A question about DRM

[brightwanderer]

Perhaps someone can clarify this for me?

1. If I buy a Kindle, can I read ebooks from any other source, or am I bound to Amazon?

2. If I buy an ebook from Amazon, can I read it on any ebook reader, or am I bound to a Kindle?

Comments

[elf]

Question 1) You can read books from other sources, in certain filetypes. Including at least one very popular and well-supported filetype.

Kindles can read non-DRM'd mobi .prc ebooks natively (you can throw them on the Kindle with a USB cord), and I believe .txt files natively. They will also convert non-DRM'd ebooks from other sources from several filetypes, including PDFs, although the conversion for those isn't always smooth.

For DRM'd mobi books from other sources, you'd need a script that gets the Kindle's IDnumber to put in the DRM.

2) Some Kindle ebooks are stuck with the Kindle; some are not.

Kindle books bought from Amazon are *intended* to only be read on Kindles. However, Kindlebooks are Mobipocket ebooks with a special DRM on them; removing the DRM (or possibly, just changing the file extension if there's no DRM) will allow you to read them on other ebook readers. The DRM for the Kindle has been cracked (am busy this morning or I'd scrounge up links). This works for .azw books, but not Topaz-formatted ebooks, which are done with a different OCR method that (I believe) makes them unreadable on other devices, or something like that.