Credit Card required (?)

[CrediCardsSuck]

I just bought my daughter a Nook and she is very happy with it.
I am not so happy.

I also bought her a gift card so whe could use to purchase books without having my credit card connected to the Nook.  But, B&N still requires that my credit card be connected to the Nook to even purchase a book with a gift card.

ITunes does not require that I connect my credit card to an account.
ITunes only requires a ITunes gift card. 

Why does B&N?

Is there anyway around this?

[readley]

I don't think there is any way around it. However, when I set up my daughter's nook (I haven't given it to her yet), I was able to require a password before any purchase. She won't be able to charge to my credit card without asking me to input the password. She is only 8, so I want to keep an eye on the books she is buying anyway. Another option might be to get a prepaid credit card and put that on your daughter's account.

[geertm]

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CrediCardsSuck wrote:

I just bought my daughter a Nook and she is very happy with it.
I am not so happy.

I also bought her a gift card so whe could use to purchase books without having my credit card connected to the Nook.  But, B&N still requires that my credit card be connected to the Nook to even purchase a book with a gift card.

ITunes does not require that I connect my credit card to an account.
ITunes only requires a ITunes gift card. 

Why does B&N?

Is there anyway around this?

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B&N's DRM uses the credit card number and name to encrypt the books. B&N's DRM is a social DRM. That means there are no technical restrictions that prevent you from copying a book. But that anyone who want to read a book needs to know the credit card number and name the book was encrypted with. Information you probably do not want to share on the Internet.

The big advantage of this is that can your share your books with family and friends by just making a copy of the ebook file.

Unlike Kindle your books are not tied to the hardware of a specific device. And unlike Adobe DRM your books are not tied to an Adobe ID. After downloading them, your books do not depend on an DRM server anymore.

You can password protect shop purchases on the Nook device.

[CrediCardsSuck]

Thanks for the detailed answer,
If I understand it correctly...

1. My credit card number is tied to the books I download.
2, There is nothing restricting my daughter from sharing the book with her friends.
3. There is nothing restricting her friends from sharing the book with their friends.
4  The "book" gets hacked and my credit card is comprimised.

Can I opt-out of the "social" DRM?
I don't think it is very smart to have a social DRM based on a credit card.

How does the I-Tuner DRM work?  Is it "social"?
I prefer it because it doesn't require a credit card.
I would gladly give up the "social" aspect to not have borrowed books tied to my credit card number.
I think we should at least have an option.

[geertm]

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CrediCardsSuck wrote:

Thanks for the detailed answer,
If I understand it correctly...

1. My credit card number is tied to the books I download.
2, There is nothing restricting my daughter from sharing the book with her friends.
3. There is nothing restricting her friends from sharing the book with their friends.
4  The "book" gets hacked and my credit card is comprimised.

Can I opt-out of the "social" DRM?
I don't think it is very smart to have a social DRM based on a credit card.

How does the I-Tuner DRM work?  Is it "social"?
I prefer it because it doesn't require a credit card.
I would gladly give up the "social" aspect to not have borrowed books tied to my credit card number.
I think we should at least have an option.

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Your credit card information is not included in the books, and also not stored on the device. Your credit card information is used to generate a key. That key is included in the books, and stored on the device. The key is generated with a one-way encryption process. The key cannot be used to generate the credit card details it was created with.

B&N's DRM is the least restictive, and most futureproof DRM available at the moment.

DRM is used to limit the sharing of a book. A social DRM uses information you probably do not want to share much (in this case your credit card information) to limit the sharing of a book, instead of technical limitations. The big advantage of this is that is allows you to share your books in a limited way with family and friends.

A Kindle book can only be shared by letting people connect their Kindle to your Kindle account (where they will have access to your full account). An Adobe DRM book can only be read on a device authorized with your Adobe ID. A device can only be authorized to one ID, and you can only authorize a device six time.

As far as I know the Apple DRM ties your books to your Itunes account. You can only read the books on a Apple device that is registered to your Itunes account.

[RHWright]

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CrediCardsSuck wrote:

Thanks for the detailed answer,
If I understand it correctly...

1. My credit card number is tied to the books I download.

"Tied," in the sense that it is the master key to unlock the DRM on the book. The CC info is not included in the download, so there is no way for it to be reverse engineered or hacked.

2, There is nothing restricting my daughter from sharing the book with her friends.

If by share, you mean send around an unreadable file, then yes. That's the point of the social DRM/credit card rationale. You would need to trust your daughter with your CC#. She in turn would need to be foolish enough to share that with her friends.

3. There is nothing restricting her friends from sharing the book with their friends.

See response above.

4  The "book" gets hacked and my credit card is comprimised.

No.

Can I opt-out of the "social" DRM?

No.

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At least that's my understanding of how the DRM works. I haven't "popped open the lid" to remove it or just to confirm how it works. But based on discussions here and elsewhere, your CC information should remain secure. Well, as secure as that sort of thing can be in this day & age.

[MarvinQ]

Easy solution, buy a prepaid credit card then.

[thatdbaclk]

Pre-paid is the Easy solution but not all and it to me (an over 10 year Online shopper).the best!

When I purchased in lat 2010 B&N has since added the second CC option due to this issue! No one thought to think of  this in the initial design?

             Credit Cards Expire, Get Canceled, or let alone you don't use it anymore or have a new account! Even worse gets hacked/stolen (been there, done that too..Why I won't store my CC on WALLY WORLD any more and I'm particular about ONLINE SHOPPING Sites where I CAN)!

1. You Buy Pre-Paid CC (the Catch here is to put as little as possible, because Monthly fees could be associated with it!).

2. You add the Gift Card,  then money will be taken from it first, if the account is set up correctly)......

Then you Drain the Pre-Paid Gift Card! But guess what you going to need it later!

When you Archive a Book then  you even need a Valid CC to UnArchive (so use/get a device to store your books and invest in learning this software...bottom line you going to need another computer)

Calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com/) which is available for Windows (Supported version as of 2012), APPLE OS X, and LINUX. Has very Good Review and comes highly rated! for management of you library (books).

I have yet to decide how I'm going to deal with the firmware updates and Application Software...but I'm going to start keeping that too!....So my advice is that you review and clearly know what to expect when firmware updates become available! Mines would be do I need it before do I want it but for I install it!

I would also check and insure that the Lend Feature does not require use of the CC (I don't plan on using this), crazy I know but B&N didn't want lose their money in the air! Not to mention I suspect this may also deal with how they applied DRM to are epubs!

Technology is a Wonderful thing, but sometimes people can just go too far in holding your hand on using it!

[thatdbaclk]

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Correction here: "you review and clearly know what to expect when firmware updates become available! My questions would be: 1. Do I need it?  2.  Or is just do I just want it? before I install it!...

Technology is a Wonderful thing, but sometimes people can just go too far in holding your hand on using it!

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[NyTeMair]

Another big problem is that talking to customer support then their supervisor I am made aware that at random 'your' nook will check to see if you have a valid credit card and deny you access to books you have already purchased!! Not archived, currently reading! That is taking away ownership and/or usage rights from me and giving it to B&N! This was not explained to us prior to 'purchasing' a book from B&N, they are only renting you the book and the device.

I plan to file complaints with the BBB, and both our state and federal AG's offices. Other companies are much less invasive. My wife is in dialysis and spends most of her time there reading her nook, the damned thing locked up the other day and we had to go get it replaced. I thought it was great it was under warrenty, she goes in to do her dialysis and can't access her books because our credit card was stolen and we are waiting for them to send a new one. So now she is out of luck for the next couple weeks and can't read any of the books we purchased/rented for her. In talking to B&N they refuse to do anything to help other than tell us to get a valid credit card! I'm done with them, and pissed enough to cause a lot of trouble...

[Strayer]

Any company would freeze the account. The cc that's on the account now is invalid, if the cc has been stolen. With a stolen cc, someone can run up charges and you'd have to untangle that mess. You have to have a new cc that is valid on your account in order to have access. Once you enter the cc card number and it is valid, you will have everything back.

[NyTeMair]

We canceled the credit card, and the problem isn't putting new charges on the card it is simply having access to ALREADY purchased books. They don't need to have a valid credit card available to them so that I can read my book I bought 5 months ago!

[Ya_Ya]

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NyTeMair wrote:
They don't need to have a valid credit card available to them so that I can read my book I bought 5 months ago!

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And if you have all of the books backed up onto your PC and know the (now invalid) card number, you can read them without ever putting a valid card on your account.

[kamas716]

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NyTeMair wrote:

Another big problem is that talking to customer support then their supervisor I am made aware that at random 'your' nook will check to see if you have a valid credit card and deny you access to books you have already purchased!! Not archived, currently reading! That is taking away ownership and/or usage rights from me and giving it to B&N! This was not explained to us prior to 'purchasing' a book from B&N, they are only renting you the book and the device.

I plan to file complaints with the BBB, and both our state and federal AG's offices. Other companies are much less invasive. My wife is in dialysis and spends most of her time there reading her nook, the damned thing locked up the other day and we had to go get it replaced. I thought it was great it was under warrenty, she goes in to do her dialysis and can't access her books because our credit card was stolen and we are waiting for them to send a new one. So now she is out of luck for the next couple weeks and can't read any of the books we purchased/rented for her. In talking to B&N they refuse to do anything to help other than tell us to get a valid credit card! I'm done with them, and pissed enough to cause a lot of trouble...

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I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your credit card. That sucks.  And, it is very annoying not having access to your "purchases".  But, from B&N point of view, not having a valid credit card  on file is good business practice not to authorize any more activity.

But, you might not get too far with the BBB.  The Terms of Service state B&N is basically just leasing the books/magazines to you and can change the terms at will.  This is why it's always good practice on the users part to back up their files.  I personally have my eBooks backed up on my laptop in a separate file from where Nook for PC stores them, and on a flash drive.  Some people also strip the DRM from their files so they don't have to worry about being locked out by any particular vendor (the legality on this is murky, so act on your own risk).

Hope things work out for you and your wife.

[bklvr896]

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NyTeMair wrote:

Another big problem is that talking to customer support then their supervisor I am made aware that at random 'your' nook will check to see if you have a valid credit card and deny you access to books you have already purchased!! That doesn't make sense because the currently downloaded books will be attached to another cc. If you turn off the wifi it cant check. You could side load the books and unlock with the stolen card number until you get a new card.

[readley]

I can understand why you are frustrated. In addition to downloading the books to your computer and side-loading them (calibre is a good program for that--you can find it online), you could also add a prepaid credit card with a small amount of money on it to your account. That way, you could access your current books with no problem and even continue to download the BN free friday books if you wanted.

[NyTeMair]

Thank you for kind words. Can you point me to the terms of service online so I can research it? Thank you!

[kamas716]

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NyTeMair wrote:
Thank you for kind words. Can you point me to the terms of service online so I can research it? Thank you!

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here's a place to start

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/include/terms_of_use.asp