A Quick Bit of Customer Service re: Redshirts
Posted on June 5, 2012 Posted by John Scalzi 79 Comments
Folks, I’m getting some feedback that some online stores are slapping digital rights management on Redshirts, which I am assuming is the fault of some apparatchik in the bowels of their organization not getting the memo. I’ve already alerted Tor about it; I assume once someone gets into the office there that it will be dealt with. In the meantime:
1. Tor Books (and my) intent is to sell the Redshirts eBook DRM-free.
2. If you have a Redshirts eBook that has DRM on it, it’s not something that we asked for or want.
3. If for some unfathomable reason your preferred vendor has put DRM on your copy of the Redshirts eBook, I’m just gonna leave this here for you.
4. Feel free to complain to the retailer in question about adding DRM, and point them to this entry as evidence that their DRM is going against my and Tor’s wishes for the eBook.
At the moment, it does appear Amazon is selling the eBook DRM-free; it’s nice that the largest online retailer in the world, at least, has clued in.
Sorry about the glitch. Please do remember that Redshirts is the very first book from Tor meant to be sold without DRM on it; there are bound to be kinks in the pipeline. We’ll get them worked out. Have patience and a little faith. Thanks.
The irony here is that when I talked at Tor’s presentation yesterday, I noted that one of the problems of DRM from a writer perspective is that we have to act as frontline customer service about it. This is exactly what I’m talking about. I won’t miss it.
Update, 7:30 am: A note from Patrick Nielsen Hayden at Tor telling me that this will be the first thing that’s addressed by Macmillan’s digital publishing folks today. He also says, and this is a direct quote, “This will be fixed and that we’ll make this right with everyone who’s been affected by it.” Told you we were on it!
Any reason why redshirts isn’t available in Germany as eBook in English?
Thomas: it seems that, in contrast to paper books where US and UK editions are being legally sold in Germany right next to each other, for ebook sales we get lumped in with the UK, at least for the Kindle editions. Which sucks, if it is true. Geographic restrictions on digital files suck. Most of all because my assumption when reading “without DRM” was (naively) that there wouldn’t be any other restrictions either.
Now I do get that for the UK, contractual reasons demand that there will be a different publisher with different rights and whatnot, but for Germany that was never the case before! If additional restrictions now get imposed with teh shiny new ebooks that weren’t there with paper books .. Well colour me unimpressed.
The TOR website is rather unhelpful re where to buy ebooks. It lists, in a dropdown box, “Barnes & noble nook”, “apple ibookstore”, “Sony reader” and “kobo”. All of which seem to be device-specific stores.
so where do I click for “take my money and give me an epub file to read on whichever device”?
sorry, I’m new to buying ebooks, so far I’ve only read free stuff due to not wanting/accepting DRM.
Guys, I have no control over how Amazon runs its store, much less how it runs its store in countries I don’t live in.
Michael: At this instant we know Amazon is selling Redshirts DRM-free. You can then easily convert into whichever format your prefer via Calibre or some other conversion product.
Annnnd, one customer service problems swaps its self for another.
I’m guessing that selling a book in English in a foreign country (and yes, the internet tries to account for that) still has international distribution rights issues to deal with, just like streaming media.
Much of this is caused by differing laws dealing with revenue distribution. You have to have a separate contract for different regions. I learned a bit about it while working at eMusic.com, where dealing with complaints about listed albums not being available in non-American countries was a steady thing. We had and auto-reply macro for it :-)
If you want it, and can get a US distributor to accept your credit card, I suggest getting on a proxy server to assign yourself a US looking IP address and getting it from a US distributor if you want it right away. http://askville.amazon.com/setup-USA-IP-address-programs-browsers/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=1241873
Glad to hear that whatever the snafu was, it’ll be resolved this morning. (I’m still a little disappointed though. I’ve bought DRM-free books from both the iBookstore and Nook store before. They should already know how to do this.)
Michael, once Redshirts actually is DRM-free, none of those stores will be device-specific (at least wrt this one book). They all use ePub as their base format. For example, I’ve read DRM-free books from B&N within the iBooks app on my iPad with no problem. (DRM-free books from the iBookstore should work fine on the Nook too, but I don’t have a Nook so I can’t test that out.) After the snafus are resolved, you should be able to buy Redshirts from any of those places and read it on whatever device you want.
(Looking forward to the day that all Tor books are DRM-free!)
US-ip doesn’t seem to be all that important to buy things off of the US distributors — I buy quite happily off of the US kindle store, even as I connect from Sweden, with a Swedish billing address and a UK residence…
It probably helps that when I first bought a Kindle, I did so in the US, with a US billing and delivery address; but it’d surprise me if a proxy server is really needed.
Funnily enough, I can order the e-book from Amazon with my (Romanian) account, no restrictions. But… apparently I am actually PREordering it and it will be delivered to my Kindle on November 15. Am I missing something?
the infuriating thing is that the rights issue was never an issue for paper books. Both UK and US publishers have no exclusive rights to the German market. German publishers probably have exclusive rights to sell translated versions, but the English language versions can be sold from whichever publisher. Amazon.de happily lists any version of any english book. But for ebooks, that is suddenly WORSE. WTF?
Just went to amazon.com, and there it also tells me that I could buy the US hardcover right now or the Kindle edition in November. Which means it lumps Germany in with the UK (did anyone tell the Queen and Angela Merkel?).
John: things would be much easier if your novel was sold by Angry Robot books (kidding, but they have very nice no-nonsense “drm free, geofucking-free, worldwide”-terms, which is why so far that were the only ebooks i’ve bought (Lauren Beukes’ books, if you’re curious))
John, this has absolutely nothing to do with “how Amazon runs its store”. Amazon sells as much as it can worldwide via Kindle — it is not in its interest to sell less; these days, most of its ebooks are available everywhere, not just US. But unlike most books, I can’t buy Redshirts from Amazon US until November 15, only preorder (and boy, did I hurry to throw money your way!).
No, this is a restriction imposed by your publisher. Your publisher sucks, pure and simple, and you let them.
You know what, I’d really like for this thread not to turn into a complaint session for an issue unrelated to the topic of the post. This thread is specifically about DRM-related issues relating to the Tor Books eBook release. Let’s keep it focused, please.
Hmpf. I generally buy my ebooks from a local bookstore, via their arrangement with Google Books. Unfortunately, the entry I see when I go that route says (1) “Availability: Coming Soon” and (2) “This Google eBook includes an Adobe Digital Editions download.” (Generous interpretation: they’re waiting for someone to arrive at work who knows how to strip the DRM back off.)
I assume the local bookstore can’t do squat, and I can’t find a useful contact for Google Books.
I bought mine from Amazon, and using Calibre, I can say that the book from Amazon HAS DRM. So, please follow through w/ Amazon to correct this…..I know, it sucks.
So, I’ve just tried all the options available.
Barnes & Noble: requires billing adress in the US
Sony: requires billing adress in the US
Amazon: only offers UK edition (i.e. November)
Kobo: auto-transfers me to German site which has never heard of Redshirts by a John Scalzi, but funnily enough other novels of that name by other people.
iBookStore: apparently one needs iTunes for that or something.
So, it seems German users, who are legally able to buy your paper book, are not legally able to buy your ebook. And NOT due to rights issues. Germany is not an exclusive-licence country. So that IS a digital restriction of some kind. Sorry if you don’t agree that Geofucking is basically the same issue as DRM. To me, it both means “NO, WE DON’T WANT YOUR MONEY, BECAUSE YOU LIVE IN THE WRONG COUNTRY, YOU UNPERSON”. Same shit as with DVDs.
Follow up: found a possibly-useful contact method on the regular Google Books site, have sent message politely pointing out fail.
Also, too: Folks, please calm the fuck down and refrain from taking any of your issues out on John. We’d all be better served if you’d use you energy to contact the resellers and — if appropriate — Tor.
Kobo as seen in Canada uses DRM too. I’ve used twitter, as they are usually semi responsive to things there. I figure I will wait to see if they fix it before I buy it? I’m not sure what “make it right” means — I can de-DRM books myself, and don’t really think Tor would owe me more.
On the other hand, I might get impatient. I have a gift card with almost exactly the cost of Redshirts left on it.
Is there any way to buy the e-book directly from Tor at this time?
Is there anything to indicate on the e-book’s page on Amazon that it is DRM-free?
MIchael.
The billing address is the address you wish your bills (which are not sent by mail anyway) be sent to. this may be your own residence , or somewhere else entirely , maybe another country even. If Amazon whishes to assume this is where you live it is their prerogative. you do not have correct them on this point.
in order to save on shipping costs you can even give Amazon’s own address (1200 12th Ave. South, Ste. 1200
Seattle, WA 98144-2734
WA Tel. 206-266-1000
)
and address this to Mr. dave Null :)
I gave up trying to understand the stupid publisher tricks when audible had the whole OMW books available for my country except The Ghost Brigades
I ‘m planning to purchase a copy from the ibook store ASAP. Is there any chance you could post an update if/when you receive confirmation that Apple is indeed selling it DRM-free? (This is mainly directed at John, but if anyone has already purchased the ibook and found it to be DRM-free, please let me know)
please note that if I did indeed use some non-polite words I did not intend to convey the meaning that our host is personally responsible for the ebook not being available in Germany at this time. That would be ridiculous.
What I do hold him responsible for though is him pointing to the FAQ for these cases which just covers EITHER english-language territories not-in-the-us-or-canada (where contract stuff applies re exclusive rights) XOR translations for other countries. As you may by now have realized, dear host, there are a number of people in e.g. Germany who want to read your book IN ENGLISH. And who don’t understand why if there are no contractual/legal reasons stopping US retailiers from selling said book to them, these retailers go to every effort possible to make sure to NOT EVER SELL ANYTHING IN GERMANY. It is just baffling. And saying “international, legal reasons” is the wrong answer because there are no legal reasons. There would be for the UK (and the situation there sucks, certainly) (and Ireland, presumably), but not for the rest of Europe. What is needed is a very large and cartoonish cluebat applied to the relevant heads in whatever legal and/or sales departments.
I bought mine on B&N. It did have DRM on it. I used their online help chat and let them know. The rep said she would forward it up the line.
Redshirts eBook purchased from Kobo Canada while bleary eyed this morning, didn’t notice DRM until too late. Pointed email sent to Kobo, I’ll post the reply if and when I get one. Not complaining to you, kind sir, just a statement. Now that I have coffee and am fully awake, I’m SO VERY EXCITED to finally able to read the rest of this book and its codas. Thanks!
I also bought mine from Barnes & Noble, with DRM–and have sent in my complaint.
Possibly slightly off topic, but was the intention for just the text-eBook to be DRM free or also the Audio/Audible version?
All I can say is: ++ Michael for taking the words out of my mouth and pushing the “Germany/Geolocation” issue. I also wanted to buy it today and it’s absolutely ridiculous that I can order the paper-book without any problem but for the ebook I have to wait until november. Wasn’t one of the selling points of ebooks in general the immidiate availability?
@Michael Are you this offensive all the time?
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing interface for self-publishers lets you choose whether to add DRM, whether to allow lending, and in which countries you own the distribution rights. That may well be different from their interface for large-scale publishers, of course, but if it is someone needs to complain.
Below is the official reply from Sony customer support regarding my complaint:
“Thank you for contacting Sony Support.
We have reviewed your information in regards to the DRM free version of this ebook. According to some information, it appears that the publisher is planning on releasing a DRM free Store Tor.com, but this is not related to the Sony Reader Store in any way. All of our ebooks are copyright protected and it is not possible for us to send you a DRM free copy. We are sorry for the confusion, but there is nothing we can do. If you would like to confirm this information, feel free to contact the publisher and notify them. They may be able to issue a DRM free copy for you.
In regards to digital content, all sales are final and we cannot provide a refund because there is nothing wrong with the ebook and such a feature was never advertised on our website.
Thank you for understanding.
[…]
The Sony Email Response Team
C6R2
Paul”
Sony and Apple…poor source for ebooks! Just saying.
@David nope, only when I’m pissed off and only in English (we are taught that this is how Americans communicate .. at least American media teaches us this).
John, I’m stone brokity-broke-broke right now, so I’ve got Redshirts on hold at the library instead of on my to-buy list, which is going to be dormant for a while, I think. I intend to catch up once I’m afloat again.
But thanks so much for the pointer to ethical de-DRMing, because the ePub books my library makes available can only be read on my desktop and not my iPad. (There is supposed to be a way around this, but it requires that you have purchased the book and won’t cover loans.) I now have hopes that I can read my borrowed books in a more comfortable environment than my damn office, then can delete them once done. I know that if I even think of messing with libraries, the tiny explosive charge embedded within me during library school would be triggered, and that would be awfully messy.
Christian Decomain: Well, if I’d had any reason to think Sony had changed their ways since they were caught putting rootkits on CDs, your story usefully disabuses me of that notion. Thanks for passing along the message, and I hope that Tor can at least make it right for you eventually.
“i. If you have Microsoft LIT ebooks, there is no Calibre plugin that can remove the DRM…”
Color me unsurprised.
Sony is a poor choice for anything. Remember, this is the company that thought it was perfectly okay to install a rootkit on your computer when you inserted one of their music CDs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal
It doesn’t sound like their attitude has changed very much.
@Jennifer Davis Ewing
If you follow the link to Apprentice Alf’s Blog left by John S, you’ll find another link at the bottom of that post to “Windows, Python, Ebooks and DRM”. Right at the bottom there is info on how to deal with LIT books.
I talked to another representative at the Sony Reader store live chat and didn’t get much further than Christian above. I’m going to give it a couple days to shake out, but have already let them know that I have not received the product that I was led to believe I was purchasing and would potentially dispute their credit card charge if at the end we could not figure any details out.
All that can be done now until Tor works their relationships is to wait until more details are available and ironed out I guess.
I bought the book through Google Play and I can only download the .acsm file not the .epub file (I can read it on the website or on my phone/tablet also) so I’m on hold to talk to someone about it. Will update on how it shakes out. I’m in Canada, if that makes a difference…
Ok, spoke to someone at Google Play. She was just a customer service representative but said that she would send my issue to the Quality department where they would contact the publisher about this and would get back to me within a few business days to tell me “if and when” I could get a DRM-free version since it seemed to her that I was right.
So, I’m hopeful but nothing is confirmed yet.
I just got the following response from Books on Board:
Thank you for shopping with BooksOnBoard. We sell books directly in the condition we receive them from the distributors we work with. If there are any changes needed in the DRM status of any book, it needs to happen on the publisher-to-distributor level first. If you wish to pursue this further, I recommend contacting the publisher and inquire about their status with eBook distributors.
> So that IS a digital restriction of some kind. Sorry if you don’t agree that Geofucking is basically the same issue as DRM.
speaking from a technical perspective, they’re totally different.
DRM entails taking the ebook file and constraining it so that you can’t use it except in certain devices.
Geof*cking entails taking the *sales mechanisms* and constraining them so that you can only get the file if you meet certain rules.
From the end user perspective, the effects are similar, sure. But they have completely different mechanisms of action.
John, assuming that we must pick only one format for purchasing Redshirts, which format would directly benefit you the most, paper or eBook?
@Plinth
John has indicated a few times on Whatever, most recently here, that it makes no difference to him what version you buy.
Hm, looks like the DMR free launch didn’t quite go as planned. I am really sorry to hear that. It’s kinda you-laugh-so-that-you-do-not-cry funny that so many distributors have trouble with that concept.
But eitherway, I want to say thanks for using your influence to fight this fight, Mr. Scalzi – you’re really going beyound expectations here. So, yeah, thanks.
Im just another german who is very disapointet that i cant red the book in its *original* language.
Calibre is worth knowing about with or without DRM. I discovered it a couple of months ago and must say that’s it’s everything good software should be – tight, light-weight, free of useless features, customizable, intuitive, cross-platform and available in a portable install build. Kovid Goyal is the kind of developer I could’ve used when I was selling data analysis tools.
“I still fervently believe that the only way to make software secure, reliable, and fast is to make it small. Fight Features.” ~ Andrew Tanenbaum
I am amazed at how much effort Tor is putting into resolving this issue! What a great turn of events for eReaders. Now I can buy from my preferred vendor and use my preffered eReader device. Hopefully this will make everybody focus on the best product from all sides, reading and distribution. Tor’s efforts at pleasing their customers moves them way up the “good companies” list in my mind.
Am I the only one who sees irony in the artist writing item #3?
On billing addresses, I have not researched it, but a fake billing address might run into problems if the vendor wants your billing address to be the same as the billing address for the credit card you are using to pay.
I just wanted to say thank you John for being our information source on this (even though its not your job) and you rock! Also, I will be buying SO many books from Tor when they get their store up.
@Michael: beruhig dich! Deine Agressive Rumschreierei ist hier völlig fehl am Platze.
@John: This is the first time this geo-limitation stopped me from buying one of your books. I get it that you’re not the one directly responsible, but could you get an explanation from your publisher as to why they’re imposing this limit? All your other books were available in English as soon as they came out in the US.
Christian Decomain:
Forward that one to Tor.
Also respond to Sony with the policy Tor stated on their blog: “DRM-free titles from Tom Doherty Associates will be available from the same range of retailers that currently sell their e-books. In addition, the company expects to begin selling titles through retailers that sell only DRM-free books.”
ie: if Sony doesn’t jump on board, TOR is pulling books.
@Samalander: I also bought the book from Google Play (also from Canada… we don’t seem to have that many options when it comes to buying in epub format). If you’ve got the .acsm file on your computer, you can get the epub file too by opening the .acsm in Adobe Digital Editions. It’ll still be DRM’d, but there should be an epub file in Documents\My Digital Editions, and you should be able to de-DRM it using your method of choice.
John Scalzi – the Nordstrom of authors.
American media teaches us this
American media teaches us that Germans invade other countries at the drop of a hat. Shall we both attempt to break away from those particular lessons?
Recent tweets from Patrick Nielsen Hayden that may be of interest:
One:
And two:
Several ebook stores put DRM on everything they sell–Sony, Diesel, Booksonboard I’m sure of. Kobo and B&N might have a no-DRM option; neither of those indicates which books don’t have DRM. Amazon used to indicate by having “Device Limit: Unlimited” on non-DRM’d books, but that apparently vanished. (I don’t have an Amazon Kindle account, so I never saw that part of the listings.)
Releasing a book intended to be DRM-free into a market that places DRM on it… is a terrific way to force the issue that DRM-removal for personal use is legal. DRM is, in this case, *NOT* protecting the author’s rights; it’s being assigned directly against the wishes of the author (and authorized agent, the publisher), which means that removing the DRM isn’t violating anyone’s rights. Using a “DRM stripping” program–and sharing it with someone else–is not breaking any laws here, because the device-and-program locking mechanism attached to these ebooks is not “DRM”–because it’s not managing digital rights. (IANAL. TINLA.)
This is a nice, solid, non-infringing use for the technology. We need precedents like this. Thank you, John, for making this announcment, and kudos to Tor for being supportive on the issue.
Basically, I went to B&N and told them their Nook entry was inappropriate because of the DRM put on it in contravention of both the publisher’s and author’s wishes, and said i was buying a copy from Amazon.
Not worth much by myself, but if other people did the same….
@tanglebones: I know this but since it is supposed to be DRM-free to start with, I figured I’d poke Google so they did the right thing for everyone else who isn’t as savvy. :) I believe Kobo is from Canada too, but I might be wrong on that. I went with Google since I already had an account (and devices with the apps pre-installed) and I didn’t with Kobo.
@Abi Sutherland: Thanks for letting us know! I’ll be doing that while Google gets their store in order.
Any idea why the kindle version isnt available until November on amazon.de? http://www.amazon.de/Redshirts-ebook/dp/B0087GYY92
I just did what @Abi Sutherlan pointed to and got a response with the file attached in 8 minutes! I didn’t really need the file, but I figured that this way Tor/Macmillan know which stores they need to talk to about removing the DRM.
Clearly Scalzi is out to thumb his nose at all Germans with the release strategy for this book. Or, possibly, frustrate them so much that they become just as rude as Americans, and can no longer look down their noses at our uncivlized behavior. So far, so good.
Thanks, @Abi, you’re a lifesaver.
@Elfwreck:
“Kobo and B&N might have a no-DRM option; neither of those indicates which books don’t have DRM.”
Kobo clearly indicates DRM-free content. Compare these two pages:
http://bit.ly/LxkkA0 (no DRM)
http://bit.ly/Lxkwz6 (Redshirts w/DRM)
If you look just under the publishing details and the Send/Like buttons, you’ll see either “EPUB (DRM-Free)” or “Adobe DRM EPUB” – which should be self-explanatory.
Kobo customer care’s response, BTW:
“Yes we understand that the publishers and the authors are heavily stating the fact their books will be DRM Free everywhere, but here at Kobo we are selling the format of the book that was given to us by the publishers and once we get the updated version we would be able to change this. But for right now, DRM protected is what we have available and we apologize that you are not looking to purchase it as a DRM protected copy of the books.”
“Clearly Scalzi is out to thumb his nose at all Germans with the release strategy for this book. Or, possibly, frustrate them so much that they become just as rude as Americans, and can no longer look down their noses at our uncivlized behavior. So far, so good.”………..
Why would Mr. Scalzi want to do that?
@Mark DeKruyter: it was a joke, which might require reading the whole comment thread to get. Possibly it wouldn’t be funny anyway.
@ Rev. Bob: I stand corrected; thank you. I hadn’t looked at Kobo in quite a while, because the last time I did, they either DRM’d everything or didn’t say which ebooks didn’t have DRM–which meant I wasn’t interested in shopping there.
I’m fascinated by the claim “we put out what the publishers give us”… because DRM is applied at the time of sale. Publishers don’t provide a DRM’d book; they click the “DRM” or “don’t DRM” button at time of upload. (Possibly, publishers with large lists send in a pack of files and a spreadsheet, but the principle is the same.)
If TOR had their plans set correctly, someone (or some bit of software) at Kobo isn’t paying attention to the settings.
For those reading the whole thread. I just went back to the book in my Google Play books and it is now free from DRM! Congrats to everyone involved for reacting so quickly.
The file is 100KB smaller than the one I got from Macmillan by email earlier in the day though. Not quite sure why that is; the content looks the same. *shrug*
Noob question: How does one determine that a book purchased from B&N for Nook has a DRM? My google-fu has failed me on this issue.
I purchased Redshirts for my Kindle, and the DRM, which Amazon used to include for free, appears to be missing. To whom can I complain about this? Jeff Bezos refuses to take my calls.
The easiest way to tell if an ebook has DRM is to try to read it with another ebook reader. (ePubs are zip files so I suppose you could unzip it then take a look at the contents, but it’s probably easier to download Calibre or Sigil and see what either one makes of the file. The former organizes and converts ebooks. The latter is an ePub editor.)
BTW, on the other thread, someone mentioned that B&N is now serving the DRM-free version. You can just download it from B&N again. Also, someone left a comment at the iBookstore that Apple is now also serving the DRM-free version.
Thank you to everyone at Tor for getting this straightened out so quickly.
The easiest way to tell if an ebook has DRM is to try to read it with another ebook reader.
That’s assuming that you’ve already bought it. Some of us want to know whether we have full access to our purchases *before* we spend money on them.
I live in Germany. I would like to exchange money for an english copy of the Redshirts ebook. This is currently legally impossible. The Powers That Be decided that I should wait 5 months. So no german euros for you, Mr. Scalzi.
Unsychronized local markets do not align well with a globalized internet connected world.
Hmmm…
1) Accept $13 from a German would be reader.
2) Buy a DRM-free copy of Redshirts from Amazon (or B&N, or Google, or whoever) for $11.99.
3) Email file to German reader.
Sounds like a business model to me. No underpants gnomes needs.
Books on Board still has Redshirts listed (as of 1 minute ago) with DRM-infestation. Didn’t matter, since I had my copy jailbroken about thirty seconds after I downloaded it.
Amazon is selling a DRM’d version of Redshirts. When I complained to them about it they responded with:
“…I looked up for the details of the book on our website and could not find any information about the book “Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas” to be DRM-Free. I can confirm that the publisher of the Kindle version of the book has provided us the DRM version of the book.”
They offered a refund, but I’ll take you and MacMillan up on your kind offer and email my Amazon receipt to redshirtsdrm@macmillanusa.com for a DRM-free copy.
So far I’ve gone thru five chapters and it’s a great read. It’s a nice change after two weeks of A storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin.
The version at Apple is now DRM free. Happy fathers day to me.
I need now only figure out how to get apple to re-accept my cash. They had reversed the charge, but thier payment system still thinks I own it fairly. Worst case, I buy it under a different id.
I just started it (US Amazon; downloaded in India where I’m working)–DRM free and great so far! Thanks for another good read John!
Apple just got back to us, telling us that they were not willing to reverse the charges on the DRM-ed version, as they use DRM to “protect the copyright holder’s rights”. Had they instead read the request, and asked us “want to try redownloading now that we have removed the DRM instead of reversing the charge”, I would have enthusiastically agreed, since I really did just want the problem fixed, but a rude form letter sucks.
May I suggest Google, B&N, or Amazon? They seem to understand customer service.
I just tried to buy it from Apple, and was told that it would not work on non-Apple products, implying it still has DRM on it (not sure if this is just the automatic message on all their books, and the DRM has been removed, or if it is still on). Buying from Amazon instead.
John, I’m your fans seen Old Man’s Wars, I’ve got a iPad and wish to move to ereader, but do not wish to tie down by DRM. I’m trying to get a copy from legal channel but Amazon and B&N don’t sell ebook international. Currently I’m only buying from Baen ebook store as they 1) sell to anyone in this world, 2) no DRM.
Is there anyway for me to get a legal copy ? from asia ? non DRM ?
tks
I have just noticed your link to one of my blog posts. I am very pleased to have my blog recommended by John Scalzi. Thank you.
— Alf.