PRS-650 de-registered but still says authorised by another user.

[joolyjools]

I bought the PRS-650 for my mum, I wanted her to have some books to read as soon as she got it, so I registered it and downloaded a couple of books. I have been told I need to de-register it so that she can register it herself. I have done this, but when she tries to transfer books from her library it says not authorsied on this computer as is registered to another user. Can anyone help?

[PuppyDog]

The key thing here is that the authorisation of a reader is based on a PC/Reader combination. If your mum is not using the same PC as you did originally, then the combination will not be authorised even though you have deregistered the Reader.

I am not familiar with exactly what now needs to be done to deregister both items before registering them again, but there are a number of postings on this forum which deal with precisely this problem.

Not competely helpful, I know, but hopefully enough to give you an idea of what you have to do.

Sorry not to be more helpful

PuppyDog

[Drumzman · Accepted solution]

Hi joolyjools,

The reason you have an issue with authorisation is exactly as PuppyDog has explained in that you have to have a matched authorisation between the computer you are using with the Reader, and the Reader itself.

I think that the first thing that I would check is that the PRS-650 is definitely not authorised (de-registered).  You can do this on the Reader by touching 'Settings' on the home screen, followed by touching 'About'.  In the second section of the page (under 'Device Information') is information about Adobe DRM.  The message next to this will tell you whether your Reader 'is authorised', or 'not yet authorised' for reading Adobe DRM content.  For your mum to register it herself, you want the message here to say 'is not yet authorised'.

If however, the Reader is saying that it is still authorised, then you need to do the following to de-authorise it.

Connect the Reader to your computer (the one you used to authorise it originally) and open the Reader Library software.  In the left hand menu of the software click on the Reader icon (so that it is highlighted and the main screen shows whatever content is currently on the Reader).  Then on the computer keyboard press the Ctrl, Shift and D keys together.  If you then click on the 'Status' icon in the left hand menu, you will see a list of recently performed actions, the last of which should be de-authorised.  If you want to go back to the 'About' section as before this should also now confirm that the Reader is 'not yet authorised'.

The only thing to be aware of is that if the books you downloaded to get you mum started were copyright protected (purchased) books, then she will not be able to view these any longer as they are registered to you.  However if the objective is to allow her to start her own collection and purchase the books she wants to, then hopefully the above will get things going for you.

The re-authorisation for your mum, by the way, will happen automatically the first time she transfers a copyrighted (purchased) eBook to the Reader.  This will be the opportunity to enter her Adobe ID (or apply for one on-line if she does not already have one) - the important thing here, as mentioned at the beginning is to make sure that the same Adobe ID used to authorise the computer is used to authorise the Reader as well.

Sorry for the long reply, but hope this is of some help.

[joolyjools]

Thank you - your right - it is still showing as authorised. I'll give your suggestion a try.

[joolyjools]

Thank you sooooo much - your a legend, it worked!

[Drumzman]

No problem - really glad it worked for you! :smileygrin:

[carpetmojo]

Drumzman, just a query about the above scenario..........

I presume you meant that the books already purchased and on the reader "must not" be read by Mum - they aren't wiped off the reader, are they ? It's the purely legal we're talking about here ?

In other words, they are not like physical books - that are your property once you buy them, and can give them, or lend them, to anyone you like.

Ebooks are different in that once you have bought them, they are not your property, as you cannot give them to anyone else, or even let anyone else even read them, with your permission, even on your own reader.

You only own the download you originally purchased ?

The industry seems to be at about the same stage as music was around 10+ ish years ago, I suppose, before the industry rationalized itself.........?

Mum is allowed to read the free books, I presume, just not the purchased ones.

[Drumzman]

Hi carpetmojo,

Yes, I was talking about the eBooks that had already been purchased and loaded onto the Reader (with its original authorisation with Adobe).  With the new registration, the eBooks would still be there (i.e. not automatically wiped), just unreadable as they were purchased with the old Adobe authorisation, and now the Reader device has a new Authorisation which of course will no longer match - hope that makes sense!

I'm no lawyer on the rules of ownership(!), but I guess you do own an eBook download, as you have after all paid for it which I assume means that it becomes your property.  The only thing is, that in the case of copyrighted eBooks that ownership is controlled by a type of licence - the Adobe registration.  It is possible to use the same Adobe ID to authorise a number of computers (I can't remember off hand how many Adobe will allow) in the same way as you are allowed a number (5 or 6 I think) of registrations for different devices.

In terms of lending an eBook to anyone else, it is really restricted unless you had a number of computers all registered with the same Adobe ID and being used with Readers with the matching authorisation - but as I said that is still limited to the number of registrations you are allowed to have with Adobe for a single ID.  This probably isn't all that practical for most people who like to share/lend as with the traditional paper copies of books.

As far as lending the whole Reader device to (trusted!!) acquaintances, whilst technically infringing the copyright I imagine, it would be impossible to police and no more of a sin than lending a paper book to someone (which I assume might also technically be a copyright infringement?)

My take on this is that if you buy a paperback - by definition it is a single copy, and once you have read it you can of course lend it to friends and family - but you can only lend it out once at a time.  I guess the publishers view is that whilst I'm sure they would have liked each friend or family member to buy a copy each(!), they can probably live with this!  The thing with electronic files however is that they can be copied really easily - so if there was no copyright control (in the case of eBooks this is the Adobe ID), any number of eBook copies could be created from an original download and widely distributed in the blink of an eye by the wonders of the Internet!  Result - no income for the publisher and the author in the most extreme case.  I'm sure this is what they are most paranoid about.

As to free books (out of copyright books), the above is exactly what now happens and as the eBook file would have no digital rights management built into it could be read on any Reader and not restricted at all.

Hope that answers the question - sorry for the long reply!