05-08-2011, 11:00 PM | #1 |
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DRM preventing renewal of library book
Hi,
I have a Sony PRS-600 reader and have been borrowing epub books from the library. I recently borrowed a book which I did not finish within the 14 day limit. The library policy is to not allow renewal of electronic books. So I waited for the next reader to return it and then borrowed it again. I have switched from using the Sony Library software to using Calibre because the Sony software has been getting into continuous loops trying to synchronize books that already exist on the Sony or which I deleted and it is trying to restore unsuccessfully. Calibre does not have that problem and gives the user much more control over which books are erased from the reader and which the user wishes to transfer back to the reader. Hooray for Calibre! Tonight, however, I ran into a frustrating problem. Using Calibre, I could transfer the book to the Sony reader, but I got a "Restricted Page" error and could not read the book. I had previously deleted the book from the reader. So I tried transferring the book using Adobe Digital Editions. That worked. However, I did get a warning before the transfer that the file already existed on the reader and did I want to replace it. By replacing the file, I no longer got the DRM warning and the book is readable. Apparently, even though I had deleted the book, there is some information still on the reader which detects an expired borrowing period. The above leads me to a couple of questions. First, without reformatting the Sony Reader, how do I remove all traces of a book so that Calibre will work? Second, should Calibre have a feature that detects the DRM problem and offers to replace the file? Keep in mind that I have legitimately reborrowed the book and have another 14 days to finish reading it. I am not violating any DRM controls. If the lending period has expired, neither the reader nor any of my computer applications (Calibre, Sony Library, and Adobe Digital Editions) will allow me to continue reading the book. Borrowing the book again, resets the lending period and I can again read the book with these applications, but must use Adobe to transfer it to the Sony. Anyone have any suggestions? Is there a way to submit this problem to Calibre for inclusion in the next release? I do have V 0.8.0. Dave W |
05-09-2011, 01:49 AM | #2 |
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One question that was not clear from your description - did you redownload the book after renewing it, and then replace the copy that was in the Calibre library with the one you had just downloaded? That would definitely be necessary to get a copy into Calibre that would avoid the DRM issue.
I do not know if there is anything else that would need doing to clear the Sony end. I would have thought the following procedure might work (after getting the new copy into Calibre as mentioned above): - Connect the Sony and use Calibre to remove the book - eject the Sony and disconnect it. Let the Sony rescan complete. - reconnect the Sony and transfer the new copy of the book over I appologise if you have already tried this sequence. |
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05-09-2011, 03:19 AM | #3 |
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Another thing to note: ADE puts books in a different place than calibre. This can result in having two copies of the book on your device.
To help mitigate this problem, ensure that the Sony plugin preference "Search for books in all folders" is checked. You find this preference at preferences -> plugins -> device interface plugins -> sony. Once that preference is set, then use the device view to delete all the copies of the book. Then as itimpi said, ensure that the newly-downloaded epub is in calibre (replace the epub existing format using edit metadata), and then send the book to the device. |
05-09-2011, 10:27 AM | #4 |
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I thought that I had deleted all copies of the book before downloading the book again. The way I deleted the book from the Sony was from the Sony itself. With the book open, I pressed options and selected delete book. When I checked in Calibre, the book did not show up on the Sony device. Having already downloaded the book from the library, I went to the directory where ADE stored the book and clicked on "Add Book" in Calibre. Then I clicked on "Transfer to Device." The newly transferred book showed up as protected and I was unable to read it. So I deleted it again and opened ADE which I had used to download the book. I checked the Sony reader and no book by that name showed on the reader. So I dragged the book from the ADE library to the Sony reader and got the warning that book already existed on the Sony and did I want to replace it. Selecting to replace the book solved the DRM warning problem. Apparently, when deleting a library book from the Sony, some sort of data remains on the Sony. ADE recognizes this and offers to replace that data with the new file. Calibre does not do that. I'd prefer to use one application to handle all my books, both borrowed and purchased. At this time, Calibre does not provide a way to directly download a library book. I am forced to use ADE. However, I would still prefer to import the book into Calibre and use it to transfer to my Sony. That way, even though there is an extra step, I can still open Calibre to review my book holdings. I can import the book into Calibre, just not transfer it to the reader because of the DRM problem. That's sort of a convoluted way to handle a library book, but I guess I'm stuck with that until Calibre (or Sony) improves the software.
Thanks for the suggestions. Dave W |
05-09-2011, 10:39 AM | #5 |
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If you use the "Add Book" option in Calibre and the book already exists in Calibre, then the Add will probably do nothing as it would be deteced as a duplicate. That would explain your DRM warning as you were still getting the previous version.
If you want to replace an existing format of a book, then as was mentioned the way to do it is to use the Edit Metadata dialog, and there add the replacement to the Formats section of that dialog. You can add it either via the button, or via drag-and-drop. That way of operating will overwrite any existing format of the book if it already exists, and add it if it does not. |
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05-09-2011, 01:06 PM | #6 | |
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05-09-2011, 05:58 PM | #7 |
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Thanks, Charlie, but I am not trying to defeat DRM. I have legitimately borrowed an ebook that I had previously borrowed, but didn't finish reading. I was frustrated that I could not transfer the book to my Sony reader using Calibre. I was able to do the transfer using Adobe Digital Editions. I thought that I had deleted all copies of the previous loan from my hard drive and from the reader. Apparently, I either missed something or residual information is left on the reader that tripped up Calibre. Please note that I was able to load the new copy into Calibre and read it there if I wished. I just could not transfer it to the reader. ADE overcame that. Since the current problem is solved by ADE, I'll have wait until I run into this again before trying the other approaches suggested in this thread. Again, I have no wish to defeat DRM. I just want to transfer a legitimate copy of a borrowed book to the reader using Calibre.
Dave W |
05-09-2011, 06:54 PM | #8 |
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My bad! I just did some more looking around the directories in my hard drive and discovered the older copy of the book I had borrowed in the My Digital Editions directory along with the new copy. I could have sworn that I deleted that book from within Calibre and assumed that Calibre would remove it from the directory. I also deleted it from ADE, but not with a direct file delete using Windows Explorer. Must I do a file delete to be sure the book is off my hard drive? I believe that ADE warned me that the book would be permanently deleted. I guess that didn't happen.
This is all very confusing, but at least I now understand what happened. Thanks for the support from everyone. Dave W |
05-10-2011, 03:36 AM | #9 | |
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