The Nook Stuation is Getting Worse All the Time

Years I ago I bought the first Nook, or the Nook First Edition as they call it now.  Great little device and is, in fact, still my favorite e-Reader.  Granted I did root it and installed a few extra apps at one point so that I could do better searches in my sizable library, but other than that I have no complaints.

Sadly the situation with Nook has been degrading for some time.  As I posted previously, Barnes and Noble shut down the Nook internationally on August 7th with the exception of UK.  Up until then you could download the Nook app in iOS or Android to purchase or read Nook books.  Well here is the new wrinkle: they have apparently shut down the UK book store as well.  A man by the name of Hisham El-Far discovered on August 11th that he could no longer access his Nook library.  Every time he tried to use the Nook app, it popped up a message saying "Effective August 7th 2015 the Nook App for windows is no longer available outside the United States..."  

This is interesting because it says specifically "outside the United States" making no mention of UK.  Hisham contacted Nook UK support and received the following messages:

@HishamElfar Pls try signing out and back in. U may also try our other NOOK Reading Apps for IOS and Android. We apologize for inconvenience — NOOK UK Support (@NOOK_Care_UK) August 12, 2015

@HishamElfar We are no longer accepting MS Wallet as payment method, you may need to update your payment information on your NOOK account. — NOOK UK Support (@NOOK_Care_UK) August 12, 2015

When he stated that signing out and back in and he didn't use MS Wallet with Nook they didn't respond.  So what is even worse, they didn't tell their own employees about the shutdown.  Now perhaps this is a glitch, but if so why wouldn't the error message mention UK instead only the United States?

While I still love my Nook devices I suspect that Barnes and Noble will pull the plug soon.  Therefore I suggest everyone download their books using Nook for PC or NookStudy (Google for them) or risk loosing all of your purchased content.  If you wish to make sure you can use the books you purchased elsewhere should the Nook be shut down, get Calibre (the free digital library system) and apprentice alf's plugin (Google for it) to remove the encryption/DRM.  I also suggest to do this sooner than later.  While I am very much against piracy, this is protection of ones legally purchased assets, nothing more.