Sharing titles means sharing notes & bookmarks?

[Paula O'Rourke]

This quote comes from a recent Follett newsletter - it has me wondering if it's true for all e-readers?:

 

"Kindles, Nooks and their apps. Some of you may be considering purchasing one eBook from Amazon and/or B&N for the purpose of sharing it with up to six devices. This technically can be done, however you should understand that those six students are sharing one instance (copy) of the eBook. So if one person highlights a word, it shows up for the other five students. If one student removes a bookmark, it is removed for the other 5 students. This solution was designed for a single consumer to use at home on their 6 different devices. (Computer, device, Smartphone, etc...)

 

If this is true, then it would impact the use of e-readers for individual note-taking.  Anyone have any experience with this?

[Will DeLamater]

The Follett writer is correct. Remember, Amazon requires devices among which books can be shared to be registered to a single account. This assumes a single owner for the book, and makes no distinction between the writer of a note or highlight, only between different account holders. Now there is a way to defeat this feature: de-synchronize the Kindles. I have written about how and why to do this here. The only way for the position in the book or the notes and bookmarks to show up across multiple copies is for the devices to communicate with the servers at Amazon. If you turn off synchronization, notes, bookmarks, and reading position will remain local with the device. If the devices synchronize, though, there is no way to keep what happens with a copy of the book on one device from happening with the other five copies that you have placed on five other Kindles on your account.

[Paula O'Rourke]

Thanks, but does this also happen with Nooks?

Will DeLamater said:

The Follett writer is correct. Remember, Amazon requires devices among which books can be shared to be registered to a single account. This assumes a single owner for the book, and makes no distinction between the writer of a note or highlight, only between different account holders. Now there is a way to defeat this feature: de-synchronize the Kindles. I have written about how and why to do this here. The only way for the position in the book or the notes and bookmarks to show up across multiple copies is for the devices to communicate with the servers at Amazon. If you turn off synchronization, notes, bookmarks, and reading position will remain local with the device. If the devices synchronize, though, there is no way to keep what happens with a copy of the book on one device from happening with the other five copies that you have placed on five other Kindles on your account.

[Will DeLamater]

Good question. If you search for Laurie Aldern from Barnes and Noble here on the Ning, you could get a definitive answer from her.