[csterns]

It seems to me there was a lot of press months back about the MS upgrade to MS Reader and how it would not allow you to read your current books. And, if you switched devices or hard reset your device you could no longer read your books. Am I right?

The reason I ask this is that I have switched devices several times and installed MS Reader on several computers and have had access to all my books. Am I dodging a bullet here and now that I ask about this will MS strike me dead?

Why have I been so fortunate and avoided all the hassles?

[csterns]

It seems to me there was a lot of press months back about the MS upgrade to MS Reader and how it would not allow you to read your current books. And, if you switched devices or hard reset your device you could no longer read your books. Am I right?

The reason I ask this is that I have switched devices several times and installed MS Reader on several computers and have had access to all my books. Am I dodging a bullet here and now that I ask about this will MS strike me dead?

Why have I been so fortunate and avoided all the hassles?

[Steven Cedrone]

I may be asking for trouble from the g-d of .lit, but...

My experiences mirror your own. No problems whatsoever with reader and my .lit ebooks...

Knock on wood... :wink:

Steve

[Jorgen]

It is good to hear that you both have avoided trouble. However, countless other people have had problems as the many questions in forums like this and on Usenet has shown. Ebooks are consumer goods and should be as easy to use as a toaster.

Jorgen

[Kevin C. Tofel]

I had nothing but problems and numerous reactivations to contend with, so if MS Reader is working for you, from my point of view I'd say you're lucky. After all of the problems, saw Ed's posts about Palm Reader and went that route......nary a single problem and I think there are more books available....

KCT

[Steven Cedrone]

Well, don't get me wrong...

I like my .lit books and Reader - they are all free and public domain books. My only concern is to get through all of the free Microsoft books before something does happen to Reader... :wink:

All purchases of books go through Peanut Press, been using them for years and never had a problem with them. Best DRM implementation out there right now..

Steve

[csterns]

I too went the Palm route as a contingency back many months ago when this issue first surfaced so I have both programs. Then B&N announces they're closing their eBooks section and I made sure I had all my books downloaded, stored all I had on an external drive and parked them for a while.

Over the last several months I have switched to a HP2215 when it rolled out, purchased two Tablet PC's (purchased and then sold one and replaced it), reformatted my other laptop and installed MS Reader and activated it over and over onto all devices and copying the eBooks onto each machine without issue. In each instance I kept expecting to run into problems and having to repurchase the books.

What I was wondering is did MS Reader change due to all the flack or am I/We the chosen few? It's strange to have all these different devices accepting MS Reader and my eBooks without one of them gagging.

[ChristopherTD]

I have activated MS Reader on numerous devices without problem for several years.

With all these things few people are going to post a message saying, "My Reader is working - what should I do?". So problem reports skew people's impressions.

FWIW I find the Palm DRM scheme intrusive and annoying - I dislike having to unlock each book. Its typography is also inferior in my experience but that is a different topic of conversation...

[cyclist]

The problems have all been accessing DRM protected books. I've avoided these problems completely by only reading non-DRM books, on any reader, not just Microsoft. As a side effect this avoids the need to activate Microsoft Reader, so I don't have any hassles with Microsoft's activation web site either.

There's lots and lots of non-protected content available, some paid for and some legitimately free, so I'm in no danger of running out of things to read on my PPC. As things are at present if a book is only available with DRM I'd rather buy the hard copy. I will not pay for something I can't be sure that I can read again 20 years on.

[ChristopherTD]

Originally Posted by cyclist

I will not pay for something I can't be sure that I can read again 20 years on.

It is equally uncertain whether I will be able to read my ebooks in 20 years time or the paper books that I have now. I already had to get rid of lots of paperbacks because I had nowhere to store them, so for me that is a vote for ebooks!

You can't lend ebooks either, so there is no danger of losing them that way!

Nothing is certain!!

[Jorgen]

>FWIW I find the Palm DRM scheme intrusive and annoying - I dislike having to unlock each book.

Hear, hear! So I am not alone.

>It is equally uncertain whether I will be able to read my ebooks in 20 years time

I actually do have books more than 20 years old that I would like to keep. However, the problem with DRM ebooks is that you are forced to stay with certain PDA's and even then not sure that you can read them perhaps five/ten years from now.

I have read etexts since the mid-80ies on computers and read ebooks/etexts on PDA's since the early 90ies; I have seen an awful lots of machines disappear and have myself changed platform many times for one reason to another. Sharp may well have some very interesting machines coming up, so maybe one day ...

No, make all DRM disappear. The DRM discussion was around for Apple II and PC DOS software in the 80ies and DRM lost in the end. I hope Ebook-DRM likewise will lose and very soon.

Jorgen