MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Sony goes DivX - now what about e-books, Sony?

davidrothman · 01-09-2008, 07:40 AM

Hadrien is right. No one's as gung ho about a standard nonproprietary e-book format as I am--this is one of the main themes of the TeleRead Web log--but the IDPF spec is actually the product of a number of people and companies. We need to monitor the IDPF for excessive influence by Adobe and other corporations. But the actual .epub format is indeed nonprorprietary.

The evil in Digital Editions is (1) use of proprietary DRM and (2) the heavily promoted use of DRM, period. The IDPF hopes to address such issues by way of interoperable DRM, an effort I actually support since anything's better than the present mess. But the real solution is NO DRM or least nothing more than "social DRM" (owner-identifying info in files---flawed but again better than what we have).

Meanwhile proprietary DRM means that even with capabilities for standard .epub, DE is still an eBabel offender, at least in regard to "protected" books. But proprietary DRM is different from a proprietary core format.

Thanks,
David

TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home
http://www.teleread.org
Blog:
http://www.teleread.org/blog

01-09-2008, 07:40 AM	#5
davidrothman Connoisseur Posts: 60 Karma: 32 Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Alexandria, VA Device: Paperwhite, $50 Fire, iPad Air 2, Nexus 6, Kobo Aura H2O	Hadrien is right. No one's as gung ho about a standard nonproprietary e-book format as I am--this is one of the main themes of the TeleRead Web log--but the IDPF spec is actually the product of a number of people and companies. We need to monitor the IDPF for excessive influence by Adobe and other corporations. But the actual .epub format is indeed nonprorprietary. The evil in Digital Editions is (1) use of proprietary DRM and (2) the heavily promoted use of DRM, period. The IDPF hopes to address such issues by way of interoperable DRM, an effort I actually support since anything's better than the present mess. But the real solution is NO DRM or least nothing more than "social DRM" (owner-identifying info in files---flawed but again better than what we have). Meanwhile proprietary DRM means that even with capabilities for standard .epub, DE is still an eBabel offender, at least in regard to "protected" books. But proprietary DRM is different from a proprietary core format. Thanks, David TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home http://www.teleread.org Blog: http://www.teleread.org/blog