On Mar 1, 2011, at 6:34 AM, Marcello Perathoner wrote:
You can read DRMed epubs on Aldiko, you cannot on Stanza.
Of course you can, after you spend 2 seconds with the fine drag- and-drop utility called DeDrm.
Of course you have to buy a Mac for that. Of course you have to transfer your books to the Mac and then back to the iPhone. Of course this is illegal.
Actually, no it isn't. I t is not illegal for the owner of a drm file to remove said drm if the drm prevents use of said item. Therefore, stripping the drm off of a book so you can load it onto a device that does not support the original format is perfectly legal, provided of course that the person doing the stripping is the actual owner of the file, and that the same person is the only one to use the drm stripped content. This was done to allow blind and visually impaired users to convert ebooks into a format usable by them. However, since it doesn't specifically state blind or visually impaired in the actual wording, then this becomes legal for everyone. Again, this can only be done if the owner of the drm file does the convertion themselves, and does *not* distribute files created in this way to anyone else, even someone else who may co-own the device in question. Drm publishers really need to get with the program, and stop telling folks that eliminating drm is illegal, because it isn't. They simply aren't willing to let up on this point, because they're afraid it will lead to more piracy. What they fail to notice though is that books w/o drm in the first place sell just as well (in fact, in most cases) better than their drm counterparts. Yes, there's some piracy, but nowhere near the numbers the ebook drm proponents claim, and if you want proof of this, just drop baen.com, and check out some of the editorials by Erich Flint about drm in either the baen's universe magazine, or later issues of the grantville gazette. You can also find an article on such in the baen free library, where Erich explains not only his decision to put some of his books up for free, but the resulting increase in sales he experienced as a result. Drm does nothing but restrict people's ability to enjoy their books in the environment that works best for them.