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I am more experienced with the iOS/iBook versions of the digital formats of the GW stuff than with the eBook versions...

It's pretty convenient that they send updates to the iOS/iBook versions just like with apps... but I was wondering about the eBook versions... the versions you'd use with mobi readers or like with PDF readers.

If you buy them from Black Library... do they also provide you with updated versions to re-download like if there's something like the recent rulebook FAQ?

Last time I checked one of my purchases (old Tau 6th edition codex), I didn't see an upate. It was still the same download file from when I originally bought them.

Anyone care to share their experience? Does it also seem to you that the ebook versions don't get updated? Or have you been finding new downloadable versions under your account?

They do appear to get updated but they aren't marked as such so I just re-download them all periodically.

 Scott-S6 wrote:
They do appear to get updated but they aren't marked as such so I just re-download them all periodically.

Ah okay cool beans. Thanks. I'm trying to decide if I was thinking about getting the eBook version of some books like the Horus Heresy army list ones.

There's usually no version number listed, or anything else to tell you about an update.
So, as was said, give it a week or a month or so, and download it again.

They stopped doing mobi for all of their rules ebooks and there is currently no suitable app for reading these files on a kindle.

I emailed them and they actually replied saying that people really wanted 360 degree photos not compatible with mobi. I really can't believe anyone really cares about gimmicks like that, we just want rules in an easy to carry / access format.

So I'd suggest emailing them!

 Gunzhard wrote:
They stopped doing mobi for all of their rules ebooks and there is currently no suitable app for reading these files on a kindle.

I emailed them and they actually replied saying that people really wanted 360 degree photos not compatible with mobi. I really can't believe anyone really cares about gimmicks like that, we just want rules in an easy to carry / access format.

So I'd suggest emailing them!

Ugh that stinks... I don't use a kindle but I loved the mobi format...

I use the free Caliber program to view the e-books on my PC. Then I print out all the rules pages and assemble them into a binder by putting the paper into clear page sleeves since I don't have a tablet that lets me have digital rules at the tabletop. Any time the rules get updated, I recycle the old version and replace them with the newer version, to comply with only having one physical copy at any time.

Is that a lot of hassle? Yes. Would I rather just buy a hardcopy Codex instead even though it costs more in the long run since you don't get updates for free? Absolutely. Why do I keep doing it then? Because I play Sisters of Battle.

Also, if you're gonna use Caliber, be aware that the paper size in the program doesn't always correspond to the paper size your printer is using. And that it doesn't seem to be capable of saving the paper size you set. Also make sure you don't print the pages with pictures, unless your printer can handle printing dozens of page-sized pictures. Mine took about a week to do so since I did it in greyscale, ran out of black ink, got more black ink from the store, and ran that new cartridge dry, then had to get more.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Gunzhard wrote:
They stopped doing mobi for all of their rules ebooks and there is currently no suitable app for reading these files on a kindle.

I emailed them and they actually replied saying that people really wanted 360 degree photos not compatible with mobi. I really can't believe anyone really cares about gimmicks like that, we just want rules in an easy to carry / access format.

So I'd suggest emailing them!

If what they said was true, apparently people do want gimmicks instead of easy-to-access rules when it comes to their rulebooks.

 Pouncey wrote:
I use the free Caliber program to view the e-books on my PC. Then I print out all the rules pages and assemble them into a binder by putting the paper into clear page sleeves since I don't have a tablet that lets me have digital rules at the tabletop. Any time the rules get updated, I recycle the old version and replace them with the newer version, to comply with only having one physical copy at any time.

Is that a lot of hassle? Yes. Would I rather just buy a hardcopy Codex instead even though it costs more in the long run since you don't get updates for free? Absolutely. Why do I keep doing it then? Because I play Sisters of Battle.

Also, if you're gonna use Caliber, be aware that the paper size in the program doesn't always correspond to the paper size your printer is using. And that it doesn't seem to be capable of saving the paper size you set. Also make sure you don't print the pages with pictures, unless your printer can handle printing dozens of page-sized pictures. Mine took about a week to do so since I did it in greyscale, ran out of black ink, got more black ink from the store, and ran that new cartridge dry, then had to get more.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Gunzhard wrote:
They stopped doing mobi for all of their rules ebooks and there is currently no suitable app for reading these files on a kindle.

I emailed them and they actually replied saying that people really wanted 360 degree photos not compatible with mobi. I really can't believe anyone really cares about gimmicks like that, we just want rules in an easy to carry / access format.

So I'd suggest emailing them!

If what they said was true, apparently people do want gimmicks instead of easy-to-access rules when it comes to their rulebooks.

I'll definitely give Caliber a look... one of the cool things that I was able to do with google was upload copies of my black library stuff to google play (the books part of it) so I could pull them up on there or my PC. But I think its only good if the files are a certain size.

 messhallcook wrote:
I'll definitely give Caliber a look... one of the cool things that I was able to do with google was upload copies of my black library stuff to google play (the books part of it) so I could pull them up on there or my PC. But I think its only good if the files are a certain size.

Admittedly, I don't know much US copyright law, but last I heard about Canadian copyright law, which I also don't know much about, uploading copyrighted material I don't own the rights to, to the Internet, is something I shouldn't do unless I want to possibly be explaining to a court at some point why I thought that was okay. Admittedly, I might be wrong about Canadian copyright law, and US copyright law may be entirely different. I don't think it gets any better in either country when the owner of that copyright is a company infamous for taking legal actions about their fans' stuff.

Also, I actually know why GW shuts down so many small parts manufacturers just for including the term "WH40k" in a description of their custom bitz. It's not because they're evil. It's not because they don't think people should make custom bitz and they'd rather sell their own stuff instead. It's because due to copyright law in a lot of countries, they basically have to do that if they want to hold on to the WH40k IP instead of having it basically be public domain. Because apparently the way it works in reality is that all it takes is one case of GW failing to take action to stop people from technically violating GW's copyrights and allowing them to continue to operate. If they allow that even one time, no matter how small, everyone who wants to make direct copies of that copyright can just argue in court that GW allowed someone else to violate their copyright, so they should be allowed too. Counterfeiting isn't really the right word for the level of abuse the WH40k IP would receive when you can make counterfeit miniatures, call them your own version of WH40k stuff that's almost completely identical, then argue successfully in court that you should be allowed to do so. That is what would end up happening if GW weren't as crazy overzealous as they seem to be.

And if you want to avoid being shut down by GW for the third-party bits you're making for their game, the way to do it, is actually very simple. It can be summed up as, "Stop violating GW's copyrights and expecting them to ignore it, because they won't, haven't, and can't, and you damned well know it."

I've tried caliber and other conversion programs, their new epub3 stuff just can't be converted into any usable mobi or pdf format.


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And note I bought them legally I just wanted to be able to view them on my kindle.

If you're a kindle user definitely email them!

 Gunzhard wrote:
I've tried caliber and other conversion programs, their new epub3 stuff just can't be converted into any usable mobi or pdf format.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And note I bought them legally I just wanted to be able to view them on my kindle.

If you're a kindle user definitely email them!

Yeah, I don't think anyone ever doubted you bought them legally or even brought up the idea that maybe you didn't. GW selling eBook Codexes isn't uncommon knowledge and most 40k gamers are perfectly willing to pay the prices for GW rulebooks so the price of the ebooks wouldn't be a deterrent from buying them from the official source for most of us.

I'm kinda wondering which post made you think someone suggest you didn't buy them legally, enough to defend yourself by saying you did. I think you misunderstood something being said somewhere.

Oh ok - hmm no, I didn't think anyone doubted me or suggested I did anything illegal.

You mentioned copyright law yadda yadda... and I've seen tons of converted (via Calibre or whatever) PDF's being illegally posted on the internet though... my point was:

Even if you buy it legally, now, you cannot get the version that will work on a Kindle whereas before you could; and further you cannot even convert the epub version you buy to work on a Kindle either.

Mobi is a great format. The email from the Black Library specifically mentioned that they wanted to be able to offer, what I'd call gimmicks like, 360 degree photos; rather than just easy access to rules. I personally cannot believe that this is what 'the people' really want but guess I'm wrong.

Pouncey wrote:I'm kinda wondering which post made you think someone suggest you didn't buy them legally, enough to defend yourself by saying you did. I think you misunderstood something being said somewhere.

Pouncey... he might be referring to why you felt you needed to post the following:

Pouncey wrote:Admittedly, I don't know much US copyright law, but last I heard about Canadian copyright law, which I also don't know much about, uploading copyrighted material I don't own the rights to, to the Internet, is something I shouldn't do unless I want to possibly be explaining to a court at some point why I thought that was okay. Admittedly, I might be wrong about Canadian copyright law, and US copyright law may be entirely different. I don't think it gets any better in either country when the owner of that copyright is a company infamous for taking legal actions about their fans' stuff.

Also, I actually know why GW shuts down so many small parts manufacturers just for including the term "WH40k" in a description of their custom bitz. It's not because they're evil. It's not because they don't think people should make custom bitz and they'd rather sell their own stuff instead. It's because due to copyright law in a lot of countries, they basically have to do that if they want to hold on to the WH40k IP instead of having it basically be public domain. Because apparently the way it works in reality is that all it takes is one case of GW failing to take action to stop people from technically violating GW's copyrights and allowing them to continue to operate. If they allow that even one time, no matter how small, everyone who wants to make direct copies of that copyright can just argue in court that GW allowed someone else to violate their copyright, so they should be allowed too. Counterfeiting isn't really the right word for the level of abuse the WH40k IP would receive when you can make counterfeit miniatures, call them your own version of WH40k stuff that's almost completely identical, then argue successfully in court that you should be allowed to do so. That is what would end up happening if GW weren't as crazy overzealous as they seem to be.

And if you want to avoid being shut down by GW for the third-party bits you're making for their game, the way to do it, is actually very simple. It can be summed up as, "Stop violating GW's copyrights and expecting them to ignore it, because they won't, haven't, and can't, and you damned well know it."

I'm kind of wondering too... we aren't talking about posting anything up for people to torrent or something... its like you almost went straight to that sort of line of thought.

Is it be cause I mentioned uploading to google? I used Google Drive and also utilize google play and other google applications to look at stuff I bought, own, or created. I don't willingly share or sell any of it. If someone somehow bypasses the security in place... hacks into it... whatever... that's not really my fault... but yeah... i'm not doing some sort of illegal distribution... maybe that's what you might have thought?

I still have to look into Caliber... but I'm hoping its only something to change the format of a file... kind of like some Adobe software or other conversion applications...

 messhallcook wrote:

Pouncey wrote:I'm kinda wondering which post made you think someone suggest you didn't buy them legally, enough to defend yourself by saying you did. I think you misunderstood something being said somewhere.

Pouncey... he might be referring to why you felt you needed to post the following:

Pouncey wrote:Admittedly, I don't know much US copyright law, but last I heard about Canadian copyright law, which I also don't know much about, uploading copyrighted material I don't own the rights to, to the Internet, is something I shouldn't do unless I want to possibly be explaining to a court at some point why I thought that was okay. Admittedly, I might be wrong about Canadian copyright law, and US copyright law may be entirely different. I don't think it gets any better in either country when the owner of that copyright is a company infamous for taking legal actions about their fans' stuff.

Also, I actually know why GW shuts down so many small parts manufacturers just for including the term "WH40k" in a description of their custom bitz. It's not because they're evil. It's not because they don't think people should make custom bitz and they'd rather sell their own stuff instead. It's because due to copyright law in a lot of countries, they basically have to do that if they want to hold on to the WH40k IP instead of having it basically be public domain. Because apparently the way it works in reality is that all it takes is one case of GW failing to take action to stop people from technically violating GW's copyrights and allowing them to continue to operate. If they allow that even one time, no matter how small, everyone who wants to make direct copies of that copyright can just argue in court that GW allowed someone else to violate their copyright, so they should be allowed too. Counterfeiting isn't really the right word for the level of abuse the WH40k IP would receive when you can make counterfeit miniatures, call them your own version of WH40k stuff that's almost completely identical, then argue successfully in court that you should be allowed to do so. That is what would end up happening if GW weren't as crazy overzealous as they seem to be.

And if you want to avoid being shut down by GW for the third-party bits you're making for their game, the way to do it, is actually very simple. It can be summed up as, "Stop violating GW's copyrights and expecting them to ignore it, because they won't, haven't, and can't, and you damned well know it."

I'm kind of wondering too... we aren't talking about posting anything up for people to torrent or something... its like you almost went straight to that sort of line of thought.

Is it be cause I mentioned uploading to google? I used Google Drive and also utilize google play and other google applications to look at stuff I bought, own, or created. I don't willingly share or sell any of it. If someone somehow bypasses the security in place... hacks into it... whatever... that's not really my fault... but yeah... i'm not doing some sort of illegal distribution... maybe that's what you might have thought?

I still have to look into Caliber... but I'm hoping its only something to change the format of a file... kind of like some Adobe software or other conversion applications...

I didn't say anything about torrents. I didn't even say anything about not buying the eBook from Black Library legally.

 Pouncey wrote:

 messhallcook wrote:

Pouncey wrote:I'm kinda wondering which post made you think someone suggest you didn't buy them legally, enough to defend yourself by saying you did. I think you misunderstood something being said somewhere.

Pouncey... he might be referring to why you felt you needed to post the following:

Pouncey wrote:Admittedly, I don't know much US copyright law, but last I heard about Canadian copyright law, which I also don't know much about, uploading copyrighted material I don't own the rights to, to the Internet, is something I shouldn't do unless I want to possibly be explaining to a court at some point why I thought that was okay. Admittedly, I might be wrong about Canadian copyright law, and US copyright law may be entirely different. I don't think it gets any better in either country when the owner of that copyright is a company infamous for taking legal actions about their fans' stuff.

Also, I actually know why GW shuts down so many small parts manufacturers just for including the term "WH40k" in a description of their custom bitz. It's not because they're evil. It's not because they don't think people should make custom bitz and they'd rather sell their own stuff instead. It's because due to copyright law in a lot of countries, they basically have to do that if they want to hold on to the WH40k IP instead of having it basically be public domain. Because apparently the way it works in reality is that all it takes is one case of GW failing to take action to stop people from technically violating GW's copyrights and allowing them to continue to operate. If they allow that even one time, no matter how small, everyone who wants to make direct copies of that copyright can just argue in court that GW allowed someone else to violate their copyright, so they should be allowed too. Counterfeiting isn't really the right word for the level of abuse the WH40k IP would receive when you can make counterfeit miniatures, call them your own version of WH40k stuff that's almost completely identical, then argue successfully in court that you should be allowed to do so. That is what would end up happening if GW weren't as crazy overzealous as they seem to be.

And if you want to avoid being shut down by GW for the third-party bits you're making for their game, the way to do it, is actually very simple. It can be summed up as, "Stop violating GW's copyrights and expecting them to ignore it, because they won't, haven't, and can't, and you damned well know it."

I'm kind of wondering too... we aren't talking about posting anything up for people to torrent or something... its like you almost went straight to that sort of line of thought.

Is it be cause I mentioned uploading to google? I used Google Drive and also utilize google play and other google applications to look at stuff I bought, own, or created. I don't willingly share or sell any of it. If someone somehow bypasses the security in place... hacks into it... whatever... that's not really my fault... but yeah... i'm not doing some sort of illegal distribution... maybe that's what you might have thought?

I still have to look into Caliber... but I'm hoping its only something to change the format of a file... kind of like some Adobe software or other conversion applications...

I didn't say anything about torrents. I didn't even say anything about not buying the eBook from Black Library legally.

I'm not saying you did... I'm saying it 'seems' like that's where your train of thought was going with you mentioning 'copyright law' for some reason. My apologies if it sounds like I'm accusing you of anything.

 messhallcook wrote:
I'm not saying you did... I'm saying it 'seems' like that's where your train of thought was going with you mentioning 'copyright law' for some reason. My apologies if it sounds like I'm accusing you of anything.

You know you can break copyright laws without going into full-blown illegal distribution, right?

Looks like the OP's question has been answered, so before this goes even more off the rails...