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Microsoft announces it will shut down ebook program and confiscate its customers' libraries
Boing boing ^ | 2 April 2019 | CORY DOCTOROW

Posted on 04/02/2019 1:48:12 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT

Microsoft has a DRM-locked ebook store that isn't making enough money, so they're shutting it down and taking away every book that every one of its customers acquired effective July 1.

Customers will receive refunds.

When I was a bookseller, nothing I could do would result in your losing the book that I sold you. If I regretted selling you a book, I didn't get to break into your house and steal it, even if I left you a cash refund for the price you paid.The idea that the books I buy can be relegated to some kind of f---ing software license is the most grotesque and awful thing I can imagine: if the publishing industry deliberately set out to destroy any sense of intrinsic, civilization-supporting value in literary works, they could not have done a better job.

(Excerpt) Read more at boingboing.net ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat
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You don't that...
1 posted on 04/02/2019 1:48:12 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
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To: DUMBGRUNT

These Nazi Youth have found a less eeeeeevil no see-oh-too generating method than the older Nazi’s way of simply burning them...


2 posted on 04/02/2019 1:52:56 PM PDT by null and void (If socialism is so grand, why are Guatemalans coming here instead of going to Venezuela?)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Doctrow is a socialist idiot. Unless you can save the files yourself and read with a non-approved reader then you have no guarantee at all.

Same with the old divx dvd discs they tried to push for awhile.

Caveat Emptor.


3 posted on 04/02/2019 1:55:20 PM PDT by Skywise
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To: DUMBGRUNT

That’s always been the problem with DRM locked stuff. And ebooks in general.


4 posted on 04/02/2019 1:56:18 PM PDT by discostu (I know that's a bummer baby, but it's got precious little to do with me)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

The same thing can happen with digital copies of movies. You sit down to watch Blazing Saddles (or some equally non-PC movie) one evening, only to find that PC police have removed it from your library.


5 posted on 04/02/2019 2:01:41 PM PDT by Sans-Culotte (If it weren't for fake hate crimes, there would be no hate crimes at all.)
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To: dayglored; DUMBGRUNT

Ping for Windows, Microsoft Ping list.


6 posted on 04/02/2019 2:03:13 PM PDT by Swordmaker (My pistol self-identifies as an iPad, so you must accept it in gun-free zones, you hoplaphobe bigot!)
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To: discostu

Amazon has already banned books and “retrieved” them from the users.

I don’t trust those ebooks as far as I can throw them.

Here is just _one_ example—there are many more—books on a wide variety of topics:

https://www.rooshv.com/amazon-has-banned-9-of-my-books-without-explanation


7 posted on 04/02/2019 2:03:19 PM PDT by cgbg (Democracy dies in darkness when Bezos bans books.)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Digital media and digital rights is a very strange world. You really don’t own content any longer, you rent it (although that $9.99 for a book gets prorated over the rest of your remaining life).

I don’t think this has been tested yet in an estate situation yet.

As an author who’s published books through digital media, I don’t believe we’ve got a real handle on the implications of this long term.


8 posted on 04/02/2019 2:08:00 PM PDT by Magnatron
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To: DUMBGRUNT
Some people my come to realize a real books won't be digitally locked away.

This is a warning that could revive book sales.

9 posted on 04/02/2019 2:08:55 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: Magnatron

It’s worse for video games.


10 posted on 04/02/2019 2:10:48 PM PDT by Skywise
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To: DUMBGRUNT

I never liked, or bought, e-books. The convenience of being able to read them in low light also made my eyes hurt after a while.


11 posted on 04/02/2019 2:11:40 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: discostu

“That’s always been the problem with DRM locked stuff. And ebooks in general.”

True. That’s why MS should never have agreed to support enforcing DRM. They make punitive licensing agreements with customers so why, as the content provider, could they not make better agreements with content sources in exchange for distribution royalties? Stupid move, stupid result.


12 posted on 04/02/2019 2:20:20 PM PDT by Justa
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To: Sans-Culotte

I have Blazing Saddles on DVD

Its like $8 on Amazon, or $8 for the digital online version.

Screw the digital online version

I have a DVD player connected to my TV

I can put on my tin foil hat and pop it in and watch the greatness and the government doesn’t have to know about it


13 posted on 04/02/2019 2:21:12 PM PDT by Trump.Deplorable
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To: Skywise

Wow I just remembered there’s a bunch of audio books i have on amazon that i never read.

i wouldn’t mind the refund :)


14 posted on 04/02/2019 2:24:06 PM PDT by dp0622 (The Left should know if.. Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR)
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To: null and void

I guess BING worked out about as well as its name.


15 posted on 04/02/2019 2:24:37 PM PDT by dp0622 (The Left should know if.. Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR)
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To: Sans-Culotte
The same thing can happen with digital copies of movies. You sit down to watch Blazing Saddles (or some equally non-PC movie) one evening, only to find that PC police have removed it from your library.

Yep - or edited-for-political correctness versions playing in place of the originals.

16 posted on 04/02/2019 2:25:59 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
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To: Sans-Culotte

I downloaded “A NEGRO EXPLORER AT THE NORTH POLE” copyright ~1900 (A good read)from gutenberg.org onto my Kindle.

And one day it was gone???
The copy on my workstation is still there.

Also, note that many Ebooks cost the same as paper?


17 posted on 04/02/2019 2:29:51 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!")
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To: PGR88

The convenience of being able to read them in low light also made my eyes hurt after a while.

My Paperwhite Kindle is up there with sliced bread!

Not a typical laptop/tablet screen?


18 posted on 04/02/2019 2:34:04 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT ("The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!")
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To: Charles Martel

“Where are all the caucasian individuals that identify as women at?”


19 posted on 04/02/2019 2:35:12 PM PDT by LostInBayport (When there are more people riding in the cart than there are pulling it, the cart stops moving...)
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To: DUMBGRUNT

Everyone will just have to memorize one book and hide in the forest.


20 posted on 04/02/2019 2:38:39 PM PDT by \/\/ayne (I regret that I have but one subscription cancellation notice to give to my local newspaper.)
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