Converting Kindle books???

MoneySavingUser

macman wrote: »

The DRM is there for a purpose, to prevent breach of copyright.

no it is there to stop you being able to do whatever you like with things that have legitimately paid for!! (and they aren't the only company who do it :mad:)

(to stop copyright breaches maybe they should make books un-photocopiable? I doubt that would down well)

knightstyle

But these are books I paid for and can read on my Macbook, all I want to do is read them on my Kobo! Please can you help????

macman

They aren't compatible across the 2 platforms without hacking the DRM.
If you have an old album on vinyl, the publisher isn't obliged to give you a free copy of it on CD just because you have now bought a CD player.
Surely you realised that the Kindle uses a proprietary system which is not compatible with ePub devices?

macman

MoneySavingUser wrote: »

no it is there to stop you being able to do whatever you like with things that have legitimately paid for!! (and they aren't the only company who do it :mad:)

(to stop copyright breaches maybe they should make books un-photocopiable? I doubt that would down well)

Which does not include making unauthorised photocopies of copyrighted books. You have bought a single copy-you have not bought the right to reproduce it in whatever format you wish.
You clearly don't appreciate the extent of book piracy and what it costs the publishing industry.

MoneySavingUser

macman wrote: »

Which does not include making unauthorised photocopies of copyrighted books. You have bought a single copy-you have not bought the right to reproduce it in whatever format you wish.
You clearly don't appreciate the extent of book piracy and what it costs the publishing industry.

I didn't say that I agreed with "unauthorised photocopies of copyrighted books" - I was just trying to demonstrate the equivalent of having DRM on a printed book and how ludicrous it seems. (and there are many reasons for photocopying parts of books - i.e. for research, academia, school reports etc.)

I agree that in some cases what you buy is actually a license/single use thing and this may be the case legally but ethically and morally it is quite unfair.

example:

printed book - can do whatever you like with it - costs £5

ebook - costs a lot less to produce the ebook and deliver etc. yet also costs £5! and if you decide you want to switch from Kindle to Kobo or vice versa you can't use it anymore [forcing you to stick with Kindle etc.]

As for what it is costing the publishing industry - I don't have any sympathy for them because of:

1) They are making the same mistake that the music/movie companies and regulators made - they did not respond to what the public wanted and continued to try and charge high prices for their products that consumers were no longer willing to pay. They didn't lose money just because of piracy they lost it because tastes, preferences, lifestyle choices and technology moved forward but they didn't.

Nowadays we have stores such as itunes which sell products at more reasonable prices [yet still with drm] which has led to a reduction in piracy - if the music industry had done this 10 years ago maybe piracy wouldn't have become as popular as it is.

2) There are a number of people who have self-published items on Kindle etc. thus cutting out agents/publishers/media agencies etc. - so the publishing industry is losing money here but not because of piracy but because technology and methods of publishing books are changing - they need to respond to this and update their business models not just blame it on piracy.

3) As for the estimates of "losses" made by them - it is only a loss if the person actually intended to buy the item in the first place.

i.e. if someone downloads a movie and the cost of buying say the dvd is £30 - but that person would never spend that much on a dvd then it isn't a real loss as the purchase would never have occurred regardless of if a download is available or not

macman

You can't 'do what you like' with a printed book-the same copyright restrictions apply. Non-commercial reproduction is a breach of copyright-but is generally permitted, with permission. The difference is that DRM makes it easier to enforce copyright. If the technology existed to prevent photcopying of printed books, then publishers would have done it long ago.
All the fixed costs of creating an eBook are exactly the same-author royalty, editing, typesetting and design/layout, marketing etc.
The only savings are printing/binding and paper, plus some distribution costs.
eBooks suffer because they are liable to 20% VAT-printed books are zero-rated. Not the fault of the publisher.

MoneySavingUser

Well of course you are entitled to your opinion - seems we will just have to agree to disagree

P.S. Self-published books often don't have those fixed costs (or at least have less than ones published through big companies) so publishers will still have to put up with this cheaper competition

macman

Indeed. And the result generally shows in the inferior quality of the self published product...just as it does with printed books.
Anyone can self publish by either route. But 99% will vanish into obscurity without the marketing clout of a professional publisher.

MoneySavingUser

macman wrote: »

Indeed. And the result generally shows in the inferior quality of the self published product...just as it does with printed books.
Anyone can self publish by either route. But 99% will vanish into obscurity without the marketing clout of a professional publisher.

True but it is the same with other things in life aswell i.e. not every entrepreneur will become as rich as Richard Branson etc. - there is risk in all enterprise