[pjm]

It probably has been discussed on this forum in the past, but I have to express my frustration. I have been reading ebooks for a long time. I think I started to read them on my Palm T3. I have purchased quite a few books from mobipocket.com that I would like to have available on my kindle. Unfortunately this is not "legally" possible. VERY FRUSTRATING!!!
I would purchase them again for the kindle but it is too expensive. I understand that mobipocket.com is own by amazon.com.
Has anybody found a legal solution to have their mobipocket ebook available on the kindle?

Sorry again if it has been already discussed...
Phil.

 

[Linda S. Prather Author]

Phil, I have the Kindle PC download, and download Calibre which converts my mobi pocket books (html) into other formats.  Not sure if that would work on getting them into your kindle or not.  Hopefully someone will have the answer you need.  Once my kindle arrives I'm going to see if it works on that.  Good luck.

 

[pjm]

The ebooks purchased at mobipocket.com are locked to a device registered on their website. Each device has to be identified by a PID and the ebooks are DRM protected.
The only way to have thoses ebooks on the kindle would be for amazon/mobipocket to "transfer" them to my kindle account or allow the kindle to be registered on the mobipocket.com web site.
Phil.

 

[Tom Diego]

Same story here.  My first e-book was purchased from MobiPocket for my Palm Zire 71.  When I bought my K2 in June I discovered that I couldn't read the MobiPocket book on my Kindle.  My solution was to strip the DRM and convert it to a .mobi file.  Is this technically illegal?  Yes, I suppose that technically it is.  Do I consider it unethical or immoral?  No, I've already purchased this as an e-book, the author/publisher has already profited from this sale, and I consider this an exercise of my Fair Use rights.  YMMV.

 

[pjm]

I guess I could do that as well... Although it would be nice from amazon/mobipocket to come up with a solution to fix this issue. I have contacted mobipocket by email but never received an answer...
How did you remove the DRM from the book?

 

[Tom Diego]

I guess I could do that as well... Although it would be nice from amazon/mobipocket to come up with a solution to fix this issue. I have contacted mobipocket by email but never received an answer...
How did you remove the DRM from the book?

Don't expect an answer from MobiPocket. From reading the forums, I've gathered that support has been unofficially declared dead. While they seem to be releasing new versions of MobiPocket Reader and Creator, official responses to questions on forums have been MIA for quite some time now. There are some pretty bitter MobiPocket fans who rail against Amazon for "destroying" MobiPocket. Interestingly enough, on the later releases of Reader MobiPocket actually removed support for the Kindle. Go figure.

If you have a large investment in MobiPocket e-books, I believe that you have a right to protect that investment. No one is going to bust into your house and arrest you for removing the DRM on books that you have legally purchased and want to read on a device that is manufactured by the same company that now owns the company that you bought those DRMed books from. Like I said, I don't consider this immoral or unethical, but YMMV.

 

[pidgeon92]

How did you remove the DRM from the book?

It is against forum rules to discuss how to remove DRM.

 

[pjm]

I understand that removing DRM should not be discussed here. I sure hope that one day ebooks will be readable on any ereader the same way that DVDs can be played on any brand of DVD players.
Thanks for your answers. Phil.

 

[pidgeon92]

I understand that removing DRM should not be discussed here. I sure hope that one day ebooks will be readable on any ereader the same way that DVDs can be played on any brand of DVD players.
Thanks for your answers. Phil.

I completely agree with you. If ebooks were all formatted equally, I'd only have one ebook reader, not three.

 

[DavidSherwood]

Actually it is now legal to remove DRM
see http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2010/Librarian-of-Congress-1201-Statement.html
The pertinent parts to ebooks are:
"Today[July 26, 2010] I have designated six classes of works. Persons who circumvent access controls in order to engage in noninfringing uses of works in these six classes will not be subject to the statutory prohibition against circumvention."

The 6th class says:
"Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book's read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format."

 

[pidgeon92]

Actually it is now legal to remove DRM

Despite this ruling, we do not allow discussing the removal of DRM on this forum.

 

[newb]

Phil, I have the Kindle PC download, and download Calibre which converts my mobi pocket books (html) into other formats.

I thought that Kindle supported the .mobi format?

Can someone confirm this for me either way? I was thinking of buying some ebooks at Borders, since they offer ebooks in both Mobi and ePub formats, but if Kindle does not support .mobi, then I guess it'll be wasted money.

 

[Tom Diego]

I thought that Kindle supported the .mobi format?

Can someone confirm this for me either way? I was thinking of buying some ebooks at Borders, since they offer ebooks in both Mobi and ePub formats, but if Kindle does not support .mobi, then I guess it'll be wasted money.

Kindle does support non-DRMed .mobi. If you buy a book in .mobi format from B&N they will have their own DRM on the .mobi book and it will not be readable on the Kindle.