Adobe Digital Editions' ebook DRM: Difference between revisions

*Compatible with the Mobile and Tablet.

With the release of the platform and specifically the Adobe Digital Edition application, consumers have been restricted on what they are allowed to do with ebooks that they have purchased. Although unlimited downloads are mentioned by publishers and ebook sites, those are tied to an account <ref name=":12">https://help.barnesandnoble.com/hc/en-us/articles/5445106302107-DRM-for-NOOK-Content</ref>. This means that if access to an account is lost, then the access to those ebooks is lost as well. eBooks.com is one of the various e-bookstores that sells both non-DRM and DRM books leveraging ADE. When purchasing an ebook from them, you get a .acsm file. This format only works with the Adobe Digital Editions application. The user needs to create an Adobe account (after already creating an ebooks.com account) in order to add the book to their account. ADE (pertaining to purchases from ebooks.com) allows for authorization of up to 10 devices with a single Adobe ID, but only one computer <ref name=":2">https://support.ebooks.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360000726656-What-is-DRM-DRM-FAQs</ref>. The end user would not be able to read a book on a home computer and then later on a laptop simultaneously due to this limitation. Barnes and Noble uses ADE as well for their ebooks, with their limitations being a bit different in comparison to ebooks.com's. They have 4 versions of DRM types they leverage for the books sold on their site <ref>https://help.barnesandnoble.com/hc/en-us/articles/5445106302107-DRM-for-NOOK-Content</ref>:

On Reddit, consumers are constantly inquiring about steps to remove the Adobe DRM, as it is obstructing the end-users method of being able to comfortably read the ebooks they have purchased. One of the multiple examples, can be seen at the following link: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/xvct89/adobe_digital_editions_drm/.

In the Abbey House Media v. Apple Inc ruling on an ebookstore notifying users of how to remove ebook DRM, a judge has ruled that telling users to remove DRM from books they have legally purchased is "not contributory copyright infringement"<ref>https://www.eff.org/document/abbey-house-media-v-apple-inc</ref><ref name=":3">https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/12/pointing-users-drm-stripping-software-isnt-copyright-infringement-judge-rules?language=en</ref>. The summary of this case being that the removal of DRM protection on books in non-infringing cases of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) does not necessarily lead to the piracy of digital books<ref name=":3" />.