Richard McGowan's Blog: Smashed-Rat-On-Press - Posts Tagged "p-t-barnum"
The End of an E-Era: Sayonara Barnes and Noble
[This is just a rant. Skip it if you want. The tl;dr version: DRM sucks.]
(NOTE: If the author of the book in question below happens to read this and recognizes herself, I beg her please not to "out" herself by commenting! She is fabulous. I just have an allergy to DRM.)
Well... I should have seen this coming in mid-2014, but I guess I didn't. Barnes and Noble has just permanently lost my future e-business. Why? Their DRM folly.
I don't like DRM one bit (but I don't want to go into the whole controversy here). Let's just say, for some reason, I "need" to buy and read a book encumbered with DRM. "Need?" Sure! For example, if I know the author and want to support her fabulous work by purchasing her book, but the publisher thinks DRM is a good idea, I might end up buying a book with DRM. Under most other circumstances, like if I don't know the author personally, I would just read something else and not bother with a DRMed book at all.
It used to be that I could buy a book from B&N and if it had DRM, the well-known Apprentice Alf tools would allow me to save a copy without the DRM so I could go read it on the device of my choosing. OK, that's probably illegal in some jurisdictions, but I own neither a Nook nor a Kindle. I installed an N2A card to convert my former Nook into an Android tablet which is more flexible. I usually read on another Android tablet. Yeah, yeah, I could use the lame Nook app and read it, but I don't like the Nook app; it's terrible. I like Mantano Reader app because it works beautifully and I can take notes which can then be exported beautifully in HTML. I don't think I've read a book in the last 3 years in which I didn't take at least a few notes. Sometimes I've found over a hundred typos in published material; and when I find 100 typos I either (a) quit reading the book because it's too much work, or if I want to keep reading, then I will definitely (b) hand the author a list of all the typos so they can fix the file for the next customer.
But Barnes and Noble changed the way they do DRM back in 2014, and I guess I've never bought a DRMed book from them since before that change. After spending a couple of hours today with Google and some futzing in Calibre to find the right combination of whatever new method B&N are using for their DRM keys, I failed to get the book open.
And thus, B&N obtained today the last two bucks they will ever get from me for an e-book.
Tonight I just bought the same e-book twice. Once from B&N. And once from Amazon. Guess which one I'm going to start reading on my Android tablet without using either the Nook or Kindle apps?
When I buy a paper book in a store, it doesn't come with a contract (or a leash) that restricts me from reading it while lying on my own couch at home. Especially not by chaining me to an uncomfortable, vendor-approved stool in their lobby.
When I buy an e-book, I'll be gosh-darned if the seller should be able to tell me what device I can read it on. I'm not pirating the book, I just want to read what I paid to read. And I'm no longer willing to use an inferior device or software just so I can read a two-dollar book.
(NOTE: If the author of the book in question below happens to read this and recognizes herself, I beg her please not to "out" herself by commenting! She is fabulous. I just have an allergy to DRM.)
Well... I should have seen this coming in mid-2014, but I guess I didn't. Barnes and Noble has just permanently lost my future e-business. Why? Their DRM folly.
I don't like DRM one bit (but I don't want to go into the whole controversy here). Let's just say, for some reason, I "need" to buy and read a book encumbered with DRM. "Need?" Sure! For example, if I know the author and want to support her fabulous work by purchasing her book, but the publisher thinks DRM is a good idea, I might end up buying a book with DRM. Under most other circumstances, like if I don't know the author personally, I would just read something else and not bother with a DRMed book at all.
It used to be that I could buy a book from B&N and if it had DRM, the well-known Apprentice Alf tools would allow me to save a copy without the DRM so I could go read it on the device of my choosing. OK, that's probably illegal in some jurisdictions, but I own neither a Nook nor a Kindle. I installed an N2A card to convert my former Nook into an Android tablet which is more flexible. I usually read on another Android tablet. Yeah, yeah, I could use the lame Nook app and read it, but I don't like the Nook app; it's terrible. I like Mantano Reader app because it works beautifully and I can take notes which can then be exported beautifully in HTML. I don't think I've read a book in the last 3 years in which I didn't take at least a few notes. Sometimes I've found over a hundred typos in published material; and when I find 100 typos I either (a) quit reading the book because it's too much work, or if I want to keep reading, then I will definitely (b) hand the author a list of all the typos so they can fix the file for the next customer.
But Barnes and Noble changed the way they do DRM back in 2014, and I guess I've never bought a DRMed book from them since before that change. After spending a couple of hours today with Google and some futzing in Calibre to find the right combination of whatever new method B&N are using for their DRM keys, I failed to get the book open.
And thus, B&N obtained today the last two bucks they will ever get from me for an e-book.
Tonight I just bought the same e-book twice. Once from B&N. And once from Amazon. Guess which one I'm going to start reading on my Android tablet without using either the Nook or Kindle apps?
When I buy a paper book in a store, it doesn't come with a contract (or a leash) that restricts me from reading it while lying on my own couch at home. Especially not by chaining me to an uncomfortable, vendor-approved stool in their lobby.
When I buy an e-book, I'll be gosh-darned if the seller should be able to tell me what device I can read it on. I'm not pirating the book, I just want to read what I paid to read. And I'm no longer willing to use an inferior device or software just so I can read a two-dollar book.
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