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The locked-up Bible saga: Mobipocket format available—but it’s probably DRMed
March 10, 2009 | 9:32 am
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By Court Merrigan
The latest twist in the locked-up Bible saga? Turns out you can download Crossway’s version from the Mobipocket store, not just from the Kindle store. Meanwhile thanks, Crossway, for setting the record straight.
But the DRM issue remains for Amazon, the owner of both the Kindle and Mobipocket formats. Is this Bible like typical books at the Mobi store and DRMed to the gills?
Meanwhile I’ve checked out the Free Sample from the Mobipocket Store, and it works perfectly on my Kindle. Alas, the full Mobi version of the Bible costs $9.99 more than the Kindle version, which remains free until May 20. The positive is that Crossway has made the effort to get the Bible into as many formats as possible. Crossway is operating in good faith.
Of course, if DRM is in use, the big questions remain about paper books vs. e-books in this case. Amazon is perfectly happy to sell me a used paperback of the English Standard Version of the Bible for $2.98. I can buy it with the explicit intention of giving it away. But when it comes to an e-Bible, Amazon locks it up with DRM. Effectively owning my content. Which means my content isn’t even mine. Amazon’s got its reasons. Bad ones. So it’s setting content free on the one hand, locking it up with the other. I confess to being much confused.
Reminder: The free Kindle version will also work on your iPhone or iPod Touch, with Kindle software installed from the App Store.
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Comments:
This appears to be the English Standard Version translation. If you’re online, you can read this version for free (or for the cost of your data usage, if you’re on an IPhone or other metered online device):
http://www.esv.org/
It’s also freely readable along with lots of other translations at the Bible Gateway site.
John, you must have missed Mssr. Merrigan’s earlier rants on the Crossway bible “controversy”.
While it was pointed out earlier that Crossway published the ESV in many formats and it was also freely available on the web he couldn’t help but wrap all that up into an “evil Amazon/DRM” tirade (as is the practice on this blog).
http://www.web-books.com/BookInfo.php?BookID=124
ePub, anyone?
John and Yoda47, you’re right that the ESV is available in many formats, particularly online. As are many other versions of the Bible. The issue here and here revolves around the Kindle and Amazon – and the fact that Crossway got their “free” (as in money, not content) Bible featured on the official Amazon Kindle blog, which is what piqued my interest, since any Kindle file is by default DRMed. Thanks for the links.
In any case, in general Mobipocket requires that books in their Mobi store be DRMed, although I don’t know for certain that this is the case. I do know that the downloaded sample is not a universal format like, say, .txt or PDF. But that’s a whole other issue. I’d just like to reiterate that as far as I can tell Crossway is doing what they can to get their Bible out there; it is the distributors holding up the free culture show.
ePub, indeed.