Ranting about DRM....
Jun. 23rd, 2012 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aishabintjamilI'm not a fan of e-pirates, but I'm even less of a fan of DRM. Why? Because while I own an E-reader I'm happy with (a Kobo), there are way too many authors I enjoy who are releasing e-books only through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and putting DRM on them so those of us who have other devices can't use them.
Sure, I can, and have, installed the PC-based applications for both types, so I *CAN* read there. but, you know it's not really making me happy to be tied to my laptop when I want to read. I bought an e-reader so I could take books with me, or read in bed, or curled up on the sofa.
And making me even less happy is that there's *NOTHING* in the product descriptions on either Amazon or Barnes and Noble to give me as a purchaser a clue whether the books are protected or not, until I've bought them and try to open them in Calibre. So I have to assume, unless I have some other information source, that any Kindle or Nook book I buy will be crippled. And that drives me to not buying them, which hurts the author. I buy my ebooks from other distributors, and if that favorite author isn't there, then I either buy paper, or I wait and hope to find it used somewhere. Or maybe I just buy someone else's book in the meantime - someone whose book I can read on whichever piece of my hardware is convenient.
Today's rant, in case you're wondering, was provoked by Tor. They've been bragging about going DRM-free this summer. Well, apparently that hasn't happened yet, because the book I just bought from Barnes and Noble, thinking they were now usable, isn't.
Even their free author sampler collections are still crippled with DRM. Hello? You're giving it away. Why are you making it hard for people to read? What's the point?
Sure, I can, and have, installed the PC-based applications for both types, so I *CAN* read there. but, you know it's not really making me happy to be tied to my laptop when I want to read. I bought an e-reader so I could take books with me, or read in bed, or curled up on the sofa.
And making me even less happy is that there's *NOTHING* in the product descriptions on either Amazon or Barnes and Noble to give me as a purchaser a clue whether the books are protected or not, until I've bought them and try to open them in Calibre. So I have to assume, unless I have some other information source, that any Kindle or Nook book I buy will be crippled. And that drives me to not buying them, which hurts the author. I buy my ebooks from other distributors, and if that favorite author isn't there, then I either buy paper, or I wait and hope to find it used somewhere. Or maybe I just buy someone else's book in the meantime - someone whose book I can read on whichever piece of my hardware is convenient.
Today's rant, in case you're wondering, was provoked by Tor. They've been bragging about going DRM-free this summer. Well, apparently that hasn't happened yet, because the book I just bought from Barnes and Noble, thinking they were now usable, isn't.
Even their free author sampler collections are still crippled with DRM. Hello? You're giving it away. Why are you making it hard for people to read? What's the point?
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