Sharing e-books with a friend.

[IssyGee]

Despite reading other similar forum posts I am still unsure how to share e-books with my friend.  I have a PRS-505 and my friend has a new e-reader touch.  We (obviously) live in different houses and have different laptops.  We each have a sony account and have individually registered our products and computers.  So, how can we share e-books between us?  We would appreciate responses in very plain english please, no disrespect but we are not very technologically advanced!!

[Drumzman]

Hello IssyGee,

Hope I can help.

I think this all depends on what type of eBooks you want to share.  If you want to share out of copyright books then this should be pretty straightforward.  You should simply be able to e.g. e-mail the eBook files between yourselves. Then when you receive an e-mail with an eBook attachment, save the file onto your computer somewhere (doesn't matter too much where as long as you know how to find it!), and then open the Reader Library software.  Go to 'File' at the top and select 'Import Files' - all you have to do is navigate to the place you saved the eBook file from the e-mail and this will transfer it into the Library.  You can then transfer it from your computer onto your Reader in the usual way.  Alternatively you could put the eBook file on to a memory card (if you both have one of the compatible Readers with the slots for cards in the top - your PRS-505 does but you don't mention which Reader your friend has), and lend the memory card to each other.

If, on the other hand you want to share copyrighted eBooks that you have say, purchased on line, then this is not quite so easy, and may even not be possible.

When you each first got your Sony Readers, in order to be able to download (purchase) and read copyrighted eBooks you will have had to create an 'Adobe ID' (you do this by registering with Adobe, usually using an e-mail address, and a password that you choose).  The prompt to do all this happens automatically in Reader Library the first time you buy and download a copyrighted eBook from an on-line store like WHSmith or Waterstones for example.

You can check if you have done this by opening the Reader Library software on your computer and selecting 'Help' from the top menu and then selecting 'About Reader Library'.  In the third item down in the box that opens, you will see a message that says if your computer is authorised or not, and if it is, the e-mail that you used when you created your Adobe ID.

To answer your sharing question, unless both your computer and your friend's computer use the same Adobe ID, copyrighted eBooks can't be shared i.e. won't open on the other person's computer or Reader.  Conversely of course, if you both have used the same Adobe ID, then in theory you should be able to share using the above method, although I confess not to have tried it.

Sorry for the long explanation - I hope in plain enough English to make sense? Hope it helps anyway!

[IssyGee]

Hi Drumzman

Thanks so much for the comprehensive - yet easy to understand, answer.  I had a suspicion that this would be the case as I bought my e-reader 2nd hand and once I had registered with Adobe I could no longer read any of the books downloaded by the previous owner.  Frustrating as I had started to read one!!

So far this is the only bad point in owning an e-reader.  Of course with paper copy books, even though they are copyrighted you still have the option of passing a good read on to a friend, even passing them on to charity to be re-sold.  It would be great if Sony allowed this to happen with e-readers, I'm sure it wouldn't harm sales of e-books as the paper book world seems to be OK.

Thanks once again, very helpful!

IssyGee:smileygrin:

[Drumzman]

Hi IssyGee,

So glad that I was able to help!

I do agree with you that it would be so nice if it was easier to share books with friends etc like you can with a paper book.  I think the reason that the book industry is so paranoid about it is that unlike a paper book, that I guess is limited to the number of people you can pass it round (that is, one at a time), with an electronic file, without copyright I suppose multiple copies could be made and shared very widely.

So unfortunately for now, unless anything changes we are a bit limited: Sony, and other eReader makers have to use the Adobe ID system for copyright, so I guess it's out of all of their hands too.:smileysad:

That said, just a thought ..... have you tried using your local library?  Quite a few libraries now 'lend' eBooks for free if you register with them (I'm just in the process of registering with my local library!) and I know that the Sony Readers work with on-line libraries.  I suppose this could be one way that if you read a borrowed eBook that you wanted to share with your friend, you could always recommend it and they could borrow it too!

Might be one way of sharing your reading lists at least a bit more freely?

Have fun!