ST-One
Vice Admiral
Why not?
Is he about to share his books with everyone on the net?
Why do you think stripping off the DRM has anything to do with intended criminal activity?
Have you seen in what atrocious conditions some of these ebooks are?
Trek Books for Kindle
- Thread starter terpette
- Start date
Why not?
Is he about to share his books with everyone on the net?
Why do you think stripping off the DRM has anything to do with intended criminal activity?
Have you seen in what atrocious conditions some of these ebooks are?
Striping the DRM is not a form of piracy. What you then do with the DRM free eBook can be or not. But the act of stripping the DRM is not piracy even if it isn't legal. But then again, we don't know if it is or not if the stripping does not fall under the DMCA exception.
You are as bad as the publisher who uses DRM. You assume we are guilty of piracy before we have even done anything wrong. The publisher use DRM because they think we are going to give away eBooks. You think if we have them DRM free, then we are going to give them out. You got a guilty before proven innocent mentality. I feel sorry for you.
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It is obsolete in the present even though Amazon is still using it. Mobipocket format is obsolete. AZW is just Mobipocket with a different way to generate the PID. Yes it works, yes you can read. But it's like using a Pentium 4 computer. It works, but it's obsolete.
You seem to be misunderstood about the definition of "obsolete" as related to technology.
The P4 is obsolete because it isn't made anymore and you cannot find one new. The difference with the Kindle format (.AZW) is that these are actively being made can easily be obtained new and are one of the most widely used formats today. The minute people stop publishing books in AZW format and Amazon stops selling them that is when the format becomes obsolete.
Even if a technology is on it's last legs if it's still available new and people are still making and selling them it's not obsolete. By your definition of obsolete almost everything that exists is obsolete. I mean because you know The Ford Model-T is obsolete and new cars are only a variation on that so clearly CARS are obsolete, car owners today just don't realize it.
I don't have a "guilty before proven innocent" mentality at all. Yes there were errors in the AZWs I received from Amazon of the Trek books, and I know they came from S&S. I simply believe that stripping the DRM is immoral and blatantly a criminal act, like removing security tags from stuff so you can steal it from a store. If you really want to get it sorted at the right level, email the corrections you want made to S&S. Better yet, get them to hire you so you can do a better job than they do.
The truth of the matter is that unless the AZWs or ePubs are made on an AI adaptive structure, things are gonna get screwed up when you increase the font size.
When I buy media, the first thing I do after opening it up is to remove the RF tags as carefully as I can, so as not to damage the packaging. I hate them and what them off my stuff. MY STUFF, once I've bought it. Is that also blatantly criminal?
Removing DRM from legal purchases is exactly analogous to removing RF tags from a CD or DVD, IMHO.
The Amazon Visa card has no annual fee. It's just a regular credit card, so of course you will have to pay interest on your balance unless you pay off your bill every month.
You get one point for every dollar spent anywhere. You get two points for every dollar spent at gas stations, restaurants, drug stores, and office supply stores. You get three points for every dollar spent at Amazon. When you get 2,500 points, they'll send you a $25 Amazon gift certificate.
If you manage it wisely (pay off your bill in full every month, use it as much as you can) you can save a substantial amount of money at Amazon.
So you're saying that you're getting a better return on your money than I am because Amazon's format is obsolete? With all due respect, that just doesn't make sense. The only thing I will ever be doing with my Kindle ebooks is reading them on a Kindle. I certainly trust in Amazon's ability to survive (at least I trust it more than I trust B&N's ability to survive) and to ensure that customers who bought Kindle books will always be able to read them. So how does your claiming that Amazon's format is obsolete make a difference in my wallet?
And frankly, I still think I'm getting more value for my money because when I buy a Kindle book to read on my Kindle, I don't have to go through the extra step of stripping DRM and converting formats.
ST-One
Vice Admiral
In short: Yes. Yes, you do have a "guilty before proven innocent" mentality.
Why? Who gets hurt when I buy an ebook and strip the DRM for my own convenience, not sharing it with anyone?
Actually, in terms of future forward formats, I am getting a better value for my money with ePub then with AZW. AZW is handled only on a Kindle or Kindle app of somekind. Stripping DRM aside, if I wanted say to go with a different reader other then Amazon, I have more choices. Let's say, I wanted to buy a Pocketbook or someone else's reader that's not Amazon. All those ePub I bought will still work. Will AZW? Not if you've not gone Amazon.
With ePub, if it is DRM free, I can easily make changes to it like replacing the generic cover a lot come with to a real cover. I can easily go in and fix the errors. No need to have to decompile and hope it can be reassembled properly.
Yes, you do. You want DRM because you feel we will be giving away these eBooks once the DRM is stripped. If I remove the DRM from my legally purchased ePub and I do not fileshare it, who is getting hurt? Nobody. That's who.
As for sending in the corrections to S&S to fix, that's a laugh. They don't even have a support person for eBooks. I once purchased an eBook direct from S&S that I had a problem with and it took an end runaround to finally find someone who was able to do nothing but bump the issue to someone who eneded up getting my money back. There's no support for eBooks at S&S. None at all. There's no support line, no email address, zip, zilch. You try to find out how to submit errors in an eBook to S&S and get back to me. I don't expect I'll ever be hearing from you as there isn't such.
So, with my ePub format eBooks and the DRM removed, I can easily go in and fix the errors. When I find the embedded font isn't working and I want it to, I can go in and fix it before I start reading. It's a matter of my doing what's needed as S&S isn't going to do it and there's no easy way to tell them they are doing it wrong.
But couldn't I simply strip the DRM (if I were so inclined, which I'm not) and convert the AZW into another format with Calibre? That's no more trouble than you're going through now. But the bottom line is I can't imagine why I'd want to buy an ereader from someone else. Since the Kindle was introduced it's been the industry leader, and it continues to be, and with good reason.
As far as fixing errors and changing covers, sorry, but I (and the vast majority of ebook readers) have no interest in tinkering under the hood. We buy ebooks to read them.
Despite your anti-Kindle zeal, you have yet to convince me that you're saving money or getting more value for your money. In fact, I think you've been a little disingenuous by stating repeatedly that there are no discounts for ebooks, and then later admitting that you use a B&N credit card for the book-buying incentive points.
EDITED TO ADD: I just read that Amazon is number 1 among ebook vendors, with 41.5% of the market share. Sony is number 4 with 8.4%.
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ST-One
Vice Admiral
And it's ridiculous that we have to jump through these hoops at all just to read our legally purchased books on the devices we want, in a formatted form that is actually readable.
You aren't worried at all about the possibility of Amazon deleting your books off your Kindle - which has happened in the past?
It's more convenient to buy ebooks via the Kindle, that is true. But the Kindle itself isn't really that great a device; the navigation through the collections is cumbersome and you have to hack the device just to add a font that isn't so damn big even on the smallest setting.
Personally, I can't enjoy reading a book that is horribly formatted.
But that is not the same thing.
Well, Amazon being a worldwide giant in the book selling market certainly helps there.
As far as I know there was a single incident, when a publisher released a Kindle book for which it did not own the copyright. Amazon pulled the book from customers' Kindles and refunded the purchase price. Afterwards they apologized and said it had been a mistake to handle it in that way.
All of the currently available ereaders have pros and cons. I and a majority of other ereader owners feel that the Kindle's features, combined with Amazon's strength as a company, their history of being primarily a bookseller, and their customer service, make it the best choice.
I don't know what books you've been reading. I've been doing most of my reading on a Kindle since they were first released, reading all different kinds of books from many different sources, and I've run into very few books that had noticeable formatting errors.
Yes, I know it's not the same thing, but the end result is the same -- savings on ebooks.
I think the bottom line here is that we are talking about two different kinds of ebook customers. One kind delights in tinkering under the hood, hacking fonts, reformatting books, removing DRM, etc., etc., i.e. basically approaching ebooks and ereaders as a hobbyist.
The other kind of ebook customer is simply someone who likes to read.
I have a question which has nothing to do with piracy (at least I don't think so 
) but it does have to do with Kindle Trek books, so I apologize for butting in...anyway, the Kindle version of Dark Mirror is missing its cover. Any way that one can be added? I know this sounds weird to say about a Kindle e-book, but it looks kind of weird seeing all of my Kindle books with those beautiful cover images and yet DM has none.
) but it does have to do with Kindle Trek books, so I apologize for butting in...anyway, the Kindle version of Dark Mirror is missing its cover. Any way that one can be added? I know this sounds weird to say about a Kindle e-book, but it looks kind of weird seeing all of my Kindle books with those beautiful cover images and yet DM has none.
I have a question which has nothing to do with piracy (at least I don't think so
Unfortunately, not having a cover isn't totally unusual for Star Trek Kindle ebooks. Also, MANY of them do not have a toc.
You can use Calibre to add a cover but you may have to remove the drm first which, according to many of the posts of this thread brands you as an automatic pirate, even if you have no intention of ever sharing your file with another human being.
- Byron
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