“‘PDF DRM, Why Ebooks Haven’t ‘Taken Off’ and How I Wasted $150 in Time on a $9 Ebook”
“Thought I might save a copy of the PDF itself and transfer that, but the DRM kicks in again. I quit once I’d put about $150 worth of my billable time into it and figured I’d just read what I had and vow never to buy another one of these things again.” - J. Wynia on an Amazon purchase.
The TeleRead take: Hey, at least Microsoft knows I don’t pick just on it. Yo, Bill McCoy over at Adobe? What say you? As a fellow book lover, you probably feel Wynia’s pain. Here’s toward a happier e-book future with OpenReader–and ideally with both Adobe and Microsoft involved in a more consumer-friendly way!
But wait–the complaints against Microsoft Reader just keep rollin’ in: Courtesy Steve Breen, the guy behind the GEB eBook Librarian, here’s a fresh one from the Fictionwise list: “My version of Microsoft Reader is tied to my Microsoft Passport–a dead-end Microsoft idea–which is in turn tied to my Hotmail account which I never use. Nevertheless, I must go to my Hotmail account every 30 days, as I understand it, or the account may be deactivated. That means when I buy a new computer or format my hard drive and reinstall Microsoft reader I will not be able to access my library of Microsoft Reader e-books.”
Is there a solution here? Maybe. Regardless of whatever fixes the experts can dream up, this is yet one more user whose time has been wasted by harsh DRM. Everyone talks about the time tax that spammers impose by forcing you to delete oodles of e-mail. How about the DRM-related time tax? Here at OpenReader, we’ll compromise on DRM if need be, but damn it, we need a better version than what’s out there now. That’s one reason why OSoft’s OpenReader efforts are of so much interest to us.
November 2nd, 2005 at 4:33 am
“from the Fictionwise list: “My version of Microsoft Reader is tied to my Microsoft Passport–a dead-end Microsoft idea–which is in turn tied to my Hotmail account which I never use. Nevertheless, I must go to my Hotmail account every 30 days, as I understand it, or the account may be deactivated. That means when I buy a new computer or format my hard drive and reinstall Microsoft reader I will not be able to access my library of Microsoft Reader e-books.””
There are several inaccuracies in the above statement. Firstly, although creating a Hotmail account is the easiest way to get a Microsoft Passport, it’s not a requirement, and you can sign up for a Passport using a different email address. Secondly, even if you allow your Hotmail account to expire, other Passport stuff such as MSN Messenger and MS Reader will continue to function. Thirdly, Fictionwise has a “Bookshelf” page from which you can re-download any of the books you have bought - so all that is necessary after formatting your hard drive is to reinstall Reader, reactivate it, and head over to your Fictionwise Bookshelf.
November 2nd, 2005 at 6:03 am
Thanks, Dan. I suspected that there might well be a fix. Regardless, this is another case of the customer having to figure out The System–when the opposite should be true. Microsoft would be better off figuring out the way people use its products. - David
November 2nd, 2005 at 12:19 pm
Funny that I keep hearing griping about MS Reader and Adobe - which ties activations to specific machines. I don’t hear a lot of grumbling about Palm eReader, which encrypts the file and requires you to enter the credit card number used to purchase the book as a decryption key. This allows you to read the file on any number of devices, and ‘activation’ is a non issue.
I think it is also safe to say that nobody with a brain in their head is going to give a copy of an eReader file *and* their credit card number to someone else.
The fundamental problem is drm being tied to devices; devices don’t buy content, people do.
November 2nd, 2005 at 12:51 pm
Just noticed this in my referer logs. Thanks for highlighting my frustration.
I did want to comment on Richard’s statement to say that the only reason my posting wasn’t about Palm’s eReader is that I quit using those about 9 months ago specifically over the credit card thing and it wasn’t right in front of me any more.
I *carry* about 10 credit cards: check cards for personal, joint and various business accounts, credit cards for each business, etc. And, I buy books (and ebooks) in a variety of contexts: novels come out of personal money, books about planning my vacation with my wife come out of joint money, books related to one of my businesses come out of the appropriate business accounts.
That means that with the Palm reader, I have to remember not only exactly which context I used to buy the book vs the context I intend to use it when I restore it, etc. (they do occasionally shift and become more relevant to another business), but whether I used a credit card or a check card this time to buy the darn thing.
The same is true of email addresses or passport accounts. I had my cable company’s name change something like 5 times in 4 years via acquisition, each time forcing me off of the old address to the new. My “email address” is a pretty abstract thing with literally over 100 addresses that are all funneled together into a single inbox.
So, I’d say the fundamental problem is even more generic. Not only do devices not buy content, but credit cards don’t, email addresses don’t, browsers don’t, my personal assistant when buying on my behalf doesn’t, even *I* don’t when I’m buying something for corporate use. If I bought a copy of the very same book in paper format, I’d toss it across to my business partner and tell him to read section Z tonight. Not with the digital version.
If they’re going to call it digital rights MANAGEMENT, they had better make it possible to actually manage it.
November 5th, 2005 at 10:57 am
Appreciated your sharing your experiences. And I especially appreciate your thoughts on the complexities of lnking access to credit card numbers, etc. - David