Does S&S not care about people who read eBooks?

[bbailey861]

I like to feel the pages of a book in my hand, however I travel extensively and for very long periods of time so having ebooks would be beneficial. My heartache is having to pay twice for the same thing (yes, yes, I know it they are different formats but in my brain it is for the same thing, sorry). I mentioned somewhere else that perhaps when buying the physical book you could download the ebook at the same time. I'd be happy to pay a buck or two more to have both.

Byron

 

[Thrawn]

I like to feel the pages of a book in my hand, however I travel extensively and for very long periods of time so having ebooks would be beneficial. My heartache is having to pay twice for the same thing (yes, yes, I know it they are different formats but in my brain it is for the same thing, sorry). I mentioned somewhere else that perhaps when buying the physical book you could download the ebook at the same time. I'd be happy to pay a buck or two more to have both.

Byron

Yeah. I want Amazon to partner with Barnes & Noble, and when you purchase real books at any B&N store, then you can pay an extra $2 at the counter and they'll add the eBook to your amazon account. How cool would that be?

 

[Kataaran]

I won't buy any media that uses copy protection; MP3s, eBooks, CDs. I buy the paper version of a book and then 'acquire' an electronic one. Do I feel in any way guilty? Nope. Sell ebooks in an open format and I'll buy them but I'm not buying something that may or may not be readable on whatever mobile device I have presently. It's not like I can read more than one version at a time.

 

[Thrawn]

Not that this is really the point, but it took me about 25 minutes using google one day to find out how to strip the copy protection from Kindle files and archive them DRM-free.

 

[bbailey861]

Not that this is really the point, but it took me about 25 minutes using google one day to find out how to strip the copy protection from Kindle files and archive them DRM-free.

I hear ya, but if I had a choice I would happily fork over a couple more bucks hoping the authors got a piece of the action.

Byron

 

[Kataaran]

Not that this is really the point, but it took me about 25 minutes using google one day to find out how to strip the copy protection from Kindle files and archive them DRM-free.

I just figure that if I give them money it'll encourage the continued use of DRM. All it does is inconvenience the honest user, as you say anyone who wants to rip/copy stuff will find a way.

I tell people: if you can see it with your eyes you can copy it. DRM is ultimately pointless.

 

[Thrawn]

You'll get no argument from me. I do ultimately find the Kindle convenient enough to be worth it, though.

 

[Judith Sisko]

I pre-ordered a nook this morning from Barnes & Noble. It's their new eReader.

My main reason for choosing it over a Kindle is that I can use the nook to check out books from the Metro Library. (And I can borrow books from my book club friends who have also pre-ordered one!)

After I use it to purchase books for a while, I'll chime in on the price issue, but at this point, I don't consider myself qualified to contribute to the discussion.

Time will tell, though.

 

[bbailey861]

Does anybody have or has anyone used the Sony reader?

Byron

 

[JoeZhang]

First, not everyone who buys ebooks have the intention to pirate them.

I'd argue that most people who buy ebooks don't pirate them. I'm tired of companies penalizing us because they're paranoid about online media. Charging $1 or $2 over the price of a dead-tree copy is highway robbery, and just ensure that S&S won't get ANY of my money. I'll go to the library or the second-hand bookstore. I need something cheaper than dead-tree, and ebooks SHOULD be cheaper. Online music is cheaper, after all.

Ok, rant over. I really like reading ebooks on my PDA at work. Can't really do that with a paperback.

Karen

Just on this point, I'm watching pirate sites (for a research project I'm working on) and the gap between Star Trek books being released and pirates is now measured in the hours. As far as I can determine you might have to wait weeks previously.

 

[OmahaStar]

Well isn't this interesting? I got an email from S&S asking me to register on their new ebook site. If I did, I'd get a 40% off coupon. I went to their site and looked around. I find it incredibly stupid on their part. I'll give an example. The first original Trek book, Entropy Effect, has a retail price of $4.99. I won't even get into the used prices. Current books are in the 7.99 range.

S&S's price for the ebook? 9.99. They want DOUBLE the cover price, just to have it in ebook format? No, thank you. I think I can do better than that.

 

[sparky99]

Also, have you noticed that S&S only offer much of their library, if not all, in Epub format? What happened to the other formats they used to offer (.pcr, .pbd, .lit, .pdb)? They've lost my business.

You can still get discounts, not as sizeable as before, at other e-book e-tailers (they're e-tastic!)

 

[JWolf]

I pre-ordered a nook this morning from Barnes & Noble. It's their new eReader.

My main reason for choosing it over a Kindle is that I can use the nook to check out books from the Metro Library. (And I can borrow books from my book club friends who have also pre-ordered one!)

After I use it to purchase books for a while, I'll chime in on the price issue, but at this point, I don't consider myself qualified to contribute to the discussion.

Time will tell, though.

The loan a book feature of the nook only works once for any book. That means if you loan say Unworthy to a friend, after that 14-day loan period is up, you cannot loan that book to anyone else.

 

[JWolf]

Also, have you noticed that S&S only offer much of their library, if not all, in Epub format? What happened to the other formats they used to offer (.pcr, .pbd, .lit, .pdb)? They've lost my business.

You can still get discounts, not as sizeable as before, at other e-book e-tailers (they're e-tastic!)

I did take a look at my back library of eBooks I've purchased via S&S. They were MS Reader format and now they are ePub and not as well formatted.

Does anybody have or has anyone used the Sony reader?

Byron

My wife & I both have a Sony Reader PRS-505 and my mother has a Sony Reader PRS-600. We do like them and I do like reading Trek using my 505.

 

[ATimson]

They were MS Reader format and now they are ePub and not as well formatted.

They're not ePub--they're wrapped up in some proprietary Adobe crap, so I can't read them in an ePub reader. Bollocks.

 

[Thrawn]

I pre-ordered a nook this morning from Barnes & Noble. It's their new eReader.

My main reason for choosing it over a Kindle is that I can use the nook to check out books from the Metro Library. (And I can borrow books from my book club friends who have also pre-ordered one!)

After I use it to purchase books for a while, I'll chime in on the price issue, but at this point, I don't consider myself qualified to contribute to the discussion.

Time will tell, though.

The loan a book feature of the nook only works once for any book. That means if you loan say Unworthy to a friend, after that 14-day loan period is up, you cannot loan that book to anyone else.

Well that's a bunch of shit. Do you have a link to an article that mentions that? I'd like to send it to a friend.

 

[Judith Sisko]

I pre-ordered a nook this morning from Barnes & Noble. It's their new eReader.

My main reason for choosing it over a Kindle is that I can use the nook to check out books from the Metro Library. (And I can borrow books from my book club friends who have also pre-ordered one!)

After I use it to purchase books for a while, I'll chime in on the price issue, but at this point, I don't consider myself qualified to contribute to the discussion.

Time will tell, though.

The loan a book feature of the nook only works once for any book. That means if you loan say Unworthy to a friend, after that 14-day loan period is up, you cannot loan that book to anyone else.

Yes, we're all aware of that, but when we read two or three (or even four) books a month, if only half of us in the book club have to buy any one given book, we'll still save. It works for us. YMMV

 

[JWolf]

They were MS Reader format and now they are ePub and not as well formatted.

They're not ePub--they're wrapped up in some proprietary Adobe crap, so I can't read them in an ePub reader. Bollocks.

Of course you can read them and they are ePub regardless of the DRM. Just download Adobe Digital Editions and register it. Then you can purchase the ePub eBooks and read them on your computer. If you have a compatible stand alone reader like the Sony Reader line, you can register that with ADE and load the books onto the reader to read away from the computer.

 

[JWolf]

I pre-ordered a nook this morning from Barnes & Noble. It's their new eReader.

My main reason for choosing it over a Kindle is that I can use the nook to check out books from the Metro Library. (And I can borrow books from my book club friends who have also pre-ordered one!)

After I use it to purchase books for a while, I'll chime in on the price issue, but at this point, I don't consider myself qualified to contribute to the discussion.

Time will tell, though.

The loan a book feature of the nook only works once for any book. That means if you loan say Unworthy to a friend, after that 14-day loan period is up, you cannot loan that book to anyone else.

Well that's a bunch of shit. Do you have a link to an article that mentions that? I'd like to send it to a friend.

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60148

Read the first message in that thread. It mentions that you can only loan a book once. The information is official.

 

[ATimson]

Of course you can read them and they are ePub regardless of the DRM. Just download Adobe Digital Editions and register it. Then you can purchase the ePub eBooks and read them on your computer. If you have a compatible stand alone reader like the Sony Reader line, you can register that with ADE and load the books onto the reader to read away from the computer.

*holds up iPod Touch* Stanza on this supports ePub. How do I get the DRM-infested files to read on this?