First Skype, then MobiPocket
The Skype outage rolls on, or not, depending on your perspective as I’m still unable to log on to Skype. Of more import to me however, is the fact that MobiPocket has been down now for over a day and a half. I’ve written a few times how I am enjoying MobiPocket for reading and purchasing ebooks and this outage has hit me hard, leaving me stranded high and bookless. I use MobiPocket on three different devices, the Fujitsu P1610, RIM BlackBerry 8830 and the HTC Advantage. Yesterday I finished the book I had been reading while I was out and about. I was using the BlackBerry at that time and tried to log onto my account at MobiPocket because I discovered the last few books I purchased had not been downloaded to the phone. I got a strange error message leaving me to believe something had gone wonky with the BlackBerry configuration. When I got back to my office I went to the MobiPocket web site and got this strange web page:
I am still getting this error over a day later which has me concerned over the ability to get to my bookshelf and access books I have purchased. Remember that this web site is also the online store so for them to be down this long indicates something is very, very wrong.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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NOTICE: A major problem occurred with the Mobipocket DRM server at about 6:30 PM Eastern Time, Wednesday, August 15. Engineers at Mobipocket.com have informed us that they hope to be back online sometime this weekend, August 18 or 19. We have switched, where possible, all Secure Mobipocket files purchased during the downtime to an alternative DRM provider, Content Reserve. We have also taken all titles that could not be switched offline in Mobipocket format until the problem is resolved.
So, at this point in time, any Secure Mobipocket title you see onsale can be downloaded immediately. Titles that cannot be downloaded immediately have been temporarily taken offsale in the Secure Mobipocket format.
We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, and we will post a new message when the problem is resolved.
I just checked my bookshelf and all my dead trees are still fully accessible ;)
SHORT LIVE DRM!!! THE DAYS OF DRM ARE NUMBERED!!!
Want to know what DRM //REALLY// stands for?
Dreadful Restrictions Madness!!!
My only advice: Stear clear from DRMatic and proprietary, closed and locked formats!!
This is nothing but problems, headaches, constraints, limitations of all sorts, NO RESALE VALUE, impossible/hard to hand down to your heirs, and other painful nightmares.
EVEN just thinking about it is dreadful!!!
It’s a very bad business model; commercial DRMatized movies and ebooks more than anything else have been total failures!! Music is only marginally better; when you know that there are NOT EVEN 20 songs sold for every iPod, probably less if you count other brands, thats just ONE CD’s worth; when ALL those devices are advertized they can store thousands of titles…
Read here about movies:
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=70176
And here for the first HUGE nail in DRM’s coffin, yekyekyek!!
http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,12197&sid=c7bcc5d15bcd50db53dc431eb5a48eca
Thanks for filling us in, Jayson. It’s good news that you will be back up this weekend. I can’t be alone in my concern that this has made it impossible for me to access ebooks I have already purchased. I used eReader for years prior to switching to MobiPocket and never experienced an inability to download ebooks I had purchased like this.
It’s ironic that the problem you are experiencing is with the DRM system, something you already see here is not a popular topic and not a good reason for downtime in user’s eyes.
This is why the push to have everything on the internet, programs and data, isn’t going to be in my future. I noticed also that the Free AVG antivirus website was down for a few days as well so no updates were available. The internet just isn’t something you can rely on. And as if to confirm my thoughts I wasn’t able to post this message earlier because Typepad was down!
John, regarding AVG — what’s your alternative to getting updates via the internet? Buy an update CD in a store every few days? Or are you saying there is a connection between *FREE* and down?
This really bums me out because I finally bought a BlackBerry Curve which is supported by the MobiPocket Reader. However, the DAY I received the phone, MobiPocket had its DRM issues and I couldn’t purchase any books.
I have to install the beta of the reader because I want to store and access my books on my transflash card. To my knowledge, only the beta version of the reader will do that.
However, I cannot download that version until the site is back up! ARRRGGHHH!
I personally limit how much I use mobipocket’s store because my credit cards all charge me an International Transaction Fee whenever I use them with Mobipocket’s site.
I use http://fictionwise.com to buy most of my Mobipocket content.
monday evening the 20th, almost 10 PM in Europe and the site is still DOWN!!!
SHORT LIVE DRM!!!
I AM MAD. I HAVE TO GO ON A TRIP THIS WEEK , I NEEDED TO DOWNLOAD MY BOOKS TO MY NEW PDA SO I HAVE SOMETHING TO READ ON THE PLANE, NOW I CAN NOT DO IT. IT IS JUST B.. SHI. THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS WRONG, WHAT HAPPEN TO THOSE DAYS THAT YOU GO AND PURCHASE A PRODUCT AND IT WAS YOURS FOREVER?