Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 297 posts

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

#191

Post by Myrmornis »

wlll wrote: post #165

I don't buy ebooks, and this is just one reason. This is the complete list: 1. For some reason they cost a similar amount to print books Sometimes a bit less, sometimes the same, sometimes more. Distributing a physical book means you have to print, handle, store, transport, store again, handle again and transport again (using a simplified model of the journey a book takes to the end user). That costs money, and it co…

I have a large collection of technical books on my ipad. I can choose to read any one of them at any time in any place. I just need my ipad. This is both fun and educational. You appear to have completely missed the point of ebooks.

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

#192

Post by bunderbunder »

andrewla wrote: post #186
wlll wrote: post #165

I don't buy ebooks, and this is just one reason. This is the complete list: 1. For some reason they cost a similar amount to print books Sometimes a bit less, sometimes the same, sometimes more. Distributing a physical book means you have to print, handle, store, transport, store again, handle again and transport again (using a simplified model of the journey a book takes to the end user). That costs money, and it co…

All your points are dead on. I'll throw in these cons as well: 5. visibility (as noted by angrygoat) and browseability is terrible. 6. Flipping through an ebook looking for something is impossible. 7. Illustrations or drawings are rendered terribly. The list of pros of ebooks: 1. It's just a better experience. Ebooks are lighter than their equivalent books, easy to use one-handed, fonts can be adjusted, you can carry…

> The objections that you give (1-4) are the ones that are fixable by hoisting the Jolly Roger.

I think that that's solving the wrong problem. Just pirating ebooks that are offered under crappy Amazon and B&N style licensing agreements may get you a book that's more palatable to you, but it doesn't do anything to improve the ebook market itself.

There are many, many publishers selling DRM-free ebooks out there, and manufacturers of e-readers that don't try to lock you in. If people who don't like DRM aren't willing to help them make money at what they're trying to do, they're going to go away, and DRM is going to become an even more pervasive problem because of it.

It's true that their offerings can be more expensive. They're smaller outfits and can't afford to be vicious with economies of scale the way Amazon can. This is one of those spots where "freedom ain't free" is a statement you can take quite literally.

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

#193

Post by username223 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #107
billpollock wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should your ebook files be watermarked? Your printed books aren't. Watermarks are ugly.

Because it's trivial to turn one ebook into a billion pirated copies, not so much with a physical book. It's a huge difference in logistics.

It's actually not that easy for most books, because most books aren't popular enough to sustain a torrent. A PDF of a book is usually tens or hundreds of megabytes, which is too big to get through most mail servers. Mass-sharing an ebook takes just enough work that it won't happen for anything that's not a best-seller.

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

#194

Post by rb808 »

wlll wrote: post #165

I don't buy ebooks, and this is just one reason. This is the complete list: 1. For some reason they cost a similar amount to print books Sometimes a bit less, sometimes the same, sometimes more. Distributing a physical book means you have to print, handle, store, transport, store again, handle again and transport again (using a simplified model of the journey a book takes to the end user). That costs money, and it co…

I do both, but for cost - often there are specials. www.informit.com often has 2 for 1s or 50% off on black friday etc where I have loaded up. I still prefer books, but have run out of space at home.

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

#195

Post by webninja »

Myrmornis wrote: post #191
wlll wrote: post #165

I don't buy ebooks, and this is just one reason. This is the complete list: 1. For some reason they cost a similar amount to print books Sometimes a bit less, sometimes the same, sometimes more. Distributing a physical book means you have to print, handle, store, transport, store again, handle again and transport again (using a simplified model of the journey a book takes to the end user). That costs money, and it co…

I have a large collection of technical books on my ipad. I can choose to read any one of them at any time in any place. I just need my ipad. This is both fun and educational. You appear to have completely missed the point of ebooks.

What app do you use for this?

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

#196

Post by Crinus »

romwell wrote: post #29

Well, that's one argument for piracy. Or at least avoiding anything that you can't have DRM-free. (I still like my Steam library, but the games I really care about are bought on GOG/HIB when possible.)

Note that some games on Steam are DRM free, you can download the game via Steam and then make a zip with the files for your own safekeeping.

Sadly it isn't obvious (nor mentioned anywhere, except some very incomplete lists in various wikis) which games are DRM free and which are not and the only way to figure out is to buy the game and try to run it outside of Steam (with Steam itself not running and its folder temporarily renamed to something else). In general if a game doesn't have steam_api.dll, it should be DRM-free but if it does then it is a crapshoot if the Steam integration is necessary or the game can function without it (e.g. Dementium II HD, a game i just tried yesterday, does have the DLL but it can work without it). Also some functionality that in theory could be available without Steam (such as multiplayer) will not work.

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

#197

Post by Kye »

dragonwriter wrote: post #114
dudus wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get my books from Google play books and it does allow downloading as epub. I'm not sure if it includes any kind of drm in it though. I always assumed all of them allowed downloading # Edit: apparently you need something called Adobe digital Editions to read that epub later. So there is some kind of drm.

Google Play Books may or may not have ADE DRM; it varies from title to title.

Google's ebook store tells you below the description if a book has DRM.

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

#198

Post by Crinus »

calcifer wrote: post #139
mrmondo wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, thanks for your reply, I appreciate it. I’ve used deDRM a lot in the past, but it doesn’t work with the latest DRM on (I think AWZ3 files) - but perhaps it’s been updated since I last checked about 6 months ago or so.

I use it with AWZ3 just fine, but then I also haven't allowed my Kindle to update its software in years, so maybe Amazon is giving me files with older DRM.

I bought a few books a couple of months ago from Amazon for use with their PC viewer and the first thing i did was to remove the DRM (so i can read it on my phone using my preferred ebook reader... and i trust myself more than Amazon to keep the books around) so i think they managed to break the latest version too.

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

#199

Post by john-radio »

andrewla wrote: post #186
wlll wrote: post #165

I don't buy ebooks, and this is just one reason. This is the complete list: 1. For some reason they cost a similar amount to print books Sometimes a bit less, sometimes the same, sometimes more. Distributing a physical book means you have to print, handle, store, transport, store again, handle again and transport again (using a simplified model of the journey a book takes to the end user). That costs money, and it co…

All your points are dead on. I'll throw in these cons as well: 5. visibility (as noted by angrygoat) and browseability is terrible. 6. Flipping through an ebook looking for something is impossible. 7. Illustrations or drawings are rendered terribly. The list of pros of ebooks: 1. It's just a better experience. Ebooks are lighter than their equivalent books, easy to use one-handed, fonts can be adjusted, you can carry…

> visibility (as noted by angrygoat) and browseability is terrible

Great point. I picked up The Linux Programming Interface from a Humble Bundle, knowing nothing about it, and my first impression was "This is a terrible book: very dry and not engaging." My manager mentioned it was excellent, though, so I actually picked up a hard copy, and then I saw what was going on: it's a Linux textbook, not the kind of programming book you'd really read from cover to cover.

I know this story sort of shows my cluelessness a little, but it also shows how having the ten-pound tome on my desk gave me insights into how the book was meant to be interacted with, that the ebook didn't.

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

#200

Post by elliekelly »

wlll wrote: post #165

I don't buy ebooks, and this is just one reason. This is the complete list: 1. For some reason they cost a similar amount to print books Sometimes a bit less, sometimes the same, sometimes more. Distributing a physical book means you have to print, handle, store, transport, store again, handle again and transport again (using a simplified model of the journey a book takes to the end user). That costs money, and it co…

A few days ago there was a discussion in another thread about whether there were any practical uses for blockchain and someone mentioned eBooks & other digital content. An author/creator could upload the content and then the "right" to access it could be bought, sold, rented, gifted, loaned, etc.

I don't know enough about blockchain to know whether that's actually feasible but it was the first proposed use I've come across that seemed like it might actually have potential.

Post reply on HN