When ebooks die

[madfilkentist]

A post on my Mad File Format Science blog, prompted by the closing of the Microsoft eBook Store: When Ebooks Die.

Comments

[thewayne]

Which is why every month I rip all my new ebook purchases to epub.

[(Anonymous)]

This is why I only buy from sites that let me download my purchases, which I do before converting them to DRM-free epubs. I don't care so much about whether technology will let me read them in 50 years because I likely won't be alive in 50 years, I just want them to survive the death of the retailer I bought them from (RIP Samhain Publishing, whose books I still have and can read).

[silverflight8]

That's a good post. Not the first time this has happened, not the last. Virtual things are impermanent unless people actually put effort into maintaining them, and given the way the incentives work online - it's not a huge priority really. I love ebooks, but yeah.

[fred_mouse]

Interesting reading, thanks. I'm very much of the 'avoid proprietary options' school. I do have a lot of epubs, but I have them backed up elsewhere, and I don't let iBooks put them in the cloud.

[yourlibrarian]

I agree with the comment that there was much more outcry about DRM on music than books -- perhaps that's because music is accessed much more often by more people than books. However, I find it infuriating the way that you can't simply download an ePub or MP3 (for an audiobook when you buy it) but instead must jump through absurd hoops just to keep it as a file on your computer or be able to read it through your eReader.