[AnonHP]

Totally on a tangent here (and I realize that this may rub some people the wrong way):

Maybe just ditch O’Reilly learning altogether? The publisher stopped selling ebooks online several years ago and left people with the only option of subscribing to the online service (it does participate in the discounted Humble Bundle sales once in a while). Now these subscription prices are way higher than before. Maybe this is working out quite well for O’Reilly or maybe O’Reilly is grasping at straws (to make more money), but if an individual balks at the prices, isn’t every access a vote for the pricing and the platform, and an indirect encouragement to do away with partnerships that don’t pay “full price”?

What I’d be interested to know is what alternatives exist, even if they aren’t as broad as this one.

[JJMcJ]

I remember when that happened with the ebooks. One day you could buy ebooks in multiple formats, including PDF, or ebook + paper book for about 25% more, usually. Then we woke up one morning and the only digital format was Kindle and you could no longer buy direct from O'Reilly in any format.

I still think their books are among the best edited and informative on the market but their business practices are getting less and less appetizing.

[modelviewpotato]

Your can buy O’Reilly DRM-free PDF and ePUB ebooks from eBooks [dot] com. I love the amount and variety of content of O”Reilly platform but the web application is pretty mediocre and the mobile apps are buggy as hell.

[the_only_law]

I gotta wonder what their mindset was doing that? We’re they particularly struggling prior to switching to subscription-only? Had other publishers begun to do something similar? Data collection scheme?

[tedmiston]

I see O'Reilly Learning as a mirror image of what Spotify did for music and Netflix did for TV shows.

Some people assume it's just books, but they have live content, video courses, etc too.

It's the best purchase I make for my professional life every year. If they ever offered a lifetime tier, I'd likely buy it.

In the past few years, I've browsed thousands of technical books on the site; but when it comes to paper technical books in the same time period, I've probably bought maybe just ~25. Access is king.

[blub]

Some O’Reilly books are available on ebooks.com DRM-free.

[asdefghyk]

Its why they shut down. TO much piracy. All the Oreilly ebooks I purchased had no DRM and I purchased a lot. Was a VIP customer - but maybe it was widely handed out - I do not know.

[derekp7]

So the best way to combat piracy is to remove the option to purchase the product? Wouldn't that drive people more towards piracy?

[thorin1]

Exactly.

Nothing changed for people who were pirating their books. They are still freely available on the Internet.

And people who were buying their ebooks can't anymore.

[softveda]

I am a happy customer of O'Reilly Learning. I do not even earn US level salary, but for a few hundred dollars annually I get access to a massive collection of books, training videos, live training, interactive coding and much more. In my country (Australia) self education is tax deductible as well. I consider this a small investment for my career.

[asdefghyk]

RE ".....The publisher stopped selling ebooks online several years ago...." The ebooks had not DRM as do lotd of other ebooks . However most where widely pirated. So they where probably heading for bankruptcy ids my guess if they kept selling ebooks.