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

bbc.co.uk

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

#271

Post by wlll »

panzagl wrote: post #264
wlll wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good for you that you get more value out of them. I won't pay more though, because I personally have less rights and convenience with ebooks. There's also an element of being taken for a ride here. I can afford the $8 snickers bar from the minibar in the hotel, but I won't buy it because I feel like someone is taking the piss. Attempting to use their position to extort me. Same for ebooks. When your costs are lower,…

How are you taken for a ride? The kindle version is almost always cheaper than the retail price of the physical version, and usually cheaper than the discounted price as well.

I can find examples on Amazon where the ebook is less, the same as, or more expensive than the physical copy.

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

#272

Post by WorldMaker »

gpm wrote: post #222
BeetleB wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Once you sell something you don't have the right to take it back if you later regret the transaction. Microsoft did not sell the books (or their content), though.

So says the terms of service (that no one reads). How many people who bought those books do you think understood they were buying a revocable license that gave microsoft the right to remotely delete them from their devices?

According to Microsoft statistics and the fact they are paying 100% refunds to every user, the answer to "how many" in this actual situation is probably "very few".

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

#273

Post by panzagl »

wlll wrote: post #271
panzagl wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you taken for a ride? The kindle version is almost always cheaper than the retail price of the physical version, and usually cheaper than the discounted price as well.

I can find examples on Amazon where the ebook is less, the same as, or more expensive than the physical copy.

Well, yeah, there are no absolutes, but it's usually something like the book has just been remaindered and not a permanent situation or is a textbook. In general if you're picking up something current the ebook is a few dollars less, which seems right for printed material.

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

#274

Post by makecheck »

Every virtual-book service should be required to ship you a printed copy of every book you own if they are unable to maintain their service, or significantly lower e-book pricing. They shouldn’t get close to the same money for selling time bombs.

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

#276

Post by handoflixue »

angrygoat wrote: post #170
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 agree with all of this, but I'd add: 5. Visibility A physical library can be browsed, including by a visitor, and serve a useful social purpose. I often find it interesting to see what books someone has on their shelves, and it can lead to interesting discussions. I can't recall a time when I've discussed the contents of a Kindle library with someone.

If you so desire, Kindle has GoodReads integration. I don't personally bother, but when I talk books with people online they'll occasionally link me their list :)

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

#277

Post by 0x5f3759df-i »

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…

Seems like most of the downsides you list are solved by DRM-free ebooks

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

#278

Post by joe_the_user »

criddell wrote: post #211
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 never understood the argument that ebooks should cost less. The price of a good usually isn't determined by the cost to manufacture and sell. Why should books be different? For me, I'll pay more for an ebook than a paperback because it's a more valuable format for me. Aside from being more compact and searchable, I can select a larger font. If it's more valuable, why shouldn't it cost more? One thing we do agree on…

The price of a good usually isn't determined by the cost to manufacture and sell. Why should books be different?

When the market structure of a good results in full competition, then the cost of a good is going to tend toward the cost of producing the good plus basic profit (if a company raises prices past this, another company can enter the market to produce the good more cheaply).

When the market structure of a good involves an effective monopoly, the cost will tend to whatever price the monopoly thinks will generate the most total profit (and that depends on the supply curve).

Naturally, you have markets that inbetween these two poles (economists talk about oligopolies and "monopolistic competition").

As far as what the price of books should be, if you think of a publisher as naturally having monopoly since each book is unique, then it makes sense for ebooks to not cost less. But if you imagine a look of books could be substituted for other books (one c++ manual versus another) then it makes sense for the price of ebooks to be less than that of regular books.

http://www.amosweb.com/cgi-bin/awb_nav.pl?s=wpd&c=dsp&k=olig...

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

#279

Post by frosted-flakes »

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #93
frosted-flakes wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do the same with Audible. As far as I can tell, there's no way to remove the DRM that is both easy and free, so against my better judgement, I paid $30 for a program to do it for me[0]. I now have every audiobook I've bought in mp3 format, split by chapter and tagged with the correct metadata. Now I can dump them on a USB drive and plug it into my car stereo for road trips (I don't mind listening to good books more…

There's a RainbowCrack plugin which allows you to extract your activation_bytes which is both fast and free. Once you're extracted your activation_bytes, it can be saved and re-used to remove the DRM from all your audiobooks. Then you can use ffmpeg to convert the .aax file: ffmpeg -activation_bytes $activation_bytes -i $audiobook_file -c:a copy -c:v copy $output_file I'd suggest converting to m4b, which you can achi…

Ah well, I bought the program years ago, and it is pretty convenient—just drag and drop. So I expect I'll continue using it. It has the option to use m4b files too, so maybe I'll try that.

I searched for days before I bought it though, and never came across the ffmpeg method. All sorts of hacks involving virtual CDs and whatnot, but nothing that scaled.

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

#280

Post by hyperman1 »

panzagl wrote: post #265
ozzyman700 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pirate ebooks for this reason. If I like the book or the book has valuable illustration done in color I will purchase the physical copy, otherwise backing up my calibre library according to 3-2-1 is easy peasy.

No, you pirate because you're selfish and self-entitled.

The same thing can be said about the publishers who add DRM.

They dont want to loose money? I don't want to loose my book!

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