The "copy" command stopped working 92 pages into a document

[Wythe]

I am writing a paper about a geneticist whose new book just came out. I bought the book through Wiley and was required to download and install Adobe Digital Editions. The book opened fine, and I copied and pasted some chunks of text into Evernote as I read in order to do my work. So far, no problem. Just now, 92 pages into the book, copying *turned off*. The "Copy" option under the Edit menu is simply grayed out. Please tell me Adobe/Wiley's DRM is not preventing me from copying quotations from a book that I bought *in order to review that book*. That would be... super duper unfortunate.

Thanks for any help.

[sjpt]

Basically, DRM rights on a book do not generally allow copying.

However, they usually permit limited copying for personal/academic reasons; often 25 pages.

[Wythe]

Thanks, sjpt. But I haven't copied 25 pages of material by any stretch of the imagination! Just a few quotations. I don't understand why any real company would use DRM to prevent academics from doing our jobs. Is there any way I can prove my institutional affliliation and get the DRM turned off? Being able to copy would really, really help with this project. And in general, wow. What is Adobe thinking?

[sjpt]

Maybe the limit is lower for that book, or the measurement counts as a page any page from which any part is copied?

The Adobe DRM infrastructure is full of flaws and Digital Editions 2.0 must be one of the worst bits of software ever released on the public.

In this case, it is difficult to see how Adobe can easily distinguish between academics and pirates.

[Wythe]

They could require an institutional ID. That's how publishers do it. Or they could just not try to guess at how much a reviewer may want to copy out of a given book. It's very weird.

Yes, this software is terrible. How can the geniuses behind Photoshop and InDesign, et al, market such an immensely flawed product?

Thanks for your help, in any event!