Nate Hoffelder

They may be a day late and a dollar short, but Adobe has finally responded to yesterday’s news that they were using the Digital Editions 4 app to spy on users.

Adobe hasn’t addressed all of the evidence against them, but they did admit that they were gathering info from users. They won’t admit to scraping my library, but they did admit to tracking a user’s activities. Adobe claims that it was covered by the their privacy policy and by the TOS for the app:

Adobe Digital Editions allows users to view and manage eBooks and other digital publications across their preferred reading devices—whether they purchase or borrow them. All information collected from the user is collected solely for purposes such as license validation and to facilitate the implementation of different licensing models by publishers. Additionally, this information is solely collected for the eBook currently being read by the user and not for any other eBook in the user’s library or read/available in any other reader. User privacy is very important to Adobe, and all data collection in Adobe Digital Editions is in line with the end user license agreement and the Adobe Privacy Policy.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t see how sending a user’s reading history in clear text over the web could possibly be in line with a privacy policy.

On a related note, I took some time today to read the TOS for Adobe Digital Edition 4, and I do not see where it gives them permission to track user behavior, much less upload said tracking data in the clear. What’s more, I have also heard from a couple other techies who also read the TOS and were unable to find mentions of this program.

Update: Robert has pointed out in the comments the relevant section of Adobe’s privacy policy, which you had to find on the Adobe website, and not the TOS I agreed to when I installed ADE 4.

I have asked Adobe for an explanation on this last issue, and I will update this post if they respond. Sadly, I don’t expect that to occur; Adobe has not responded to my emails on this issue (I got this statement second-hand from Rich Bellis of DBW).

Update: I am in discussion with Adobe on this and other issues.

It has been some 16 hours since I first broke the news that Adobe was spying on anyone who installed and ran Digital Editions 4, Adobe’s latest and greatest ebook app, and while I still do not have a response from Adobe I do have some new information to share.

I have followed up on this story and looked into the earlier versions of Digital Editions, just to see how long Adobe may have been spying on users. After testing DE2 and DE3 I can report, and others can confirm, that neither app appears to be tracking my reading habits nor uploading details about my ebook library.

The older apps do send some information to Adobe, but the data packet is small enough that it can’t hold much more than info required to authorize the DRM. So if you need one of Adobe’s apps, you do have safer options than DE4.

Adobe DE 3 can be downloaded from the Adobe website.

While the news about the older versions of Adobe DE is not enough to get me to use an Adobe app again, I thought this information could prove useful for librarians, teachers, and industry pros. Speaking of which, my story yesterday is taking on a life of its own and it turns out to have ramifications which I hadn’t considered.

This isn’t just a privacy violation any more; now there are concerns about how this breach would violate NDAs. According to Richard Pipe of Infogrid Pacific:

We have thousands of publisher books on our production workstations, many under non-disclosure agreements. Fortunately we have not yet rolled ADE4 out for testing (because it can’t handle inline images amongst other silly things).

This is a timely warning of corporate irresponsibility. We will ensure our publisher production contacts are all made aware of this. From a production facility perspective this is somewhat intimidating. If someone wants to ADE4 test a book under non-disclosure it will have to be on an isolated workstation modified as Michael mentioned. For us that will become a production services sales feature!

I didn’t directly discuss this need for security in my post yesterday, but it was at the back of my mind. It was safe to assume that someone’s corporate IT dept would run security tests on the new app before deploying it, so Adobe should have known that this privacy and security breach would have been caught and likely publicized.

In any case, if you are looking for an alternative to Adobe Digital Editions, the older versions still work. But if you wish to avoid Adobe entirely, as I plan to do, you could try competing apps like Bluefire Reader for Windows.

Independently developed by Bluefire, this app was released earlier this year. I’ve run it through the same check that revealed Adobe’s spying, and so far as I can tell it does not spy on you. (Adobe has made me so paranoid that I am still double checking this.)

Bluefire does offer the feature of syncing your reading position between the Windows app and Bluefire’s apps for Android and iOS, so you can expect them to send at least some info back to their servers, but that feature is optional and this app does not require that you log in.

To be fair to Adobe, all of the major ebook platforms offer the option of syncing your reading position, and that does require that information be uploaded to their servers. But one would also expect that the info is transmitted in a secure manner, and not left visible to all and sundry.

Speaking of syncing options, Adobe might have been tracking the reading position with plans to offer a sync option of their own. I am told they have an Adobe DE iPad app in the works, and I can see that syncing between the PC app and the iPad app would be a useful feature.

However, this still does not excuse the lack of security, nor does it excuse the fact that Adobe scanned my ebook library and uploaded the metadata.  That is beyond the pale.

image  by nolifebeforecoffee

Amazon is giving existing Fire owners a couple reasons to hold on to their older tablets. Last year’s devices are going to be getting a firmware update, and what’s more there are reports that Amazon plans to offer a Washington Post app.

The retailer sent out a notice over the weekend to existing Fire tablet owners, sharing the good news. According to the one I got, my existing Kindle Fire HD (2013) will be updated to Kindle OS 4 Sangria.

This version of Fire OS shipped on the Fire HD 6 and Fire HD 7 last week, and it will be coming to all third generation Fire tablets. It’s based on Android 4.4 KitKat, and includes better power management options, Family Library sharing options, and Firefly, the Fire Phone feature which enabled users to use their camera to identify products.

For the record, Amazon actually announced that the older hardware would be updated when the new OS was announced in mid-September. I missed the news at the time, so i thought it was worth sharing.

In related news, BusinessWeek is reporting that the Bezos-owned Washington Post is working on a curated news app which will be bundled with the Fire tablets. Dubbed project rainbow, the app is being developed by a team led by Kerry Lauerman, the former editor-in-chief of Salon.com:

For the past few months, a group inside the Post has been working on a new application that will offer a curated selection of news and photographs from the daily newspaper in a magazine-style, tablet-friendly format. The application will come preinstalled on Amazon’s newly updated Kindle Fire tablet, expected to be launched later this fall with the larger 8.9-inch screen, according to people with knowledge of the Post’s plans.

The app will initially be free in the larger Fire tablet, and will later be made available to other Fire tablets and Android tablets as well as for iDevices. BW says that there will be a subscription fee, though of course there’s no info on how much that will cost.

And while this is pure speculation, I am expecting the app will be bundled with the Fire tablet in much the same way that Kindle Freetime Unlimited is bundled. That other service is also paid service which has to be paid for when activated.

This is a bold move for the Washington Post but it could well prove a bust. While the WaPo has expanded staff and revamped their coverage since the newspaper was acquired by Jeff Bezos last August, its rival the NYTimes has recently cut staff and killed an app that could well be bellwethers for how consumers get their news.

Last week the Neiman Journalism Lab reported that the NYTimes was killing the NYT Opinion app.  This app offered access to just the editorial content of that paper, at a premium. While it proved well-liked, the app didn’t pick up enough users to justify its expense.

If I had to guess, I would expect the new Washington Post app to suffer a similar fate. IMO readers don’t want to pay more for less content; they want to pay less for more content. That’s why apps like Flipboard and why feed reader services like Feedly are so popular.

Remember that Florida university with the bookless library? Here’s one with a bookless bookstore.

Lynn University, a small private school in Boca Raton, FL, went to a digital-first curriculum last year, and this year they’re following up that bold move with an even bolder one. Paving the way for B&N, this liberal arts school has removed all of the books from its bookstore:

Lynn University has removed some merchandise from its campus bookstore — books.

Almost every book needed for the 300 classes offered at the liberal arts university in Boca Raton are available by digital download. So officials decided a traditional book store was no longer needed.

It’s now been renamed the "Campus Store" and has aisles of iPad cases, shirts, coffee mugs and water bottles where textbooks once sat.

Students who prefer to read on paper can still buy traditional textbooks, but they now have to order them online.

As I reported last year, Lynn University has been working towards a digital-first curriculum for several years now. Following a pilot in the 2012-2013 school year, last fall the school issued iPad Minis to all of its incoming freshman class of 600 students.

I don’t have any specific details on how that worked out, but the school is clearly satisfied with the result; this year Lynn University went fully digital and issued iPad Minis to the full student body – 2,300 students in all.

While most schools would not be able to make this move without forcing students to spend a huge amount on expensive and nonreturnable digital textbooks, Lynn University says that they have an advantage. Most of their curriculum is produced in house, and that enables the school to pass the savings along to students.

"We’re committed to putting students first, and the transition to a virtual bookstore not only meets their needs, but also saves them time and money," said Chief Information Officer Chris Boniforti. "Course materials and books are shipped directly to the student’s door and downloadable content is sent straight to their iPad."

According to the press release, most of the textbooks are faculty produced, and can be downloaded for free. As a result, the average first-year business student reportedly spent close to $29 on textbooks, far less than the hundreds if not thousands that student would spend at other business schools.

images by quinn.anya, Johan Larsson

Whenever a new ereader is released everyone wants to know how the screen compares to screens on competing models. Sometimes, as in the case of the 2013 Kindle paperwhite or the Aura H2O, it’s obvious that the new model is better than the old. But then there are times where it’s not so obvious that the new screen is better.

For example, the new Kindle which shipped yesterday is drawing mixed reports from users. Some are saying that the screen is as good as on the device it replaced, while others are reporting a noticeably poorer screen.

It’s too early to say with any certainty whether the poor reports reflect unique screens or the average production quality, but they could be enough to give a potential buyer pause.

For example, in the comment section of my first impressions post yesterday I noted that:

I can’t explain why the screen is worse. To be completely honest I think the new Kindle has a poorer screen than my 2012 KPW (a pearl to Pearl comparison). The newer device is noticeably browner than the older unit.

Another early adopter left a similar comment:

I was expecting a kindle touch that is more responsive, which yes this is it. But the screen is awful. While the pearl screen on the previous kindle basic was fantastic, this one has inferior contrast. Under strong light, the previous kindle looks like it has a white background. Not true of this one.

Another new owner commented on MobileRead:

The screen comparison is correct, the new basic has an inferior screen. The contrast is significantly lower than the K4 black. I received mine today. Disappointed with the screen.

A different MobileRead Forum member dropped by a BB and checked out the demo units:

The screen background is the same "whiteness." The fonts on the New Kindle Basic are lighter and have less contrast. These pictures don’t show it too well, but my daughter was with me and there was a noticeable difference. The New Basic Kindle comes somewhere between the Kindle Touch and Old Basic Kindle (K4BNT). Not horrible, but the fonts are not as sharp and dark on the NKT as they are on the K4BNT.

At this point you might think that it’s time to take the new Kindle out back and shoot it, but not everyone is complaining about the new screen.

Len Edgerly posted a video yesterday. He doesn’t report that the new screen is worse than the screen on the Kindle which was replaced, though he also doesn’t report that it is any better.

And then there’s the report from my competitor. he posted several photos which show the older Kindle Touch, a Paperwhite, the new Kindle, and the recently retired basic Kindle.  He says that he can’t see any difference. Can you?

I can’t see the difference in his photos, but I can see a difference between the Kindles on my desk. That is why I agree with haydnfan over at MobileRead when he said "Take no photo even this one as evidence one way or the other. You have to see for yourself. All of these photos are effectively lies."

So did you get the new Kindle? How do you think it compares?

Yesterday Amazon officially took the cover off of the writing community which they’ve been developing without anyone noticing.

The Amazon Write On program is the unnamed crowd sourced program I reported on, but it seems to be just as much a writing community as it is a publishing program.

Update: An Amazon spokesperson told me in an email that "Write On and the new publishing program are different and unrelated programs."

Amazon has been quietly working on Write On since at least March 2014. References to the program popped up on KBoards on 4 September, and in Amazon’s own forum on 28 August, but the most interesting detail is that some forum posts date to March of this year.

Before I cover the program, let me share a couple useful details. The Amazon Write On is now live at writeon.amazon.com, and if you’d like to check it out for yourself you can use this code to get in: X9RJTE9H.

Also, if you’ve already joined Write On, I would like to know what you think.

I have only had a chance to explore Write On for a few minutes, but based on that and on how Amazon is pitching it I would say that this is just as much a writing community as it is a publishing program.

I’ve used it for a few minutes, and I can report that it has sections where writers can upload their latest work. Readers can like or follow a work, and they can also leave comments and discuss specific details. There is also a discussion forum where authors can meet and discuss issues related to writing.

Here’s how Amazon described it in yesterday’s announcement in their forums:

It’s called Write On by Kindle, and it’s a community where readers and writers come together around the creative process to make good stories great and great stories better.

Whether you want to polish an original work, hone your feedback skills, or just find a group of other passionate readers and writers to connect with, we’re building a community that will support you. Plus, you’ll get a chance to help guide the direction of a new Kindle project that’s still in beta. It’ll be a little experimental, a little seat-of-our-pants, and hopefully a pretty sweet time for all involved.

In short, Amazon is testing crowd sourcing as a publishing idea, but they are could also going after writing communities like KBoards, Wattpad, and Absolute Write –  in two completely separate programs.

Move over Aura H2O, there’s a new waterproof ereader about to hit the market.

Unconfirmed reports are coming out of Germany today that Tolino will be launching a new waterproof Vision ebook reader at the Frankfurt Book Fair next week.

Update: A second source has a sales flyer which pitches a new waterproof Tolino Vision ereader and confirms everything we know so far. Retail is 129 euros.

Few details are known about the new Vision, but lesen.net is reporting that it will cost the same as the existing model and derive its waterproof ability from a nano-coating technology, rather than waterproof shell like you can find on the Aura H2O. I can also say that the new Vision will have both the frontlight and touchscreen found on the current model.

The current Vision sports a 6″ Carta E-ink display, costs 129 euros, and was launched in April. It’s not clear what will happen to the existing model, and while there’s a chance that it could be discounted or discontinued I don’t plan to jump to any conclusions.

In fact, I’m taking this report with a grain of salt. While I wouldn’t be surprised if Tolino did release a waterproof ereader, I have trouble believing that the price will be so low. That nano-coating tech is not cheap, so I really don’t think the new model will cost 129 euros.

Remember, Waterfi offers an aftermarket Kindle which has been waterproofed using a related technology. Waterfi tacks on a $99 premium for the modifications, and that makes it hard to believe that Tolino could add the feature without raising prices at least 20 euros.

But in spite of my questions, I do think that at least part of the report is true. According to the latest estimates from GfK, the German ebook reader market is still growing. What’s more, Tolino (a consortium of German and Dutch media retailers and booksellers, and Deutsche Telekom) has a share of the German ebook market that rivals Amazon’s, which again justifies the launch of a new model.

Much has changed in the three days since I brought you news that Ellora’s Cave was suing well-known romance book blog Dear Author for defamation, and few of the changes favor Ellora’s Cave.

Jane Litte, the pseudonymous editor of Dear Author, announced this morning that she had hired the big guns to defend her in this lawsuit, noting that:

she has retained the services of Marc Randazza, and he and an Ohio colleague will provide the defense in this case. You can find out more about Randazza at his firm’s website, and in this piece at Popehat, Marc Randazza: First Amendment Badass. As Ken White notes:

But in a culture cluttered with people who are famous for no good reason whatsoever, Marc Randazza is an outlier: someone who is becoming famous as a First Amendment badass whose First Amendment badassery actually exceeds his rep.  If I ever get sued for defamation, he’s my first call.– Popehat 

This is great news for Jane, but even if she wins this lawsuit it will still be a blow against bloggers, authors, and editors.

When I covered this story on Friday one of the details I noted was that this case bore all the hallmarks of a SLAPP, a type of lawsuit which was filed less for compensation than to silence critics.

While the lawsuit hasn’t deterred Dear Author it is having that effect on bloggers and editors who are understandably leery of being sued themselves. In the Morning Coffee post I linked to one blog which freely admitted that they were afraid of being sued, and Friday’s post also drew comments from book bloggers who wondered if they would be sued for posting a negative review. One even noted that a friend had been threatened with a lawsuit last year, just for posting a review.

What’s more, this lawsuit is also intimidating editors who had previously worked with Ellora’s Cave. I had noted in Friday’s post that authors were complaining of unpaid royalties, and a number of readers left anonymous comments saying that they had also gone unpaid for the editing work they had performed for Ellora’s Cave.

In short, Ellora’s Cave may lose this lawsuit but it is still a partial victory for them. They’ve succeeded in silencing potential critics.

Of course, this suit has also publicized EC’s atrocious business practices and behavior (just like I predicted on Friday), resulting in romance authors avoiding Ellora’s Cave like the plague and recommending that their readers do the same. So even if the critics are silenced this lawsuit could still torpedo EC’s publishing business. (One can only hope.)

image  by winnifredxoxo

Here’s something crazy.

Romance publisher Ellora’s Cave has been having financial issues for the past year or so, but rather than sit down and fix them this publisher has decided that the best solution was a public and messy defamation lawsuit.

• Update #1: Here’s the latest news on this situation.
• Update #2: Dear Author has started a GoFundMe campaign.

Court documents filed today in Ohio have revealed that Ellora’s Cave has filed suit against the author and blogger known as Jane Litte, the proprietor of one of the best romance book blogs.

Ellora’s Cave alleges that a recent blog post on Dear Author defamed them, and in addition to suing the publisher also asks for a temporary restraining order – meaning that Dear Author might not be allowed to report that they are being sued.

Dear Author has been writing about Ellora’s Cave for many years now (more details here),but according to the filing this lawsuit focuses on just the one post published earlier this month.

In "The Curious Case of Ellora’s Cave", Jane detailed the rise and fall of this pioneering erotic romance publisher, including discussing the many current financial issues. For example:

Yet something strange happened. Growth stagnated. In 2010, it was revealed that EC’s revenues were $5 million but a reported $6.7 million in 2006. How on earth was a digital publisher’s income declining in the biggest boom period of digital books? (This was before self publishing took off).

Word of Ms. Engler’s increasingly erratic behavior surfaced on odd places on the internet and then came the lawsuits. In 2008, former employee Christina Brashears filed suit for unpaid monies against EC. EC countersued. Brashears, Publisher and Chief Operating Officer, left and formed Samhain. Bad blood existed which culminated with EC agreeing to a settlement of undisclosed amount. The damages were alleged to be in the high six figures to low seven figures. EC’s behavior during this lawsuit was so egregious, the judge commented on it in his ruling ordering damages to be paid to Brashears. In 2009, EC filed suit against Borders accusing them of illegal business practices. The suit went nowhere.

And:

What’s the result? Many people believe that EC will close its doors before the summer is over but at least by the end of the year. If it enters bankruptcy, author’s intellectual property rights are part of the estate and can be sold off to the highest bidder.  It could wind down and revert the rights back but it’s doubtful that will happen.

The lawsuit was only filed today, but Jane has indicated that she will fight this suit. She’s looking for a good attorney in the Akron, OH, area with experience in defamation.

***

While I am not going to make a claim as to whether defamation occurred, I do want to introduce to an acronym which may be new to you: SLAPP.

SLAPP is short for "strategic lawsuit against public participation". This term was coined to describe a certain type of bogus lawsuit which is sometimes used by malevolent individuals to silence their critics. For example, if a publisher wanted to silence a blogger who had been airing said publisher’s dirty laundry, they could file a SLAPP.

The cost of defending against a lawsuit can be onerous, leading some to give in. On the other hand, this type of lawsuit can also result in a Streisand effect, attracting even more attention to the story which Ellora’s Cave is trying to bury.

What’s more, even if this lawsuit doesn’t generate even more negative publicity for Ellora’s Cave, it will result in the public airing of all of that publisher’s dirty laundry during the discovery process. If even half of the rumors going around are true, we could well see many authors suing Ellora’s Cave for unpaid royalties.

image  by steakpinball

Google’s 10 month old Newsstand app finally made its way to iOS this week. It was released as an update to the Currents app, which is no more.

The new Newsstand app offers many of the same features found in its Android sibling, including a Flipboard-esque interface which combines features of that news aggregator with Pocket-like options to save articles to be read later, resulting in a very pretty app which is intended more to entertain than to inform (this news junky does not approve).

Readers can subscribe to and follow any of hundreds of news sources, but it’s not clear whether they can also subscribe to paid news sources like magazines and newspapers. This feature is available in the Android app, but I can’t confirm that it is present in the iPad app, which won’t install for me.

You can find the app in iTunes.

Changelog:

• New navigation helping you easily access the articles and editions you love including:
– Read Now – Easily access articles you subscribe to and discover new articles and editions all in one place
– Topics – Subscribe and get news from topics you are most interested in
– My Library – All of your subscriptions will be found here
• A brand new design giving you a streamlined news reading experience

Here’s a new publishing program from Amazon which is so new that it doesn’t yet have a launch day, URL, or even a name.

Late last week Amazon started sending out emails to KDP authors, informing them of a new program which Amazon plans to launch soon.

According to the email, which was forwarded to me by author Angela Kulig and by Amazon’s pr dept, when the new program launches authors will be welcomed to submit their unpublished book to what I would describe as a crowd sourcing program.

Details are still scarce, but the email did say that it will work like this:

1. Authors will be asked to submit their complete, never-before-published book and cover.
2. After a few days, we will post the first pages of each book on a new website for readers to preview and nominate their favorites.
3. Books with the most nominations will be reviewed by our team for potential publication.

I’ve confirmed the new program with Amazon pr spokesperson Susan Stockman, who told me that this program will be neither KDP nor Amazon Publishing, but something new. Unfortunately the program is so new that she was unable to provide much additional information.

Edit: If you would like to sign up to be notified when this program launches, Amazon has started a mailing list.

She was, however, able to confirm the contract terms mentioned in the email. Note what it says about the print and digital rights:

• Guaranteed advance & competitive royalties: You will receive a guaranteed $1,500 advance and 50% royalties on net eBook revenue.
• Focused formats: We acquire worldwide publication rights for eBook and audio formats in all languages. You retain all other rights, including print.
• 5-year renewable terms, $5,000 in royalties: If your book doesn’t earn $5,000 in royalties during your initial 5-year contract term, and any 5-year renewal term after that, you can choose to stop publishing with us.
• Easy reversions: After two years, your rights in any format or language that remains unpublished, or all rights for any book that earns less than $500 in total royalties in the preceding 12-month period, can be reverted upon request – no questions asked.
• Early downloads & reviews: One week prior to release date, everyone who nominated your book will receive a free, early copy to help build momentum and customer reviews.
• Featured Amazon marketing: Your book will be enrolled into the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, Kindle Unlimited as well as be eligible for targeted email campaigns and promotions.

Amazon isn’t the first publisher to try crowd-sourcing (in fact, a couple have launched similar programs in the past couple years) but if and when this program launches they will certainly be the most visible.

What do you think of the program?

I’ll confess; as a non-author I am reserving my opinion in order to let the experts weigh in.

For example, glancing through the KDP discussion forum where I first found this story, I can see that a couple authors have already expressed interest in this program:

Most of us, however, are not selling as well as we would like. For example, in a good month I may move fifty books, more during promotions. My titles have good editorial and customer reviews (and NOT by friends and relatives, either), and I’d like to think they are worth reading. I know one can’t put much stock in opinions of people one knows, but when people I haven’t seen in years have gotten in touch to tell me how much they enjoyed one of the books, I have to think that means something. All of that said, the books haven’t exactly caught fire. I could just be deceiving myself, but I’ve always felt being able to market to just the right audience could cause them to catch fire. For me, this kind of offer sounds tempting because of Amazon’s ability to market effectively on their own site. Anyway, the relative ease with which the rights revert to me if I don’t get the results I expect would reduce any risk involved.

And:

I’d be all over it with a stand-alone just to generate more name exposure, which could lead to sales of my other books.

What do you think?

image by tompagenet

When the alternative blog platform Svbtle launched in 2011, it followed the big boys (WordPress, Tumblr, and Blogger) and offered a free service.  Svbtle was invite only back then, but even after it opened up to the public earlier this year the service was still free.

That changed today. TNW reports that Svbtle is now charging bloggers $6 a month for the service. Existing users can still post for free, but any new users will have to pay.

In exchange for the monthly fee, the new users will have the option of setting a custom domain, and they’ll also have access to at least a few features which existing paid users don’t have, including email subscriptions.

I haven’t used Svbtle myself, but I have been following it distantly. According to its creator, Svbtle was launched in response to existing platforms which "become too complicated by focusing on the wrong things". Svbtle was developed with the goal of focusing on what was really important:

Svbtle is designed to highlight the things that matter; it’s an extremely simple platform for collecting and developing ideas, sharing them with the world, and reading them. That’s it. We’ve focused all of our energy into designing the simplest interface possible for accomplishing these goals. Svbtle is blogging with everything else stripped away.

I’ve never used Svbtle, but he could well be right. One thing I’ve noticed after using WordPress for nearly 5 years is that it’s really not all that useful at developing a blog post. The interface is too complicated, too complex, and too busy for that, and as a result most of my posts come from ideas, concepts, and thoughts tesseracting around inside my own head (as opposed to typing them and letting them go from mind to screen to mind again).

I have only found WordPress useful at getting an idea down, not developing it, so I can see the appeal of a platform like Svbtle.

***

I don’t cover this enough on this blog, but over the past few years we’ve seen multiple new niche blog platforms launch, almost as if we were in the beginnings of a renaissance (or bubble, of you prefer the pessimistic view). In addition to Svbtle, there’s also Medium (which is both a publisher and a platform), PostHaven, Ghost, and a bunch more which I am only just learning about today.

Have you used one of these platforms? I’d love to read what you think.

• My experience moving to Ghost & why I dislike Tumblr, Svbtle
• Farewell to Svbtle
• Why I’m using Ghost over Svbtle, Medium and WordPress
• Svbtle vs. Posthaven
• The 15 Most Beautiful and Best Blogging Platforms available on the internet today (Knolzone)

When I first reported yesterday that B&N had removed the option to download ebook purchases from its website, I didn’t know whether that was a technical snafu or an intentional move. Sadly, B&N has confirmed that they did it on purpose:

The ability to download from the NOOK® website and then sideload certain NOOK eBooks has been discontinued as part of a recent security update. Content that has previously been downloaded can continue to be sideloaded to NOOK devices. Customers can continue to access all of their content through the NOOK Library® on any NOOK device or Free NOOK Reading App™ as they have always been able to do. Customers can also continue to sideload other supported file formats.

Given the ease with which one can strip the DRM from the ebooks bought at the Nook Store, I’m not sure exactly what security is gained by blocking the direct download option. (Kudos to Chris Meadows for guessing that B&N would be foolish enough to use security as their justification).

But never mind B&N; let’s look at what readers should do next.

How to Download Nook eBooks

You can still download Nook ebooks, but since we can no longer trust B&n to allow us access to our purchases I think you should go ahead and take the extra step of stripping the DRM as well.

Whether you choose to take that step is your business, but how you go about it will depend on how you read Nook ebooks.

For example, if you read on a Nook ereader, you can use the DRM-stripping instructions I posted in late 2012 to automatically transfer your ebooks off of your device and on to a computer via a USB cable. I updated those instructions in late 2013, so they don’t quite match the current version of Calibre, but they can still be used as a guideline.

If you don’t have a Nook device, I think your best bet would be to install either NookStudy or Nook4PC and use those apps to download your ebooks. Of course, they can’t download everything, just the ebooks which they can open ( N4PC does not support digital comics, for example).

Neither app is supported any longer by B&N, but you can download ebooks – and then you can strip the DRM.

But what if you don’t want to strip the DRM, but simply want to download the ebooks? In that case, you might want to consider a handy little userscript for Firefox and Chrome.

B&N’s change in policy has upset a lot of people, and a couple helpful souls over at MobileRead have dredged up a userscript that adds a download link for each ebook on your My Nook page. It’s really easy to use, and it doesn’t do anything other than help you download an ebook. It won’t strip the DRM, but it does give you a copy of your purchases.

In order to use the script, you will first need to install either GreaseMonkey (Firefox) or TaperMonkey (Chrome). These are plugins which you will need to run the script.

You can find the script at this link. I got it to work on both Chrome and Firefox. As you can see in the screen shot below, it adds a download link, not a button.