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Kobo Customers Losing Books From Their Libraries After Software Upgrade (teleread.com)
Reader Robotech_Master writes: After a recent Kobo software upgrade, a number of Kobo customers have reported losing e-books from their libraries -- notably, e-books that had been transferred to Kobo from their Sony Reader libraries when Sony left the consumer e-book business. One customer reported missing 460 e-books, and the only way to get them back in her library would be to search and re-add them one at a time! Customers who downloaded their e-books and illegally broke the DRM don't have this problem, of course.From the report: A Kobo representative actually chimed in on the thread, telling MobileRead users that they were following the thread and trying to fix the glitches that had been caused by the recent software changes and restore customers' e-books. It's good that they're paying attention, and that's definitely better than my first go-round with Barnes and Noble support over my own missing e-book. Hopefully they'll get it sorted out soon. That being said, this drives home yet again the point that publisher-imposed DRM has made and is making continued maintenance of e-book libraries from commercial providers a big old mess. About the only way you can be sure you can retain the e-books you pay for is to outright break the law and crack the DRM in order to be able to back them up against your company going out of business and losing the purchases you paid for.
Unfortunately, the only way to get this content is either to pay for it legitimately and then have to illegally crack it, or to pirate it which is illegal from the outset. If you want the content, you have to make a deal with some kind of devil.At least if you do buy it, the people who originally made it get paid something.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Funny how all this DRM actually motivates people to 'piracy' (== unauthorized copying of an electronic file). We all saw this coming ten years ago, but apparently the public happily swallowed the whole thing, fish-hook and all.
Why the fuck would I ever "buy" a digital copy of something. It is not a purchase of an item, but of a limited license, which can be revoked at any time if corporate problems arise with the controller. As in this very case, and others, as various 'digital retailers' go belly-up.
Anyone 'purchasing' anything by digital download/access, with a DRM restriction, is really only purchasing a limited license of use, and nothing more. By doing so, you have given up your rights under the Doctrine of First Sale. That is, when you're done, you can't loan it to a friend, sell it, or even give it away.
Buy real books. et cetera.
Thing is, there actually are people who choose their reading based on content, not on what format the content comes in. If I want or need a book that's only available electronically with DRM, I surely won't let the digital rights mafia and the restrictions they impose on people keep me from reading what I want or need to read. Stories like the one in TFA simply confirm that my established procedures for downloading purchased e-books and for organizing my electronic library are perfectly appropriate.
Many years ago, there was a law in Germany, and I believe it is still effective, which explicitly allowed people to break the copy protection of a legitimately bought software product (like CD-ROM copy protections or dongle enforcements) if necessary for being able to put that software to its designated use. Unfortunately, as far as I can see there never even was a discussion whether such law should apply to digital content, too, and the current ruling in Germany is, while to make a limited amount of personal copies, e.g. for family and friends, actually is protected by law as a basic consumer's right, it is defined as criminal as soon as copy protection has to be cracked or circumvented to do so...
to put all your data at risk of:
- loosing everything because your Cloud-Provider was hit by a ransomware attack
- loosing everything because your Cloud-Provider was overtaken by another company that gave you a two weeks notice and your were on your three week vacation.
- loosing everything because your Cloud-Provider didn't do backups and now the company is bankrupt and the damage is "Ltd."
- loosing everything because your Cloud-Provider did do backups - even encrypted ones - but forgot to check if the encrypted backup data was decryptable
- having your data mined and analysed by advertisers & three letter agencies
Want to do the right thing? Want to get treated like an honest person, like a customer?
http://www.baen.com/baenebooks
DRM free book publisher.
who would buy proprietary technology and drm 'protected' content, and voluntarily be at the mercy of decisions and mistakes of owners?
born idiots!
they deserve the suffering they get !
If you buy from the Nook store, there are many books available which explictly say that the publisher has insisted that the book be sold without DRM - stuff from O'Reilly, Baen, Tor, and so forth.
Which current versions of Nook software will promptly download into hidden file storage that can only be accessed by rooting the device.
So, technically, this sounds like a blatant violation by Barnes & Noble of their contract with the publisher.
Deal with the devil? Do you mean giving money for a DRM infested product? Or do you mean breaking the law?
If the latter, I have no problem with the concept of a unjust law, and I gladly break this kind of laws.
entropy happens
Abiding by the law is - in general - simpler than not doing it. Think taxes. Declaring your revenue and paying local, state and federal taxes every year is a burden. Not doing it is much easier.
Think driving. Not respecting speed limits, lights, stop signs is a lot simpler than doing it.
In the virtual world it's also the case for now. It's fundamentally stupid as in the virtual world there really is no need for it to be this way... But it's not something that has to be singled out.
Write boring code, not shiny code!