So, the university program I teach with is doing Jo Nesbo's book The Snowman for the group reading at the residency coming up in January. I've been asked to lead one of the discussion groups. Today I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and get a copy of the book.
The university does not pay for my copy, by the way. I was already doing some browsing on Amazon, so I looked it up and was dismayed to find that the mass market is not available yet. Hard covers are a pain in my ass. They take up a ton of room, they're heavy, and they hurt when I fall asleep reading and drop them on my face.
Okay, so, fine. For a book I'm going to be analyzing, I'd prefer a hard copy that I can mark up, but, I can mark up an ebook too, and its better than hauling around a hard cover. But I don't want an Amazon one because I don't like Amazon's attempts to constantly herd me into only buying stuff from them that I can only read on their devices and applications. Also, I read my ebooks on my iPhone and their reading application is far inferior to my fave, Stanza. I read at night. I need a night view. I like to be able to adjust the font face, and the background, and the text colors, and the line spacing so that it's comfortable for me. Fine, I'm picky, but so what?
So I hie over to my favorite ebook reseller, All Romance eBooks/Omnilit. They have the ebook. It's $12.99! For an ebook! Jeez! Well, fine, I suck it up and I buy the book. But its not available in epub. Just secure epub. Rrrr. Fine. I buy it anyway.
That turns out to be a big mistake because once the file is downloaded, it turns out to be a bunch of gobbledy gook that wont open in Stanza or any of my other applications. I just spent thirteen bucks for nothing. And the first thing I did was not to file a help ticket with ARe/Omnilit (though I have now) but to go to Google and search for a free download.
The only thing holding me back from going through with that is that the only site I could find wants me to install a .exe file that may just eat my hard drive or something. So, I go back to ARe/Omnilit, read thier faq, follow the link to the application they recommend for reading secure epub files and... that website informs me that my system is not up to date enough to download their software, despite the fact that I'm running lion on a MacBook Air I bought a month and a half ago.
For the love of god, people! I just want to read the fucking book on my phone, with a black background, Cochin font in grey, with the lines spaced at 1.25. What's the big fucking deal?
At this point, I'm at the mercy of ARe's tech support that I didn't just throw 13 bucks down the drain, and I'm reasonalby confident that they'll do right by me in the end. I'd just as soon get a refund now, if I can't read the damn thing on Stanza. And you know what I'll do then? Go to the library.
I know how you feel. I was using my mother's old Sony ereader to buy myself ebooks since I just got into reading that way (thanks to needing something light that also lights up when up feeding my daughter in the middle of the night) but when I bought a Kobo of my own, all the books I'd purchased for my Sony ereader won't work on it! Books I paid full price for! >:( So what, I'm being punished for being honest?
Posted by: HeidiBelleau | November 26, 2011 at 02:27 PM
Pretty much. That's the fallacy of drm locked files. They treat your honest customers like criminals, thus fostering an atmosphere of suspicion and contempt that only encourages the very behavior they're trying to stop. Best way to combat piracy is to make it convenient, easy, and safe for customers to use your stuff legitimately.
Posted by: Jessica Freely | November 26, 2011 at 02:54 PM
You are close to the point where murder is justified.
Posted by: Steven Harper Piziks | November 27, 2011 at 08:15 AM
I hate the frigging DRM ebooks. I lost so many ebooks years ago when I replaced a dead computer and could never get them back. I had backups, but they were, of course, worthless. I'm still peeved about it! :-D
Much as I hate the pirates I don't put DRM on my own books, and mostly quit the hassle of chasing them down and having my files removed from their sites (which is not to be confused with being okay with it). It seemed that if I ignored them the listing would age into obscurity, but every time I had a link removed the listing would be reupped and back front and center garnering more and more free downloads.
So I guess I can see the DRM issues from both sides, but still hate it too much as an honest consumer who's been screwed by them to inflict them on others. The pirates seem to know how to crack them anyway, so the good guys are the only ones being hurt.
I'm glad you finally got to read your book, even if it wasn't on the device you preferred! :-D
- Addison
Posted by: Addison Albright | November 28, 2011 at 01:41 PM