# Kobo vs. Kindle



## Nerds_feather (Oct 29, 2014)

Okay, I've narrowed my search down to these two. Here is how I perceive the relative advantages:

*Kindle Pros:*


Lower price for (moderately) higher quality device
Amazon has biggest selection of books at lowest prices
Ease of use (for existing Amazon customers)

Best Netgalley integration (important for a reviewer like me)

*Kindle Cons:*


Locked into Amazon ecosystem
Can only read .mobi files
No user expandable memory

*Kobo Pros:*


Best support outside US/UK
Can buy it at your local bookstore and give them a cut of each book you purchase, which makes me feel like I'm supporting a healthy, diverse bookselling ecosystem rather than a category killing behemoth

Can read .epub or .mobi files (i.e. books bought elsewhere)
User expandable memory (SD slot)

*Kobo Cons:*


Higher price for (moderately) worse device

Fewer books at often higher prices than Amazon
Poor Netgalley integration

The problem I'm having is figuring out what's more important to me. Advice appreciated!


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## Mirannan (Oct 29, 2014)

I'd be inclined to throw in another option altogether. There are quite a lot of Android 7" tablets around at about the same price point as either of those devices - and there is a fully compatible Kindle reader available for Android. EPUB readers are available for Android, too.


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## Ray McCarthy (Oct 29, 2014)

Kindle isn't locked into Amazon. It works fine if it never talks to Amazon, I use USB connection and hardly any of my books are from Amazon.  It reads .prc files as well as .mobi and PDFs depend on PDF. If there isn't a DRM issue then epub or ANY other textual / ebook format (even Open Office/Word, Excel / Powerpoint, saved Web pages etc) can be converted to .prc or .mobi  (Calibre and Mobicreator). I bought two books from Smashwords and though they automatically sent an epub, I didn't need to use Calibre to convert it as they offer manual download of .mobi
I think all the Gutenberg are in ePub and mobi format. Early before Kindle existed  Mobi eBooks work on Kindle too.

Kindle reader apps or other eBook readers on Tablets or Laptops or Phones are IMO totally rubbish compared to eInk display for eye strain/readability and battery life.

I did get a Kindle DXG to better manage large PDFs (it has more than twice storage of others too). Even the PaperWhite 6" kindle the lack of SD card slot isn't an issue. eBooks unlike video or even MP3, or PDFs that are scans of old books take little space. I download ALL ebooks to my laptop and copy to my attic Server too as a backup. Then if my kindle is destroyed or lost I have lost nothing. Amazon will only reload a replacement kindle with books you bought from them (though they do offer cloud storage, I trust my own backups more than any 3rd party cloud).

I was interested in a Kobo. But I couldn't even see how to buy one in Ireland. The Kindle Paperwhite is in local supermarket and from Amazon UK. The US Amazon has a special link for people outside of USA to order the Kindle DXG. Which took 3 days. Same as most orders from UK!

Supposed Cons:

Locked into Amazon ecosystem
Can only read .mobi files
No user expandable memory
Reality

It's not locked to Amazon.
It doesn't just read .mobi (though ePub files need converted by Calibre). Amazon themselves offer a convert service. But I've never used it preferring to convert using Mobicreator (anything not an ePub, possibly via some other program to create HTML for Mobicreator if source isn't already an eBook), or load a PDF, or Calibre for ePub.

Plenty of Memory and you want backups elsewhere. Appears as extra disk drive on Laptop, so I don't think you need the "user memory".
Mobicreator and Calibre and Libre Office are free (Libre Office will convert most MS Office Formats (and others) to HTML which imports well to Mobicreator or Calibre.

eBooks internally are actually based on HTML, images, CSS and meta data in one file. So best way to read a very large web site is to save as HTML complete and import all the pages and images into one eBook. Non-Image PDFs can be converted. Images only and scanned books work best as PDFs in Kindle and if you can't make them small, then you need a Kindle DXG. There is a way to display images directly on most kindles. You create a specially named folder in a special place (both vary with Kindle model) and then images "work". But images in a PDF or Mobi book work better.


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## Ursa major (Oct 29, 2014)

Ray McCarthy said:


> Amazon themselves offer a convert service.


Just as an aside, I've put some samples of my Word files on the Kindle. All I had to do was send an email to my Kindle email address with the .rtf version of the file as an attachment; the document appeared (in AZW format) on my Kindle.


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## Nerds_feather (Oct 30, 2014)

@Mirannan I have an iPad, and I love it in many ways, but I find that it: a) hurts my eyes to read for long periods; and 2) is usually grabbed from my hands by an eager 3 y.o. 

@Ray McCarthy I _did_ say "how I perceive" the relative advantages/disadvantages...I know full well that the information I possess is incomplete, hence why I'm asking here! But since posting this, I've learned about calibre and installed it on my computer. Haven't tried it yet, but have been assured by a friend that it works great (and also potentially solves the Netgalley integration issue for Kobo). 

Since you know the Kindle platform really well, can I ask a couple more pointed questions (and these are open to everyone else too): 

1. Are the "special offers" annoying or ignorable?

2. Is 3G worth it?


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## thaddeus6th (Oct 30, 2014)

Ursa, I do that pretty often as well.

Nerds Feather, sounds like your heart wants you to buy the Kobo, and your head the Kindle.


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## Ray McCarthy (Oct 30, 2014)

1) What special Offers?  (That is the answer). Don't buy an advert subsidized version. But I haven't seen one in a couple of years.
2) It depends.

The Kindle DXG only has 3G and USB, no Wifi. Other models usually have WiFi and 3G is on some models that have also WiFi.  If you travel a lot then the 3G might be useful. Otherwise unimportant.
Use of 3G is free and charged. The charge is country specific.
a) Book delivery is free
b) Browsing Wikipedia and Amazon is free.
c) Browsing anything else is 60Mbyte a month free and charged after that. You can disable paying automatically, thus you are never charged for 3G.
d) Documents/Books converted or send by email are free on WiFi. They are charged on 3G.
e)Sync or Twitter/Facebook quote can use WiFi or 3G, if the model has it. I don't think it's charged. The "Quote" feature is a tiny amount of data and I think it's pointless. Why didn't they let you specify an arbitrary email address and also address for "atom" protocol (used for remote blogging comment or post on Wordpress and other blogs as well as CMS).

If I can't sleep at middle of night or away I might use the 3G on my Kindle DXG for Internet. Some sites work OK (my own do) others such as BBC are rubbish and unusable. If you are short of money just buy a WiFi only Paperwhite. 

*Making notes, proof reading etc:*
The touch models do have an onscreen keyboard, but it doesn't work as well as physical keys on the Kindle DXG. If you make a set of headings using H1, H2, H3 sizes (any program) with summary text and make .prc using Mobicreator (free) then when you load that eBook on Kindle you have a Table of contents. You then can add as much notes as you like in each summary.  Your notes and bookmarks appear in myclippings.txt which can be copied via USB storage and then edited in any program. So you can make a Diary, Scheduler,  Short Story, Book, shopping list  etc.

It's great for proof reading. I don't copy the notes back, just step through them when re-editing original.

If you set up the Twitter/Facebook (better done on your Amazon account via Browser on PC/Laptop) feature you can highlight a small section and "share" it with a comment. But maybe due to copyright it's very limited size. Unfortunately this size rule applied to free content and your own content. I deleted my account settings. I think it's a pointless feature. Other people addicted to Twitter and/or Facebook may like it.

It's worth figuring out how to use Mobicreator to transfer non-eBook content via USB rather than relying on Amazon's conversion (you ARE charged for delivery via 3G, but conversion delivery via WiFi is free).  Amazon bought Mobi, so the Mobi Reader clients are replaced by Kindle App. (But if you want the free Mobi Reader for old Windows let me know).

Windows version Mobi Creator  http://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/DownloadCreator.asp
Calibre (WARNING the local Library feature is a PAIN if you only using Calibre to convert)
http://calibre-ebook.com/download

Libre Office to convert nearly anything to HTML (Free alternative to MS Office, not just Word) for Windows, Linux or Apple OSX
http://www.libreoffice.org/download/libreoffice-fresh/


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## chopper (Oct 30, 2014)

Calibre also converts .mobi to .epub, which is useful for the Kobo 
The Windows 8 version of the amazon software is aggressive in its desire to keep you locked into amazon - it breaks the .mobi file apart and won't let you join up the pieces. you only "own" the book when you allow the software to open it. me, i want actual copies of what i've bought & the ability to port them elsewhere.


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## Nerds_feather (Oct 30, 2014)

thaddeus6th said:


> Nerds Feather, sounds like your heart wants you to buy the Kobo, and your head the Kindle.



That's exactly what it is. I neither like nor trust Amazon as a corporate entity. But let's face it...they do put out a good product.


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## Nerds_feather (Oct 30, 2014)

chopper said:


> Calibre also converts .mobi to .epub, which is useful for the Kobo
> The Windows 8 version of the amazon software is aggressive in its desire to keep you locked into amazon - it breaks the .mobi file apart and won't let you join up the pieces. you only "own" the book when you allow the software to open it. me, i want actual copies of what i've bought & the ability to port them elsewhere.



Could you say a little more about this?


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## Ray McCarthy (Oct 30, 2014)

chopper said:


> The Windows 8 version of the amazon software is aggressive in its desire to keep you locked into amazon - it breaks the .mobi file apart and won't let you join up the pieces. you only "own" the book when you allow the software to open i


Sounds bizzare, but then Windows 8 is daft.
It has to be on one piece on a Kindle.
You can download a book you bought to PC from Amazon and copy via USB storage to Kindle, you sure this is something Amazon is doing or is it a stupidity of Windows 8 File Explorer?
Note that when you read an eBook a second file is created with metadata.

But there is no need to use Amazon at all except to buy the Kindle.


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## Nerds_feather (Oct 30, 2014)

Yes, "special offers" in quotes because that's what Amazon calls them. I'm curious how invasive they are, as well as what they are and when you see them (and when you don't). I don't mind ads for books. 

I've also, at this point, boiled it down to 4 models:

Kindle Paperwhite
Kindle Voyage
Kobo Aura
Kobo Aura HD


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## Ray McCarthy (Oct 30, 2014)

*Never *is when you see them unless you buy an advertising subsidised Kindle. I've not seen such offered in Tesco or on Amazon.co.uk and the International orders of Kindle DXG on amazon.com.

I understand it appeared when you turned off the kindle. On non-subsidized by advert version (most or all models now in UK/Ireland) you get a pseudo random image / photo unrelated to adverts. A sort of "privacy screen" to hide what you were reading.


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## Brian G Turner (Oct 30, 2014)

My wife has a Kindle HD, and isn't bothered at all by the ads. At worse, it's nothing more than a glorified extension of the Amazon recommended feature from the website.

I'll probably be getting a 6" Kindle Fire at Christmas, and will be having the advertising subsidised version - I'm confident the ads won't annoy, and might even be interesting - new authors or releases to discover.

Amazon as a corporate behemoth doesn't bother me at all, because it's very consumer-orientated - I've always enjoyed a standard of care above and beyond anything I could ever imagine from any high street shop.


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## Parson (Oct 30, 2014)

I have an old school Kindle with "Special Offers" and they are not annoying in the least. I was worried about this at first, but to me its just like a screen saver. --- I have occasionally clicked on the special offer just to see what it was, but have never bought a thing from it. For me it would not be worth the extra money to avoid it.


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## chopper (Oct 31, 2014)

Ray McCarthy said:


> Sounds bizzare, but then Windows 8 is daft.
> It has to be on one piece on a Kindle.
> You can download a book you bought to PC from Amazon and copy via USB storage to Kindle, you sure this is something Amazon is doing or is it a stupidity of Windows 8 File Explorer?
> Note that when you read an eBook a second file is created with metadata.
> ...


Definitely something the Amazon software app does. I uninstalled it and backtracked to the XP version of the kindle software, which doesn't (for now) do that. Indicates what amazon are trying to do. Old article here explains it.


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## Ray McCarthy (Oct 31, 2014)

*But all the Kindles need the file in one piece and you can ALWAYS download to PC instead of using whispernet.*


> The reason is that the app now stores all your books in an internal database which is inaccessible to the user - in much the same way that iTunes stores your music tracks.


Sorry ... but this is just daft. You can still get the file.  Anyway this is NOTHING to do with a *physical* Kindle vs a physical Kobo and purely to do with some strange mechanism to buy Amazon titles on Windows 8.


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## chopper (Oct 31, 2014)

the strange mechanism in question being amazon's own official software and the reason i prefer epub over mobi,  leading me to conclude that a kobo is better than a kindle, for my purposes at least. 

i guess if you don't want to actually _own _the book, kindle is fine...


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## Nerds_feather (Oct 31, 2014)

My understanding is that you can strip the DRM from Kindle books using calibre, after which point you have the same ownership as you would after stripping DRM from books bought via other platforms.


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## Ray McCarthy (Oct 31, 2014)

chopper said:


> question being amazon's own official software


But NOTHING to do with a physical Kindle. It's only about buying books off Amazon for Windows 8 ONLY.
*You don't have to ever buy any Amazon books if you buy a Kindle.*
You don't have to use that crazy deranged Amazon Application for Windows 8 EVER with a Kindle, nor even if you DO buy books from Amazon.
Even if I get a book delivered by Amazon direct to my Kindle I copy it as a back up in case Kindle is lost/broken or Amazon goes bust.

So you are conflating three separate things that are not related:
1) Buying a Kindle
2) Buying eBooks of Amazon
3) Amazon's Win8 Reader Application (which isn't a kindle, though it has Kindle in name).


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## Nerds_feather (Oct 31, 2014)

The friend who explained calibre to me said he uses a Kindle Paperwhite but buys most of his ebooks via Kobo.


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## Vertigo (Nov 3, 2014)

Personally my total mistrust of Amazon pretty much guarantees I will never buy a Kindle, unless, of course, Amazon succeed in their goal of total monopoly, in which case I'll not have a lot of choice


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 3, 2014)

But you don't ever have to connect it to Amazon or ever buy an Amazon book, so it can be evaluated on its own merits?


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## Vertigo (Nov 3, 2014)

Not so; if you buy an epub from elsewhere (apart from a few isolated exceptions) you must first break the law by stripping the DRM. Your choice.


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## Nerds_feather (Nov 3, 2014)

So removing DRM from something you own, when there's no intention to distribute, would be a crime? Crazy.


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 4, 2014)

Vertigo said:


> Not so; if you buy an epub from elsewhere (apart from a few isolated exceptions) you must first break the law by stripping the DRM. Your choice.


It might be against the law in the USA, not anywhere else.  I'd like to see the USA attempt to prosecute someone who has never given / uploaded copies and has only removed DRM so as to be able to consume what they bought. The Millennium Copyright Act (which USA should be ashamed of) is a sledge hammer attempt to stop illegal copying to 3rd parties in contravention of copyright. The problem is that it has zero effect on that and such copying is illegal everywhere even without  "The Millennium Copyright Act", which simply attempts to criminalise the valid consumers of material.
DRM is morally wrong as it keeps stuff locked when the copyright has expired and enables Cartels.
The Millennium Copyright Act is morally wrong. It only applies in USA. Contrary to widespread belief, USA law only applies in USA. 
No matter if you get Kobo *or* Kindle, if you want choice in books you will have to remove DRM.
The trend on Music has been to remove DRM.
DRM killed the Mini-Disc format. You couldn't digitally read even your own recordings.


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## Vertigo (Nov 5, 2014)

You are quite correct that the Millennium Copyright act is not law outside the US, however there are two other gotchas though I'm not sure of the geographic distribution of these two or indeed that absolute state of the law on the second one. However:

I believe it is illegal to convert format of media: music, book or film. So for example it is illegal (I believe) to rip a cd so you can listen to it on your mp3 player. Which is exactly what we are doing if we remove DRM to convert from AZW to ePub. Even if this conversion is only for your personal use.

Secondly (and I suspect this is the nastier one) it IS against the terms and conditions of purchase from Amazon. Does that make it illegal? I'm not sure but I suspect so as we 'agree' to those conditions when we make a purchase.


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 5, 2014)

1) Not all terms and conditions are legal or enforceable, most made by sellers of Software and Digital Media contain invalid and illegal Terms. If you have a Kindle why would you remove Amazon DRM  unless later it was bust and the replacement isn't compatible. *I make backups of all Digital Purchases (see 4).*
2) "So for example it is illegal (I believe) to rip a cd so you can listen to it on your mp3 player" : *Maybe somewhere*.* If it's illegal in UK, I'd like to see an example of enforcement where you have the CD and give no-one copies. A digital wireless Media player does this with a CD on the server.  Also if I make my own eBook, CD, DVD or Blu Ray player and buy media for it I'd love to see how successful any UK prosecution would be.
3) Microsoft sold Music with DRM: "Plays for sure". They turned off the servers! The only way to play it now is remove the DRM.  What if the supplier of ePub and all makers of ePub players go out of business. Or Amazon.
4) Copyright expires. DRM doesn't thus DRM is abrogating your rights in the future. What about Project Gutenberg for the Great Grandchildren or whatever?
5) Adobe's reader for ePub is illegally sending user information to Adobe. The user remedy is to remove DRM and read the content on a non-Adobe Reader.

I'm totally against giving copies to anyone else. In 48 years of buying 45s, LPs, cassettes, VHS, CD, VCD, DVD, software and digital downloads I've never done it. If I got a CD or DVD for someone else, I never copied it either.

Certainly if you were making a consumer product for resale good legal advice and team is needed. 

*For personal use where you keep originals and never give anyone a copy, you are not going to be prosecuted in any country with proper courts.


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## Brian G Turner (Nov 5, 2014)

Vertigo said:


> I believe it is illegal to convert format of media: music, book or film. So for example it is illegal (I believe) to rip a cd so you can listen to it on your mp3 player.



This was recently revoked - I remember it reported on the BBC website, but I'm not sure exactly if it applies to DRM for books.


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 5, 2014)

It's important to differentiate Civil and Criminal Law (in Ireland  & UK anyway).
Taking Cable TV without paying:
  In Irish CRIMINAL law, that's "theft of service" used to be about £5000 or six months in jail. The DPP has to decide if it goes to court. The Cable TV company gets nothing. No-one ever sent to court.
  In Irish CIVIL law, the Cable company SUEs, there is NO liability limit. Damages are set according to claimed losses. All cases have been this route. Violation of Copyright.  Lowest is back subscription since you moved in (maybe years ago), out of court settlement. Highest I know of was about €150,000! He had supplied Cable TV receivers to some others that had no sub.

With Civil law there is lower burden of proof, but the company has to prove damages. So NO-ONE ever was going to be sued for personal media conversions. The DPP in UK or Ireland would never have prosecuted.

So get a Kobo or Kindle based on value for money, ease of use and functionality. As .mobi and ePub both exist with and without DRM and can be converted, if you are not transferring copies to anyone else, the DRM is red herring. But seek advice of a real lawyer if in doubt!


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## Vertigo (Nov 6, 2014)

That's really interesting Ray and Brian. It does seem to suggest that so long as the conversion is only for your own use you are pretty much okay. Which, of course, is only fair and reasonable and as it is what I have always done that does make me feel a bit more comfortable with it.

I still won't buy a Kindle on principle though


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## Nerds_feather (Nov 6, 2014)

I've read up on the law in the US, and apparently the deal is that it is technically illegal but, legal scholars claim, few if any judges would ever issue sentences if clearly only for personal enjoyment and the individual did purchase the product legally in the first place--based on previous law related to cassettes, CDRs, etc. It is still, however, "on the books" illegal. So interpretations can change over time and from judge to judge.


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 6, 2014)

Vertigo said:


> I still won't buy a Kindle on principle though


I feel that way about many products ...
I wonder can I find one for each letter of Alphabet. A to D is easy


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## Brian G Turner (Nov 6, 2014)

Ray McCarthy said:


> *I make backups of all Digital Purchases *



All Kindle purchases are saved in your online account. To read your Kindle books on most any device, simply install the relevant app on that device, and login to your Amazon account.

I often use the Kindle for PC app, to more closely study books I consider great examples of writing in my genre. It's far easier to run a search for individual words on a computer than a paper book, plus sections can be copy/pasted into word.


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 6, 2014)

Yes, but what if one day Amazon is gone? Or my internet is gone? Or Amazon shutters its ebooks? Or books I buy  elsewhere?
'Plays for  Sure' is gone

Compared with other stuff, backups of my books is trivial. I think always "long term" and "worst case".

I did say "digital purchases". I have software bought by download and the publishers are gone ...


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## Brian G Turner (Nov 7, 2014)

Ray McCarthy said:


> Or my internet is gone?



If that ever happens, the last thing I'll be worrying about is where my eBooks have gone! 

There are very few books I will ever read more than once, and I usually have physical copies of those.


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 7, 2014)

Internet is VERY fragile. You can personally lose it due to ISP error (or going bust), digger, Telecom company error, lightening strike etc and could take a week to get back. Mobile Internet is even more fragile. (My last job was running R&D for an ISP). I'd never buy into Cloud hype or services to do anything critical.


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## Vertigo (Nov 10, 2014)

Brian Turner said:


> If that ever happens, the last thing I'll be worrying about is where my eBooks have gone!


Amazon is still a very young company; not so very long ago the biggest (I think) computing company in the world almost collapsed. No one ever believed IBM could ever possibly fail and whilst it didn't fail completely it very nearly did and is now only a shadow of its former self.

I have already had one internet book seller (Books on Board) go down on me and I can therefore no longer re-download my books from them. Not an issue for me as I always have local copies (well backed up) of all my ebooks. I'm certainly not betting on Amazon still being around in 20 years time (I probably won't be around for too much longer after that date ). It probably will be but I wouldn't bet on it.

An interesting side question. Since digital media cannot (at present) be inherited, I wonder at what point companies like Amazon and all the other sellers of digital media decided to junk all that stuff they are holding for their existing customers? And, if I was 20, would I really trust Amazon to keep all my stuff for the next 60 years?


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## tinkerdan (Nov 10, 2014)

I use Kindle all the time I have two  and I enjoy the kindle unlimited and I keep everything in cloud.
I also have kindle app on my chrome machine and I can store the downloads in my thumb drive if I am worried about Amazon going belly up an giving up the ghost.
I also use kindle pc and have a remote drive that contains all the files.

I also have calibre and I'm not sure how they might be using that to subvert the DRM because if the file is DRM'd my calibre app will refuse to even view it.

Maybe I downloaded the wrong calibre.

Anything I want on my kindle I can email to the cloud account and it will download to the kindle, but you can also copy things over. The uploaded email will only be available for the Kindle tablet and not the PC or Chrome apps so if you want the file there you have to put it there.

These options cover most of my needs especially when other people are hogging my kindles; I can just use the Chrome or PC. 
I like the underlining and note features and those all transfer to cloud except the versions of a book on the PC that were emailed to the kindle because they don't sync from the PC , which I am sure is just some evil thing Amazon worked out for it's own benefit.

Bottom line anything not from Amazon I limit to just one device if I intend to mark and note it.

Many Amazon books come without the DRM and those are no problem with calibre- it's just those with DRM that don't work at all. I suppose there might be some missing plug-in I do not have.

Not being able to even touch them with calibre keeps me legal I guess. I usually buckle to temptation.


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 10, 2014)

Who says so? [that digital content can't be inherited or passed to another seller?*]
My local Supreme court or an invalid T&C of a Seller that is invalid?

(*Many digital items CAN even be resold if no copy is kept)


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## tinkerdan (Nov 10, 2014)

After reading this article I can see that Amazon has learned nothing about customers::


chopper said:


> Definitely something the Amazon software app does. I uninstalled it and backtracked to the XP version of the kindle software, which doesn't (for now) do that. Indicates what amazon are trying to do. Old article here explains it.


::There are some inherent problems with the Chrome version of the viewer that they refuse to fix and this version sounds worse. It also sounds like they are emulating Scrip'd which I hated because it didn't have the underlining or note taking or even a dictionary to look-up suspect words. This all probably meant to protect the author's work. Also Scrip'd wouldn't even allow a copy paste to cite a passage.


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## Vertigo (Nov 14, 2014)

tinkerdan said:


> I also have calibre and I'm not sure how they might be using that to subvert the DRM because if the file is DRM'd my calibre app will refuse to even view it.
> 
> Maybe I downloaded the wrong calibre.


You need a plugin for Calibre. Very easy to do. Just Google Calibre DRM and you will be sure to find it.



Ray McCarthy said:


> Who says so? [that digital content can't be inherited or passed to another seller?*]
> My local Supreme court or an invalid T&C of a Seller that is invalid?
> 
> (*Many digital items CAN even be resold if no copy is kept)


I honestly don't remember where I first heard about this but the internet is littered with articles discussing it. There is a fairly good one here: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/who-inherits-your-itunes-library-2012-08-23

However in fairness it is quite possible - likely even - that in the moderately near future, with the advent of things like Kindle unlimited, that purchasing digital media will progressively be replace with some sort of leasing/borrowing/hiring type of approach.


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 14, 2014)

Adobe & Microsoft are trying to do it with Software.
Leasing/Renting is complementary to owning a copy. They are not exactly the same market.
(e.g. Netflix vs DVD/BD)
Nor can streaming replace Broadcasting with any sanity, again complementary technologies.
Video used to be 99.9% rental.   The proportions of these things wax/wane.


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## Ursa major (Nov 15, 2014)

Leasing software is fine as long as it's not the only payment option available.

Just as with anything else, I'd want to buy an application that I use all the time, but lease the use of an expensive one I'd run just a few times. Obviously, the point where one considers switching between leasing or buying depends on the cost of each (not to mention the state of one's finances and other outgoings).


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