Since July 1, ebooks purchased on the Microsoft store have become unreadable. The Redmond company has closed the servers, but users have been refunded
Bad surprise for those who, in the past, bought books in digital format from the Microsoft Store: starting yesterday they are completely unreadable. Microsoft had announced it a few months ago, along with the closure of the books category on the store (which took place in April) and finally did it.
The house of Redmond is already proceeding to refund the purchase amount of each book to users, on the credit card used at the time of purchase. Those who have changed payment method in the meantime, however, will receive a voucher of equal value always spendable on the Microsoft Store. As of July 1, 2019, then, the sale of electronic books on the Microsoft store is just a memory. The important thing to do, at this point, is simply to check that the refund procedures are successful because, unfortunately, there is no way to regain possession of those books.
Question of rights
Many people wonder why it is no longer possible to read books regularly purchased and paid for, perhaps years ago. The answer is that, in reality, those books have never been sold and purchased but, in a certain sense, rented. This is because all books that can be purchased online are protected by the DRM system: Digital Rights Management. This system does not require the purchase of the book, to prevent the book (which in the end is a simple file on the user's PC) from being copied and circulated illegally. To read the books purchased from the Microsoft Store, therefore, it is necessary that Microsoft keeps active the servers that manage the DRM rights of the books. Servers that, now, Microsoft has turned off.
It has been known for a long time
Different months ago Microsoft had announced that, as of April 2, 2019, it would remove the books section of its store and that from that date was no longer buy literary works. And so it did. With the same announcement also explained that it would be possible to read books already purchased only until early July 2019. And so it was. Who in the past has bought one or more books on the Microsoft Store, therefore, would do well to check the balance of the credit card with which he bought them: by the end of the month Microsoft should finish the refund operations. When the money will be returned to the buyer, then, you can delete the books and say goodbye for good.