Purchasing ebooks but without the platform lock-in?

[mikeymikec]

I think I've figured out how to find and convert a legitimately purchased e-book from Amazon so that I can choose to read it on any e-book reading platform I choose to use in future, but before I decide to use Amazon as my preferred e-book vendor, does anyone else know of a legitimate vendor of e-books but without all the faffing around of circumventing that vendor's "we want you to buy our device / we don't want you to find where the files are stored" system?

 

[BladeVenom]

Project Gutenberg

 

[mikeymikec]

Project Gutenberg

Hum. I thought that was just for free / out-of-copyright ebooks. <wanders over to that site again>

- edit - It looks like free e-books only to me...

 

[Zaap]

If you can find a place that sells books in epub format, that's always a safe bet for platform independence. I couldn't tell you an epub vendor though.

Personally, I prefer Amazon's Kindle store. It seems pretty platform independent to me, since you can run the Kindle software on all of the major platforms.

I don't think Amazon is going anywhere anytime soon, so it seems like a pretty safe bet to me.

As for 'where the files are being stored' since I can re-download anything I buy from Amazon in a few seconds, it's one of the few times where I don't much care where the files are stored locally. Even so, I think there are ways to backup your Kindle library on a PC.

 

[mikeymikec]

Waterstones sells in 'EPUB DRM' format, and because it has those dreaded three letters I'm not sure where I stand with it Waterstones' ebooks are as over-priced as their paper-based books as well.

As for 'Amazon will always be around', there's been a few kinks in e-book history such as the 1984 Amazon debacle, and I'm sure at some point an e-book provider will pull a stunt like "you've bought a new e-book reader, but all your e-books are for the old version of the reader, sorry you'll have to pay for them all again". I'd rather not run that risk. Also, I like being able to choose which e-book reader/software I want to use because we seem to be in the age of "OMG! Your software looks so five minutes ago, it's time to upgrade the interface!".

 

[poofyhairguy]

PayPal the authors and torrent the DRM free books.



(Note: This post is a joke to show how ridiculous it is that the company that pushed DRM free MP3s is big on eBook ecosystem lock-in).

 

[zerogear]

PayPal the authors and torrent the DRM free books.



(Note: This post is a joke to show how ridiculous it is that the company that pushed DRM free MP3s is big on eBook ecosystem lock-in).

I like this idea better than the stores

 

[Bateluer]

There are ways to strip the DRM from both the Kindle and Nook platforms.

 

[dagamer34]

I think I've figured out how to find and convert a legitimately purchased e-book from Amazon so that I can choose to read it on any e-book reading platform I choose to use in future, but before I decide to use Amazon as my preferred e-book vendor, does anyone else know of a legitimate vendor of e-books but without all the faffing around of circumventing that vendor's "we want you to buy our device / we don't want you to find where the files are stored" system?

Depends on the type of book. Technical books from O'Reilly Media are DRM-free. Makes me feel so great to purchase stuff from them.