When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#1

Post by yawz » Thu, Apr 04, 2019, 2:21 AM UTC

When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too
bbc.co.uk

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#2

Post by halfnibble » Thu, Apr 04, 2019, 3:02 AM UTC

I didn't even know Microsoft had an eBook store. Somebody in marketing needs to get laid off.

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#3

Post by specialist » Thu, Apr 04, 2019, 3:51 AM UTC

John Beezer built the Weed Share P2P music sharing service built on top of Microsoft's DRM. Microsoft discontinued the service without notice. All the music everyone bought was lost (unplayable).

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#4

Post by drewmol » Thu, Apr 04, 2019, 3:55 AM UTC

halfnibble wrote: post #2

I didn't even know Microsoft had an eBook store. Somebody in marketing needs to get laid off.

and replaced by many more people in order to have the resources to market their next product

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#5

Post by LeoPanthera » Thu, Apr 04, 2019, 4:02 AM UTC

This is the second time I've lost eBooks to Microsoft. The first time was some time in the late 90s, when I used to read books on the bus on my Compaq iPAQ PocketPC PDA, using an app which I think was called Microsoft Reader? The books were of course DRM'd.

Eventually the app disappeared and those files are now useless.

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#6

Post by borgishvorg » Thu, Apr 04, 2019, 4:06 AM UTC

The solution is on the high seas if you can find the trade winds, so Sayeth the old mariners.

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#7

Post by cbanek » Thu, Apr 04, 2019, 4:06 AM UTC

I seriously worry about this with Kindle books I get on Amazon. I hope Amazon never goes away, though I guess it could at any time.

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#8

Post by asveikau » Thu, Apr 04, 2019, 4:08 AM UTC

I didn't start buying ebooks from Amazon/Kindle until I realized it was relatively easy to break its DRM. I've never used the files anywhere else but I keep a cracked copy of every purchase just in case. That old story about "1984" being removed gave me too much of a negative impression.

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#9

Post by basicplus2 » Thu, Apr 04, 2019, 4:22 AM UTC

Slight tangent.. where is the promise of books being printed on demand locally?

Re: When Microsoft's eBook store closes, your books disappear too

#10

Post by rmason » Thu, Apr 04, 2019, 4:23 AM UTC

I'm unfamiliar with Microsoft's eBook offerings and the format upon which they're offered. The old Microsoft would have had a proprietary format unique to themselves but that may not be the case.

Why couldn't they convert them to a standard format and put them up on an S3 with a login that pointed people to their virtual folders?