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Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

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Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#11

Post by hnbroseph »

elliekelly wrote: post #8
jonhohle wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems about as good as can be expected for shuttering a digital store. There have been plenty of others that have not closed with such generous terms (any Plays For Sure™ store, Nintendo Virtual Console, etc.). For years I've thought that there needs to be precedent for the right of first sale extending to digital purchases, which would help in these situations. As a licensee of a digital work, format shifting s…

Digital rights management is the only application I can think of that stands to benefit from blockchain. (Other than money laundering, of course.)

blockchain is just a data structure; money laundering is mostly related to a public/decentralized cryptocurrency (though money laundering existed long before bitcoin, probably over a thousand years)

Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#12

Post by DavideNL »

elliekelly wrote: post #7
magduf wrote: post #6

Hopefully people will finally learn their lesson about buying DRMed stuff.... but I doubt it.

And even once they’ve “learned their lesson” what do you propose they purchase instead? The non-DRM alternatives are often no where near as convenient, if they’re available at all.

Well having your book collection suddenly deleted is not convenient either...

So, the alternatives: 1. Buying a real/paper book 2. Pirating/illegal downloading

The best option seems doing both, you support the author by buying the real book, and download a pirated copy for convenience.

Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#13

Post by HarryHirsch »

tssva wrote: post #9
magduf wrote: post #6

Hopefully people will finally learn their lesson about buying DRMed stuff.... but I doubt it.

Most people are probably excited to be getting refunded for books they have already read.

That's not the point of a personal library.

Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#14

Post by scardine »

tssva wrote: post #9
magduf wrote: post #6

Hopefully people will finally learn their lesson about buying DRMed stuff.... but I doubt it.

Most people are probably excited to be getting refunded for books they have already read.

Probably the refund does not account for inflation, though.

500 dollars today may not have the same purchase power of 500 dollars a few years ago.

Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#15

Post by ocdtrekkie »

elliekelly wrote: post #7
magduf wrote: post #6

Hopefully people will finally learn their lesson about buying DRMed stuff.... but I doubt it.

And even once they’ve “learned their lesson” what do you propose they purchase instead? The non-DRM alternatives are often no where near as convenient, if they’re available at all.

DRM-free eBooks aren't actually all that hard to find, though it varies by publisher. There are plenty of publishers who sell all of their books DRM-free. And plenty of larger platforms like Kobo tell you at the bottom whether it's a DRM-free EPUB or has Adobe DRM attached, etc.

Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#16

Post by bubblewrap »

magduf wrote: post #6

Hopefully people will finally learn their lesson about buying DRMed stuff.... but I doubt it.

I'm aware of the issues, I just decided it doesn't really matter. It is rare that I want to read a book twice, or that somebody wants to borrow a book from me.

Rather than wasting storage space for books, it is probably more efficient to rebuy books when I want to read them again. Or bet on ebooks.

Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#17

Post by bubblewrap »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #13
tssva wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people are probably excited to be getting refunded for books they have already read.

That's not the point of a personal library.

What if they didn't care about building a personal library, but only wanted to read a couple of good books?

Would you say going to the cinema is also a waste, because you can not keep the movie you watched?

Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#18

Post by mooon »

jonhohle wrote: post #5
skmurphy wrote: post #2

Summarizes https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4497396/books-in-mi... The books category is closing Starting April 2, 2019, the books category in Microsoft Store will be closing. Unfortunately, this means that starting July 2019 your ebooks will no longer be available to read, but you'll get a full refund for all book purchases. See below for details. While you can no longer purchase or acquire additional books…

This seems about as good as can be expected for shuttering a digital store. There have been plenty of others that have not closed with such generous terms (any Plays For Sure™ store, Nintendo Virtual Console, etc.). For years I've thought that there needs to be precedent for the right of first sale extending to digital purchases, which would help in these situations. As a licensee of a digital work, format shifting s…

It's especially odd that the DRM was designed so that even free books had to be clawed back.

Re: Ebooks Purchased from Microsoft Deleted April 2019 as DRM Servers Shutdown

#19

Post by doingmyting »

scardine wrote: post #14
tssva wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people are probably excited to be getting refunded for books they have already read.

Probably the refund does not account for inflation, though. 500 dollars today may not have the same purchase power of 500 dollars a few years ago.

You'd need to factor in depreciation of the already purchased product as well which makes this point moot
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