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The joys of DRM: Upgrade your BeBook for Adobe-DRMed ePub and it won’t read your Mobi books
August 15, 2009 | 7:27 am
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By David Rothman
So says a MobileRead post. Isn’t DRM great? People doing upgrades on other brands, not just the BeBook, will probably experience similar ecstasy. No more access to Mobi books.
Don’t you love the way DRM enhances the quality of life? To hell with the future. Let’s treat books like driftwood.
At least in the past and perhaps even now, Mobipocket has frowned on competing DRM-capable readers being simultaneously present on the same devices that display holy Mobi. Nothing like the benevolence of Amazon lawyers. Amazon, of course, owns Mobipocket and, perhaps to help the Kindle, won’t even release a reader for the iPhone/Touch that can display Mobi.
With so many people excited about the spread of Adobe firmware—despite the accompanying proprietary DRM—it can’t hurt to remind consumers of the perils of “protection” no matter which companies are involved. There’s always a gotcha. Best for publishers and others either to drop DRM, my choice, or if need rely on social DRM.
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Comments:
David, I think it is important to castigate the real villain in this “crime” which is Amazon, the owner of Mobi. It isn’t the DRM that is at fault but Amazon’s refusal to permit Mobi DRM on the same device as any other DRM scheme. Contrast Amazon with Sony. When Sony added ePub DRM capabilities to its Readers, it didn’t cut off the BeBB DRM. In addition, Sony has said that when it migrates its bookstore to ePub only, not only will BeBB continue to be supported on its devices, but buyers from the Sony store will be able to redownload already purchased titles in ePub.
Any failings of Mobi are the failings of Amazon. So be sure to mount your next protest against Amazon’s policies by buying another DRMed book from Amazon. “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Never been a fan of mobi and I know that comment adds nothing of value to this *current* discussion. However, I was thrilled to learn that Sony will allow us (yes I own a Sony Reader) to redownload our ebooks in ePub. Big win for customers and I agree with the previous poster as well. Amazon was wrong not to support Mobi when they decided to come out with their own proprietary format.
Rich says:
“Any failings of Mobi are the failings of Amazon.”
You’re sure about that Rich? Are you positive that Amazon is not just holding to contractual obligations that were in place before Amazon bought the French company MobiPocket back in 05?
Contrast Amazon’s approach with the Kindle. They make a hardware reader and software reader for one platform with plans to support more platforms. Why not the same with Mobi? Pre-existing contractual obligations perhaps?
Beats me.
I also have no clue what Amazon’s end game is for MobiPocket. I can’t really see them wanting to continue supporting the two competing venues – the Kindle store and the MobiPocket store – indefinitely.
Maybe when they release the Kindle software reader for a wider number of platforms they will shut down Mobi and offer existing Mobi title owners a free upgrade path to Kindle versions of the same titles…
Nah… they would never do that cuz we all know Amazon are evil bastards
@HeavyG: There is nothing to contrast. Amazon’s approach with the Kindle is to make the Kindle format available on other NON-ebook-dedicated reading devices such as the iPhone, but not on ebook-dedicated devices manufactured by others. And Amazon, as the owner of Mobi, could easily change the exclusivity terms of the contract. Instead, Amazon continues to insist that Mobi can be on any device as long as it is the only DRM format on the device. I don’t own a Kindle so I don’t know the answer to this but I wonder if the Kindle can read mobi DRMed books in addition to the Kindle-specific drm formats.
As a BeBook owner, my biggest problem with the new firmware isn’t the DRM; its the absolutely awful reading experience offered by ADE on Hanlin. Stuff like no dictionary support, no internal links, 5 font sizes where the first is too small and the rest go from too big to absurdly big. Or page numbers that don’t track actual pagination and overwrite the text.
And then the keyboard lock function totally locks up the reader. You have to reboot the thing.
It is a step backwards in pretty much every way, which kinda renders the DRM debate moot.
I forgot to mention: no font face selection or true italics, just slanted roman…
Rich,
For the time being there is no need for Amazon to license the Kindle DRM to other ebook makers. Amazon is selling Kindles as fast as they can make them.
If the ebook market zigs off into a direction where Adobe locked ePub capable devices really starts stealing marketshare from the Kindle Amazon will respond. A possible response will be simply to license to other hardware manufacturers the ability to read “Kindled” books.
Just because Amazon now owns MobiPocket that does not give them the ability to void any existing contracts.
I’m a Kindle owner but I have never tried to load a Mobi DRM’ed title (as I ain’t got none) but I do not believe that it would be able to read them – I vaguely recall reading that when the Kindle was first released.
A contract can be changed by mutual agreement between the parties. Vendors of ebook devices, such as Bookeen, iRex, Jinke and Netronix are begging Amazon to be allowed to use MOBI DRM in addition to Adobe DRM on their devices. They have all been turned away.
This was originally a strategy on MobiPocket’s part (pre-Amazon) to dominate the market by locking out latecomers to EInk Readers, like Adobe and eReader. This strategy has backfired because ePub was so technically superior to MOBI that many European publishers (without a MOBI legacy) opted for an ePub-only approach. If MobiPocket was still an independent company, there is no doubt they would allow co-existence with other DRM-schemes today. In fact, Amazon appears to have a strategy of killing off MobiPocket by neglect. This isn’t necessarily a bad strategy on Amazon’s part. If you believe that DRM is doomed, then MobiPocket is doomed because its only product is DRM.
HeavyG Says:
I’m a Kindle owner but I have never tried to load a Mobi DRM’ed title (as I ain’t got none) but I do not believe that it would be able to read them – I vaguely recall reading that when the Kindle was first released.
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Actually, the Kindle DRM crack allows the identification/generation of a Kindle reader’s hidden PID key so that non-Amazon DRM’ed content can be displayed. At least that was the original report on Mobile read that Amazon got in a huff over…
I believe some folks are quietly using library drm’ed content on Kindles.