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Microsoft Stops Selling eBooks, Will Refund Customers For Previous Purchases (theverge.com)
Starting today, Microsoft is ending all ebook sales in its Microsoft Store for Windows PCs. "Previously purchased ebooks will be removed from users' libraries in early July," reports The Verge. "Even free ones will be deleted. The company will offer full refunds to users for any books they've purchased or preordered." From the report: Microsoft's "official reason," according to ZDNet, is that this move is part of a strategy to help streamline the focus of the Microsoft Store. It seems that the company no longer has an interest in trying to compete with Amazon, Apple Books, and Google Play Books. It's a bit hard to imagine why anyone would go with Microsoft over those options anyway.
If you have purchased ebooks from Microsoft, you can continue accessing them through the Edge browser until everything vanishes in July. After that, customers can expect to automatically receive a refund. According to a newly published Microsoft Store FAQ, "refund processing for eligible customers start rolling out automatically in early July 2019 to your original payment method." If your original payment method is no longer valid (or if you used a gift card), you'll receive a credit back to your Microsoft account to use online at the Microsoft Store. Microsoft will also offer an additional $25 credit (to your Microsoft account) if you annotated or marked up any ebook that you purchased from the Microsoft Store prior to today, April 2nd. Liliputing reminds us that "if you pay for eBooks, music, movies, video games, or any other content from a store that uses DRM, then you aren't really buying those digital items so much as paying a license fee for the rights to access them... a right that can be revoked if the company decides to remove a title from your device unexpectedly or if a company shuts down a server that would normally handle the digital rights management features."
You can find DRM-free eBooks at some online stores including Smashwords and Kobo (by browsing the DRM-free selection), or from publisher websites including Angry Robot, and Baen.
If you have purchased ebooks from Microsoft, you can continue accessing them through the Edge browser until everything vanishes in July. After that, customers can expect to automatically receive a refund. According to a newly published Microsoft Store FAQ, "refund processing for eligible customers start rolling out automatically in early July 2019 to your original payment method." If your original payment method is no longer valid (or if you used a gift card), you'll receive a credit back to your Microsoft account to use online at the Microsoft Store. Microsoft will also offer an additional $25 credit (to your Microsoft account) if you annotated or marked up any ebook that you purchased from the Microsoft Store prior to today, April 2nd. Liliputing reminds us that "if you pay for eBooks, music, movies, video games, or any other content from a store that uses DRM, then you aren't really buying those digital items so much as paying a license fee for the rights to access them... a right that can be revoked if the company decides to remove a title from your device unexpectedly or if a company shuts down a server that would normally handle the digital rights management features."
You can find DRM-free eBooks at some online stores including Smashwords and Kobo (by browsing the DRM-free selection), or from publisher websites including Angry Robot, and Baen.
You don't own anything in the digital world.
Stop renting and look for real books nobody can remove.
Invest in real paper books and enjoy reading.
Music next?
Games next?
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Back in the old days, when a bookstore closed, it meant you couldn't buy any more books there. But nothing happened to the books you already bought. Now when a bookstore closes, all your books disappear in a puff of smoke. Isn't progress wonderful?
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Well, thanks for calling me a softheaded idiot, but I'll reply anyway.
While I do agree with your criticism of DRM, I personally much prefer using e-reader than paper books. There are a lot of advantages such as possibility to have thousands of books with me all the time or searching them. Even some "corporate" features are convenient such as possibility to sync notes, bookmarks and current reading position between different devices.
Having said that, I do not trust Amazon or anyone and am afraid of them doing exactly what Microsoft is doing. This is why I try to buy e-books that are DRM-free and those that aren't - I break the DRM and store unprotected files on my infrastructure. There is nothing wrong with moving from paper to electronic books. There are things wrong with business models for electronic books and DRM. We should focus our criticism in my opinion and not throw away all the new toys.
Kinda sad that the once great PHRACK has fallen to the level of conspiracy theory bullshit. There's some good stuff in there but go they really need to make one giant 76GB torrent with all the conspiracy stuff mixed in?
Also security focused zine using RAR, LOL.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC