Allromance/Omnilit Mobipocket Readers, Beware!

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OverDrive Discontinues Support Of Secure Mobipocket

OverDrive, the ARe supplier for secure Mobipocket content, has announced that in an effort to streamline the user experience and as a result of the continued expansion and adoption of EPub (both the non-secure Open eBook and Secure Adobe EPub), the Mobipocket format is being discontinued.

OverDrive announced that it will be discontinuing support of the secure Mobipocket format on December 31, 2011.

ARe wants to make every effort to provide readers with sufficient time to download any secure PRC files that are in their library, create personal back-ups, and transition to a new file format. We recommend the non-secure Open eBook or Secure Adobe EPub formats, which have been adopted as the industry standard. We realize that transitions like this are often challenging and that everyone's situation is unique. The information below is meant to answer what we think are going to be the most common questions, for additional information, please check the FAQ below.

Here is a post you might find helpful when considering transitioning: http://www.arecafe.com/digimonkey-ebook-tips/digimonkey-tips-the-epub-format-as-the-industry-standard/

What you need to know:
As of November 7, 2011 Secure Mobipocket formats will no longer be available for purchase on the All Romance/OmniLit websites.

According to our terms of agreement, files should initially be downloaded within 72 hours of purchase. Therefore we can not guarantee availability of any Secure Mobipocket downloads after November 10, 2011.

Secure titles that have previously been downloaded may still be available for download for a period of time in your library past the November 10, 2011 date if the publisher chooses to continue to offer this convenience. NOTE: This could change at any point in time after November 10 on a book by book basis. The continued appearance after November 10 doesn't guarantee that the title will be available for download indefinitely. Nothing will be supported after the December 31 deadline.

Source: AllRomance 10/21 newsletter.

ETA: Overdrive is the backend for a lot of library ebook lending systems, and Harlequin is also discontinuing support for .Lit and Mobipocket, Harlequin source

Comments

[elf]

Thank you for this. Grr. I need to make a timeline for "death of Ebook types."

I think this is the first major close-out of DRM'd ebooks since Amazon stopped selling PDFs the first time, in 2007. (I need to track down when ebookwise's .imp stopped being sold. But those were never seriously competitive to mobi .prc ebooks.)

Since then, B&N's been gradually closing the gate on ereader .pdb, but they're not quite *gone;" the ereader.com store still sells a limited title selection, and for a while, they were sold for the first version of Nook.

This is a delightfully roundabout way for Overdrive to announce, "If you want to keep what you paid for, CRACK IT NOW. In another month, we don't promise you can read it after your next upgrade/device change."