After reading other comments before getting this giveaway I first tried the highly recommended by others Calibre on some ePub books I had downloaded in the past but been unable to convert to Kindle Reader format.
The Calibre failed to convert these so I downloaded the giveawayoftheday Ultimate Converter which did convert to Kindle format successfully and I can now read those books.
So it's a thank you and thumbs up to giveaway for this one.

As a regular visitor to GOTD (daily if at all possible), I would like to thank everyone who posted in today's comment thread. It has been some of the most engaging and thought-provoking reading I've encountered in a long time. I must admit that I thought I'm pretty long-winded when it comes to my own writings, but I believe I've more than met my match in BruceM - not to say that I mind in the least, because I thoroughly enjoyed every word of it, and echo the sentiment and hope that it not be years before we read more of his contributions.

That's one of the things that keeps bringing me back here - the generosity of everyone involved - the GOTD team, the contributing software publishers, and of course the visitors (with us commenters being a small subset of the last "visitor" category). The social aspects of this site make it quite unique, with "gurus" rubbing shoulders with complete "newbies" (or whatever they're called these days - I'm probably dating myself by the use of those terms).

My Iraqui Dinar's worth concerning DRM? My hope is that a practical solution can be developed that will preserve the rights of everyone - artist, publisher and consumer - in a fair and equitable manner. I'm pretty much resigned to leave it to those who are far better versed in the issues involved to address the problem, as I have other irons in the fire.

BruceM - Nice comments, and I agree. I hope you continue to contribute. I, too, have singled out the following contributors to follow:

Ashraf,
Giovanni,
Fubar,
Bubby,
MikeR,and
Mike

Thanks to you and all of them.

Jeff

I thought that, according to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, any attempt to circumvent DRM was illegal. Tonight I reviewed the DMCA Wikipedia article, and was surprised to learn that the DMCA offers a few, very limited exceptions, which the government may tweak every few years. As I read it, the only legal use for today's GiveAway is, as Wikipedia states it, when all obtainable editions of an e-book "prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format."

Presumably, the implication is that you are a blind person, and you are unable to purchase a copy of the e-book that is accessible to you.

Share & Enjoy,

Only works when logged in as administrator. Don´t know if the wrapper changed or one of the last Windows updates did this.
Also now Internet Explorer doesn´t remember the last session anymore. Very strange. No install possible when logged in as user. Setup doesn´t prompt for admin rights nor is it possible to give the setup admin rights manually. Problem exists now for the second day. Also was unable to install fridays giveaway. Everything was fine untill friday.

@21/Steve "...Usually, the only reason people are so desperate to get around DRM is purely to access something they haven’t paid for."

Not. Even. Close.

Plenty of people are willing to legally purchase digital content (and are delighted to support the creative effort of author or field). What these people want (and deserve) is the fair-use ability to use that content on the devices they have (or later acquire). E.g., yes, Amazon do provide a Kindle Reader for PCs, but what if you want to read your book on your old PPC or other hardware without Kindle support? What if you want to loan a book to someone who isn't a speed-reader?

And what recourse do buyers have when they can't access authentication servers or "activate" new devices to play the content? How do they continue the use their legally purchased content when the company (or format) is no more?

It's already happened. A lot. And I was personally burned by a couple of them. DRM Obsolescence.

After both reading the comments about ePUBee requiring a donation before you can download it I did a bing search for it and found it at TUCows for download. Here is the link if anyone is interested. Also just FYI it is version 1.0.1.20 if that makes a difference.

http://www.tucows.com/preview/1104171

I am going to go ahead and download today's offering (while it is free)so I can give it a try and compare the two programs as well.
That is my .0000000001 cent worth

#17, #22, #28, #45 (and others disappointed by "donation" requested on ePUBee website)
you can download in NOW at
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/E-Book/ePUBee-unsWindle.shtml
I tried it and it worked
;-)

Okay, okay. So the ePUBee website is currently on a donations drive (understandable) and won't let you download the product without first making a donation.

Even if you're cash-strapped, surely that gooey grey matter between your ears is there to enable you to THINK! . . . It takes little imagination to enter a web search argument such as "ePUBee free download" to find other sites that currently enable you still to get it for free.

Everything worked fine for me.
I directly got an activation code after setup and just filled in my emailaddress plus the code and no waiting! It is installed and licensed (I checked in the help menu).
I tried several Kindle for PC: they went into a folder called decrypted (hovever some of the books could not be decrypted). Afterwords I pointed to epub and surprise: ALL but one book (not sure what this file really was, seems not to be one of my books) were transferred to epub - a genuine e-reader format. So now I can read my books on my Sony reader outside in the sun instead of being glued to my PC screen - and I can make annotations! I can really do some work while sitting in the garden...
PS: If you push the Finish button it will show you the path where the books are stored...
Thank you Epubor and GOTD! You made my day!

Hi! I do not own an e-book reader, but I called my sister and my daughter and told them both to check out today's giveaway. Thank-You GOTD!! By the way, for "epubee" download: just click DONATE button; PayPal opens and shows $0.00 as donation; I changed it to $1, paid, and received links to ALL epubee software. With no e-book reader, that's a dollar I will never see again! LOL!! :)

I've downloaded the Epubor Ultimate Convertor software during the Giveaway of the Day. The terms and conditions state that this software is for "strictly non-commercial usage". This implies that you are not allowed to sell e-books made with the software. Is this what others understand?

After conversion from EPUB to PDF, it does not have any margins. The converted pdf looks like drab.

I checked out epubee after reading the suggestions and comments here, but at present, it is not freeware; in fact, it is forceware. They claim that as of 6/15/13, we will be able to download it for free, but in the meantime, they ask for a donation. I thought about it and didn't mind giving a modest donation until I decide how much I like the program or not after using it. However, after typing in what I thought was fair at this point made no difference; their "suggested" amount of $19.90 replaced it as soon as I then hit the "donate" button. I don't like that one bit; it's a form of coercion. If it's freeware, let it be free. If it's donation-ware, let people decide for themselves what to donate. Just don't call it freeware, then prevent downloading it unless you pay $19.90 first. FEH!

Installed fine but when I tried to convert a PDF book into epub or mobi or any other format, I got failed on all. Not much good if I cannot convert what I want/need.

@ Bill, post # 40: I said in my earlier post that I'd never commented before on here about DRM, and your post -- well-intended and cogent as it most certainly is -- explains why. So-oo. . . before there's any further discussion of chairs and carpenters and the rest of it (and if GOTD would be good enough to allow me a little space here to say this):

I've been a member of the Authors Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) for 30 years. The society was set up to protect the interests of writers everywhere.In my time with ALCS we've battled with everything from East German illegal hard copy re-prints to Google attempting to nick books on the untenable defence that they're all 'public domain' (Google has thankfully apologized for that error) to Public Lending Libraries failing to account for usage and contents copying and the BBC 'forgetting' to pay out repeat fees for both radio and TV broadcasts. And then there's been the digital era to contend with, too.

Amongst my friends I'm lucky enough to count a screen writer and the now aging member of what was once called 'a pop group' but nowadays gets called 'a band'. All of us, in our different ways, have been affected by theft, piracy, and the rest of it.

And guess what? I won't have an Apple product anywhere near me. I'll never, ever have iTunes or buy anything which, once it's in my ownership by dint of my purchase of it with my money is somehow deemed to be still held within the ownership -- or at least, the diktat -- of the originating producer.

So please. Please don't misunderstand where I'm coming from. I said in my comment that I approve of DRM as a defence against digital larceny. But that in no way means that I approve of DRM as an extension of an originator's control -- any originator's control -- of my life, my choice, and my freedoms to do what I wish with that which I own.

Steve's point, and mine, was that removal of DRM for the purposes of enjoying something which was never bought in the first place is morally, and legally, wrong. Removal of DRM for any other reason -- and hey: I regularly strip DRM from commercial DVDs that I own, otherwise I'd never be able to watch 'em on my tablet on a long-haul flight -- is, to my mind, entirely legitimate.

Hope that sets the situation straight (and thanks, GOTD, for allowing me the space to make this response to Bill.)

@41, I too am a college student but traditionally I have bought my books just because that's my preference. Due to health problems, I have looked at using ebooks and was about ready to go for it but you give me pause. Unfortunately, I don't have a solution as far as a possible program goes, but have you tried using an external keyboard? My ASUS Transformer has one built in but there are several options for external keyboards for tablets out there. I wonder if that isn't a solution to your problem.

My problem is I go to college online. We pay for our online books in PDF format and must use a username and password to sign in and read the material. We paid for the books why shouldn't we be able to access them like other students that buy the hard cover books? Does anyone know how this can be done? A free program? I would put it on the school message board. I have an Android Tablet v. 4.1. It would be nice to sit back and read the text books while not sitting in front of the computer. The tablet will not allow the keypad to come up to sign into the PDF text. It is not just android users but also I-Pad users. Thank You.

I cannot see the benefit of paying $50 for a substitute for Calibre. I have been using Calibre for almost all of my book conversions for probably over two years. As the program has improved, many limitations have been overcome.

MikeR and Steve, I do not remove DRM to steal an author's work. I remove DRM to ensure that if I pay money for a book I will have that book in the future.

It is more than just annoying to try to read a book that I bought from Amazon and have an error message on my Kindle Fire tell me that I cannot access the book because I don't own it! Theft by the distributors of books has caused me to remove DRM in order to back up the books that I bought.

I agree that authors should receive just benefits for their efforts. However, as a technical writer who probably produces a larger volume of creative fiction than most popular writers and receives no extended benefits for the labor, I do not agree with the copyright laws as they now exist. The copyright laws exist mainly to extend the monopoly of the publishers/distributors who did nothing to create the written work. Stated another way, copyright laws protect and increase the wealth of the of commercial interests that finance writers. The laws ensure that the wealth is protected from competition as long as those commercial interests renew the copyright. The fact that some authors receive some benefits is a collateral consequence of the copyright laws. Those benefits equate, for some authors, to justification to derive extended benefits for a small amount of work.

How can anyone justify the concept of someone working for a month or two and then being paid for that effort as long as the copyright is renewed. Anyone else producing real, useful products, such as chairs, who does not continue to work will not continue to be paid. Do you restrict the rights of someone who bought a chair to loan that chair to another individual or to sell or rent that chair to another individual. Is the buyer restricted from disassembling the chair and using parts for other purposes? The lack of these restrictions does not affect the creativity of those who make chairs nor does it affect the quality and quantity of products available.

I don't steal your work. I just want to protect and keep what I have paid for.

Don't ask me to donate a day of work while you demand to be paid forever after you have completed your work!

Yes, you can remove DRM with Calibre... not from its native install, but through the addition of free plugins. I'll leave it to the more creative netizens to locate those.

Overall its quite straightforward, simply point Calbre to the book file, and add it to your collection. The plugin magically does the rest. Then convert it to your preferred format.

@ BruceM, #15: Thanks very much for your post with its clear explanations of how users and developers benefit from all the useful comments on GOTD. I routinely read the comments about offerings, even if I'm not interested in the individual freebie, and have learned a lot, in a quick and easy way.

@ DRM, as discussed by Steve #20, Doug #22 & MikeR #25: As a reader and listener, I hate DRM because of the rigidness it imposes on my use of a purchased product. I date back to the days of copying an LP to a cassette so I could listen to my music in my car, and I still want that flexibility.

As to the inability of artists & writers to thrive without DRM, I submit the counter-examples of Phish and David Weber & Eric Flint. Phish regularly offers their music in free DRM-free downloads, and all of David Weber's & Eric Flint's work published by Baen Books (www.baenebooks.com) is DRM-free. Yet, Weber's Honor Harrington series and Flint's Ring of Fire series are both NYT bestsellers.

I believe spreading knowledge of one's work to new audiences is worth more in the long run than trying to tightly control how many copies are in existence.

@Mark #9 Thank you so much for the link for DeDRM for calibre. Tried it out and it works flawlessly. Now, I can read any book from my Nook or Tablet. I've been waiting for something like this since calibre disabled that feature.

I just downloaded this and converted 2 books to Kindle format and it worked great. But it would be nice if I could change the output folder. Thank you Giveawayoftheday and Epubor for this software. l

I have a Nook, and I buy or download Free books from Barnes and Noble, but I find better prices on other sites Amazon, Kobo and saving a dollar here or there allows me to read more. Calibre does with plugins remove DRM and with plugins coverts most everything I put into it. And yes there are times when it doesn't covert a book to ePub but will convert it to PDF and then you can convert it to ePub. Calibre is not meant just to change formats and remove DRM it is a Library to store all your books into so you can view then alphabetically, by Author or subject, or custom sort by rating, tag, or series. Calibre will accept amazon book titles and B&N as well as all others; again with plugins you can view most formats. I use calibre, I store all my books in it and transfer them to my Nook HD+ or my Nook Color, and I read my Amazon books on them too. I keep my B&N books in their original format in the folder Nook for PC puts them in, and the original format for Kindle Books in My Kindle Content folder, but Calibre backs those up by storing all of my books in another folder. If you buy books, you can read them anywhere, loan them or give them away...if you buy digital books you should be able to read them at least on any reader. So this software may work well by doing the entire folder of Kindle books, but for now I will use Calibre.

I have a Nook, and I buy or download Free books from Barnes and Noble, but I find better prices on other sites Amazon, Kobo and saving a dollar here or there allows me to read more. Calibre does with plugins remove DRM and with plugins coverts most everything I put into it. And yes there are times when it doesn't covert a book to ePub but will convert it to PDF and then you can convert it to ePub. Calibre is not meant just to change formats and remove DRM it is a Library to store all your books into so you can view then alphabetically, by Author or subject, or custom sort by rating, tag, or series. Calibre will accept amazon book titles and B&N as well as all others; again with plugins you can view most formats. I use calibre I store books in it and transfer them to my Nook HD+ or my Nook Color and I read my Amazon books on them too. If you buy books, you can read them anywhere, loan them or give them away...if you buy digital books you should be able to read them at least on and reader.

I do not have any ebooks Kindle device, or Kindle app, or Kindle for PC etc but downloaded & installed epubee.exe, DeDRM plugin 6.0.6.exe calibre-0.9.31.msi just to see what all the fuss was about. You do have to read very carefully before clicking but everything installed well & for free & now that I'm satisfied I will uninstall it all. Perhaps my country has something to do with the downloads,I sometimes can not down load because Z.A. is not recognized to receive payment from

Anyone interested in removing DRM from ebook files, might be interested in this website:
How to Remove Adobe DRM From ePub and PDF eBooks | The eBook Reader Blog
http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2013/02/07/how-to-remove-adobe-drm-from-epub-and-pdf-ebooks/

I can't believe the tutorial screens have to be endured each time the program starts. Perhaps they go away after x starts, but frankly it's not worth my (cheap!) time to check this. My first attempt at PDF to epub failed immediately. Just said Failed or Error or something - nothing helpful. Calibre did a good (but admittedly not great) job on the same PDF, turning it into a usable epub. I'm uninstalling the software. I might have tested a few more, but sitting through the tutorial screens each time frankly put me off.

BruceM, I am thrilled to have you back in the soup. I have missed your writings.

It didn't work for me either.

I tried to convert simple .epub to .pdf and only got the message "failed."

Why not Calibre

Couldn't download epubee. You must donate first before download, so currently it's NOT free.

#16, Ms MoomMist:

Only a Kindle device, or Kindle app, or Kindle for PC or Mac can read Kindle DRM'd formats. This is for people who want to read the Kindle DRM'd ebook on their Nook, or Sony, or Kobo (or whatever) e-reader.

@ BruceM, post # 15: One of the best posts I've ever read on GOTD, constructive in its appraisal of the software offered today and comprehensive in its thoughtful chronicling of the contributions that continue to be made by Ashraf and Giovanni.

The only thing I can say by way of response is that please: don't leave it another five years before posting again. The enduring value of GOTD resides as much in the range of software opportunities it provides as the comments section which it generously facilitates; a beautifully written and structured comment such as Bruce's is as much a 'keeper' as the very best GOTD offer. Don't be a stranger, right Bruce?

@ Steve, post #19: Another much appreciated post today, and sincere thanks for providing an overdue perspective on DRM. I've never commented on this issue in the past because I'm biased towards it: as a published author, I no more want the fruit of my labors stolen from the bookstore than I want its electronic equivalent stolen via digital larceny.

As Steve says: if you want something for your permanent ownership, and that something has a price tag, then pay for it. If that seems too great a restraint on your freedom of choice, the answer's simple: in your next working week, tell your employer you're volunteering to do one day for nothing, and that the monies you would rightfully have received should instead be sent to a charity under your new Donation Rights Management regime.

Thanks, GOTD, for today's offer, and thanks to today's developer: it's not actually software that I need but will likely be of interest to many. Thanks, above all though, to GOTD for continuing to make it possible for many a different and articulate voice to be heard here.

Thank you to all who give comments. It is helpful to me. When I purchase a product on amazon.com, I often check the rating and comments. It is helpful to me to know
(1) the experience of others with a product
(2) suggestions on alternatives
(3) suggestions on free products if available

PLEASE KEEP POSTING --

NOTE -- I like the more in depth reviews rather than the "I DON"T LIKE THIS" or "I HAVE NOT TRIED THIS BUT IT IS NO GOOD".

Thanks too to GOTD for making free products availabls. The one I use very often is ASHAMPOO SNAP. So useful when, for instance, I want to take a snapshot of what I see on my screen and send to someone by pasting into e-mail or perhaps to save as a picture (no EXIF info for my own photos such as putting on weebsite or posting on facebook)

I hate to be the cloud on a sunny day, but Calibre is NOT the Holy Grail of digital converters. All of the available programs on the internet can be rated for PDF output quality as “good” or “better”, but NONE of them can be rated as “best” or “perfect”. I’ve yet to find a program that does a superb or near-perfect job. I’m hoping that someone, here, proves me wrong by recommending a program (free or pay) that I’ve not tried before. Giovanni has already provided a number of other programs we can try out, and I thank him for that.

Steve: I, too, would never walk into a store and stick a CD in my pocket, but I would rip the songs off the CD so I can play them in my MP3 player. That's what we don't like about DRM. If you want to read your iBook on a Kindle, or on your PC, or on your Nook, you are out of luck, and would have to buy the book four times!

As for epubee's current donation campaign, I understand the need to pay for the web-hosting, but it's tough to pay for software that you haven't even tried to see if it does what you need.

Well, this is great. I got lots of info on better, free programs, but the ePUBee site is currently on a funding drive and you can't download without donating 19.90. There ARE other siteS where you can download, but they all want to install toolbars, NO WAY DUDE!!
You have to wait until after 6/16 to download without donating.
I did get Calibre without any hassle though.

#16 Ms MoomMist, to answer your question, why we would need this, you can't share a Kindle book with a friend for more than a few days, and many times that isn't long enough for them to read them. This way, we can share them as PDF.

BruceM - Good review. I hope people take the time to read your other comments, too.

Calibre is okay for basic conversion, but please don't be fooled into thinking it is the "be all and end all" of ebook conversions. It repeatedly failed to convert two of my titles, so I gave up on it.

DRM? Yes, it can be annoying. Personally, I don't like it and don't use it. But it's there for a reason - to protect intellectual property rights. Usually, the only reason people are so desperate to get around DRM is purely to access something they haven't paid for. I don't illegally download music, just like I don't walk into a store and stick a CD in my pocket. It's the same with books. If you want to read a book, do the decent thing and buy it!

@Mark #6 comment:

Thank you sooooooo much for the heads up about ePUBee to remove DRM from Kindle books. I have many free recipe books from Amazon that I want to convert to PDF for easy printing but have been unable to because of DRM. I DL'd ePUBee, removed DRM from one such book and then converted it to PDF with Calibre.

YAAAAAAAY!!!!

Why is there always someone with their "would you pay $50 for this when Calibre is free" comment?

What would be more helpful is is this better than or as good as Calibre while it is FREE today!

You can get Kindle and Kindle Fire for PC free on Amazon so why does anyone need this? I have a Kindle Fire and I have Kindle PC on 3 computers. I guess I'm just confused as what this is all about.

Well I have attempted to do just about everything suggested up above by Giovanni; I also discovered in these attempts that the link for epubee provides an attempt for money which doesn't bother me that much, as I will simply have to wait until June 16 and hope it is free again. I then attempted to go and use calibre; but I am not able to access the site for downloading the tools.zip file; as my Trend Micro antivirus will not allow me to log onto that site as it says "this site has been proven to allow malicious stuff, etc." I get the same thing when I click on the Homepage link up above for this give away today; and I am not able to view it unless I allow it/ must admit, I don't want to. I have downloaded Calibre but would like the tools zip link Help?

Paying $49.99 for software that, sorry to say, does not work, would be crazy. As someone previously pointed out, Calibre does the same, it does it better (i.e. - it works!), and it is free.

I downloaded today's title onto my laptop (an HP Pavilion using a quad-core Intel i3 chipset, 6GB of ram, and running Windows 7 Home Premium) and gave it a reasonable testing. Unfortunately, while we all download the daily software applications with optimism that they will not only work as advertised, and but also provide some new value that we may not have in our personal inventory of software functionality, today's application does not live up to its stated capabilities in the intro on this page, and is not a title that I would recommend to anyone.

To borrow from the format the Ashraf has so thoroughly made his calling card here on this site:

Pro's:
------
- An easy install, although it does ask for your e-mail, along with the serial number provided, to 'register' the software.
- A clean, uncluttered interface
- A clean, quick, mostly visual 3-screen tutorial when you open the program
- An easily operated, and navigated, software application while in use
- When importing a PDF, epub, or mobi document, it provides a status box to let you know that DRM restrictions are being removed

Con’s:
--------
- This software title only works with 4 types of input documents: PDF, epub, mobi, and HTML, and can only convert to PDF, epub or mobi for the output documents
- As a document format converter, it failed on all 10 PDF documents that I loaded, in that it was unable to convert the PDF doc to either an epub or mobi format
- 6 of the epub docs that I opened were unable to convert the mobi format, and none of them would convert to a PDF format
- 3 of the epubs that I tried to open gave me a ‘structural error’ dialog box (which provided me with the opportunity to enter my e-mail address so that the company could contact me to troubleshoot why the document generated an error). The few epub docs that did successfully convert to mobi opened properly in the Kindle reader app.
- All of the epub documents that generated this error had legal Windows file names and opened cleanly in the open-source Calibre epub reader
- All 5 of the mobi docs that I opened were properly converted to the epub format, but also failed on the PDF conversion

Unfortunately, this title is not yet ready to go to market as a fully functioning, or even correctly functioning, software application. While it would be a nice little document converter if it did work, because of the limited formats (only 4) that you can import, and the fact that you can only output to 3 formats, the value of this title is limited, even if everything worked perfectly, and I do not think the market will accept such limitations for the price they are charging when there are other more capable paid, shareware, and freeware titles available that can handle the same types of document format conversions.

Unlike Corel’s Fusion app that was introduced back in 2011, and which works with over 100 different input formats, or the free (and open-source-based) Hamster ebook converter, this title was unable to correctly convert the formats it advertised, much less work with other common formats such as djvu or chm-formatted documents, or the older Palm pdb-formatted doc’s (even though it did not claim that it could, I tried them anyway as part of the test of this title). Because of the existing competitive products already available, I do not think this vendor will have much success selling this unfinished piece of software at any price, and, even after they do get it working properly, I think they will find themselves forced to lower, or discount, their price significantly given their input/output format limitations (I’m sure that Giovanni, our own ‘King of Freebies’ could provide even more freeware titles that would effectively compete, or exceed, this software app’s current level of performance).

While the performance of this title disappointed me, I want to thank Epubor for making their app available to us to try out for free. On the other hand, as a former software developer who long ago moved into product marketing and sales, I’m always surprised that any vendor would introduce a product to market, much less a site like GOTD which is full of enthusiastic users (with backgrounds ranging from the newest users to full-blown software professionals), and not have fully tested out their product. While I know that the trade-off for our getting to use their software for free is that we all act as beta-testers, and, hopefully, provide the vendor with usable feedback (independent of the thoroughly hated ‘thumbs up/down’ voting system on this site that is abused on a daily basis), it still causes me to wonder at the commercial ineptitude of any vendor that would diminish the perceived value of their offering, and their corporate reputation, by failing to fully test their own application before offering it to an outside group of users / potential customers. And, given how little money they receive from GOTD for agreeing to make their applications available to us, the real value that all of the vendors who come here gain is the exposure of their product to a new (and probably influential) group of potential customers, as well as the feedback they gain from the comments that are given back to them by those willing to comment on their experience with each vendor’s offering.

As far as the issue of having to provide an e-mail address to ‘register’ this product, like many here at GOTD, I used my normal Mailinator.com e-mail to register this app, as I usually do with new software titles from vendor's that I do not recognize -- both here on GOTD and from other freeware/shareware sites. For those of you who do not care to provide your primary e-mail addresses to unknown software vendors, or some of the known vendors here who tend to overwhelm you with e-mails once you register a title with them, I suggest that you surf over to Mailinator.com and check out there very functional service providing free, spam-trapping, throw-away e-mail addresses that become effective as soon as you type the name of the account into their system (without them asking for any other information from you beyond the name of the account), and which deletes e-mails 4-hours after they are received.

On another note, since this is the first time in many, many months that I find myself up this late (here in the US), or ‘early’ by Euro time, I want to take a moment to comment on the series of comments that I have seen over the last 5-6 months here on the site, since returning to GOTD, that have gone back and forth about Ashraf’s comments, and his linkage to his own website, versus those provided by Giovanni. It seems as if some here feel bound to choose sides and defend the individual whose advice they have come to value (I, personally, value both of these young men’s opinions).

What many people here do not seem to know is that Ashraf developed a loyal following of readers at GOTD by posting well thought out summary opinions here, and then linking to his own website for more extensive comments, including graphics, than GOTD’s site is capable of accepting. When he first started, while a university student, he received many a negative comment for linking to his own site, with the accusation that he was unfairly profiting from this linkage, when he actually not only was not earning any money (at least in the beginning) from his site, but was also offering free advertising to those vendors who offered their software titles for free. Ashraf developed his site as an outlet for his creativity and enthusiasm while a university student, and, over time, won over most of the regular visitors to GOTD, including the folks who run GOTD, with his fairness and lack of financial motive. Then, in perhaps what was his smartest decision he exhibited here, he stopped writing for awhile (at least here at GOTD) after graduating from university and getting married (very, very smart decision for a newly married young man).

In the meantime, Giovanni came to prominence here on GOTD, both with his thoroughness in his well researched freeware alternatives, as well as his humor (humour??) with which he posted his comments, even the more so when you consider that English is not his first language. As another young IT professional and motivated hobbyist, Giovanni understands that any vendor who brings a product to market, regardless of the price, ought to have thoroughly evaluated all of the existing competitive offerings available to their potential customers (paid, shareware and freeware). With the success of the open-source movement (think of products such as Linux), or freely offered professional-grade software titles (think of products such as OpenOffice), there is very little margin for error in today’s competitive markets for a software firm that cannot figure out how to determine what, or where, the value is of the product they are trying to sell. And, while some GOTDer’s have criticized Giovanni for constantly suggesting freeware products that compete with each day’s freebie, it is not only a service to his fellow users here, but also a significant competitive analysis service to vendors who come here without having done their homework in advance. Whether they did not think it was necessary to consider freeware alternatives, or perhaps did not have the ‘corporate’ luxury to do so, their success in the market will be judged against all the products available for the function they are offering, and not just a handful of other commercial titles.

On a long-winded closing note, I would hope that most people here recognize that these two young men actually get along with each other and complement the other’s value to the GOTD community. In fact, yesterday I saw where Giovanni had posted some freeware suggestions to Ashraf’s site, along with a friendly comment to him. It disappoints me to see people choosing sides, and attacking the opposite individual than the one they have chosen to follow, when we should all be cheering these young men on. Older, more experienced professionals, such as Fubar or Bubby, or MikeR or Mike, and some of the other’s whose names escape me at the moment, tend to publish more in-depth comments in their areas of expertise (and folks like Fubar, Bubby, and MikeR have many more decades of professional software / IT experience than most of the GOTD community), but tend not to do the more broad-brush, one-off evaluations that Ashraf provides, or the freeware research of Giovanni. If GOTD, as a community, is going to continue to succeed so that we may all benefit from the business model that makes new titles available to us each day, I would prefer that those contributors who give consistently provide reasoned, intelligent, educational, and often humorous, as well as sometimes properly scathing, comments are thanked rather than jeered and attacked.

My $0.02 cents worth for the first time in over five years since I last posted here.

At the moment epubee is not freeware - they're on a donations drive. In order to download it you have to donate $19.99 (no use trying to select a lower amount - it just resets to to the full amount). If you don't donate you have to wait until June 16 to download.

I've tried conversion of several PDFs (various sources, various creators, various languages) to ePub and the conversion always fails with the error:

"pdfinfo errored out with return code: -1073741515"

Installed.

Tried to convert three german PDF into epub. Each ended with the status failed, without any other information. At least they could explain, why converting failed.

Anybody better results?

Fails consistently to convert Kindle .mobi files to PDF - Converted Kindle to iPod ok:(

Fix spelling mistake on home page in this sentence:

It supports batch convertsion, so you don't need to convert file one by one , just add your files in a folder.

proper spelling conversion