhaps be seen as a kind of organic DRM substitute for pbooks. After my experience with Adobe I do find myself questioning the wisdom of having a DRM’ed reference ebook that I will want to continuously access over a longer period of time.
I do not advocate piracy. I want the artists who create the content I use and enjoy to be able to make a living from it and to be able to continue to create new work. I always pay for my digital music and ebooks unless it is a free promotional item. I realize that publishers and distributers feel that they need DRM to protect themselves. This is the world we live in.
Piracy is wrong. But when paying customers cannot use content that they have paid for because of broken DRM it is just as wrong. And when is the last time you have heard of a publisher or distributer commiserating with customers who have suffered because of malfunctioning DRM?
When DRM does not work properly and paying customers are prevented from accessing the ebooks or music or other digital content that they have paid for then it can actually encourage piracy. When consumers are faced with this situation they may very well feel that they are justified in removing the DRM or obtaining a pirated copy of content they have paid for but cannot use. When searching for the tools to do this on the Web they are quite likely to come across other items they would like to have that are not yet available in their desired format. Many will feel justified in downloading these pirated copies as compensation for the wasted time and hassle the broken DRM has caused them. Talk about slippery slopes!
The organizations that make and maintain DRM systems also need to stop treating customers who have problems as criminals – they are not! Pirates don’t go to customer service and complain that they are having trouble accessing their content. The argument that DRM does not prevent piracy but instead hampers paying customers from using what they have paid for has more than a little validity.
After my experience, and seeing the experiences of others on Adobe’s and other forums, I would say that avoiding ADE is a good reason for buying a Kindle ereader. If you have a problem with something you buy from Amazon you can call their customer service and usually get it straightened out right away.
To be fair, Amazon only has to handle DRM for one ereader – the Kindle, which is manufactured under their auspices. Adobe on the other hand makes a DRM system that is used by a number of different ereaders made by many different companies. Some incompatibilities are probably the fault of the software used by the various hardware manufacturers. But that is the business plan that Adobe has chosen for themselves, so they need to do it right.
£149.00
£109
