I thought David's books were supposed to be supplied wo DRM?

I had a coupon, so I ordered the ebook for HFQ from Books-a-million figuring I could move the epub right over to my Nook.

However, when it was available, I tried to download it and find I've got to go through some adobe efile program to get it. So I do, figuring that it will give me a plain EPUB, but when I move it to the nook, it won't open saying it's not authorized.

Now I've somehow screwed up the licensing on the PC so I can't read it there either, so I can't read the book I've paid for and waited 6 months for.

This has SERIOUSLY ticked me off.

Am I wrong that all the vendors supposed to supply it DRM free?

Baen distributes ebooks without DRM. Other publishers do what they want.

The Safehold series is published by McMillan for Tor. Tor has never struck me as a particularly "user friendly" publishing house.

There are programs out there that allegedly strip the DRM from an ebook. I actually ran into the same problem you did at one time - can't remember what book/publisher it was off the top of my head - and I used one of them to "un-DRM" the copy so I could read it on multiple computers - it was a long book, and I emailed it to myself as an attachment and read bits of it whenever and where ever I got a few minutes.

Rnewman wrote:...and find I've got to go through some adobe efile program to get it. ...

If my Library's any guide, the Adobe ACSM file is what adds the DRM -- in the Library's case, it adds an expiration date to make it a loan instead of unrestricted download.

I suspect that any bookseller that uses Adobe's ACSM file as it's distribution mechanism is going to be unable to provide DRM-free books because of the nature of the file transfer protocol (ACSM=Adobe Content Server Management.)

This link may be useful: http://www.epubor.com/how-to-open-acsm-file.html (I haven't tried anything suggested there, so I can't offer an opinion other than they claim to solve your problem.)

Tor's policy is to publish eBooks without DRM. When I bought an eBook of theirs (The Life of the Mind, purchased from Amazon) and found that it was DRMed, they apologized and sent me a DRM-free version. I'd suggest using something like Calibre to verify that the file actually has DRM and isn't just incompatible with your reader. Once you're sure, reach out to either Books-a-million or Tor.

Rnewman wrote:I had a coupon, so I ordered the ebook for HFQ from Books-a-million figuring I could move the epub right over to my Nook.

However, when it was available, I tried to download it and find I've got to go through some adobe efile program to get it. So I do, figuring that it will give me a plain EPUB, but when I move it to the nook, it won't open saying it's not authorized.

Now I've somehow screwed up the licensing on the PC so I can't read it there either, so I can't read the book I've paid for and waited 6 months for.

This has SERIOUSLY ticked me off.

Am I wrong that all the vendors supposed to supply it DRM free?

The preface in the Kindle version of HFQ has the following pertinent statement; "The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices."

Weber, David (2015-10-13). Hell's Foundations Quiver (Safehold) (p. 4). Tom Doherty Associates. Kindle Edition.

So it looks like the fault might be, as mentioned above, in the Adobe software conversion (guessing)!

I went to the publisher's page - MacMillan. They listed only the following suppliers for the eBook:
- Amazon (Kindle)
- Barnes and Noble (Nook)
- iBooks
- eBooks.com
- Google Play
- Kobo

I knew that I wanted an ePub file because it's an open standard and I have the other books in the series in that format - that cut about half of the vendors off my list. Further research showed that eBooks.com offered the book as an ePub so I bought from them.

The ePub version I got from eBooks.com does NOT have DRM embedded in it. And here's a quote from their FAQ:

Once I have purchased my eBook, will it always be available?

Yes, once you have purchased the eBook it is yours. The title is stored on your eBooks.com account and you can access it at any time by logging in with your username and password. Most formats allow you to download the title as many times as you like however, Adobe format eBooks have a license which enables you to download three times. If you need to download your eBook again and you are receiving an error message indicating that you have used all of your licenses, please contact our Support Staff who will be happy to reset this license for you.

Good luck!

IIRC [and if I don't, you can be sure somebody will correct me ], Nook & Kobo both use epub format.

WeberFan wrote:I went to the publisher's page - MacMillan. They listed only the following suppliers for the eBook:
- Amazon (Kindle)
- Barnes and Noble (Nook)
- iBooks
- eBooks.com
- Google Play
- Kobo

I knew that I wanted an ePub file because it's an open standard and I have the other books in the series in that format - that cut about half of the vendors off my list. Further research showed that eBooks.com offered the book as an ePub so I bought from them.

The ePub version I got from eBooks.com does NOT have DRM embedded in it. And here's a quote from their FAQ:

Once I have purchased my eBook, will it always be available?

Yes, once you have purchased the eBook it is yours. The title is stored on your eBooks.com account and you can access it at any time by logging in with your username and password. Most formats allow you to download the title as many times as you like however, Adobe format eBooks have a license which enables you to download three times. If you need to download your eBook again and you are receiving an error message indicating that you have used all of your licenses, please contact our Support Staff who will be happy to reset this license for you.

Good luck!