MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - What books are allowed on the new Kobo & B&N readers?

Kitabi · 05-31-2011, 02:33 PM

If memory serves right, the separate B&N DRM is a result of two things.

First is their eReader acquisition - much as Kindle's MOBI format is a result of Amazon buying out the owner of that format. It probably does save B&N royalties they would otherwise pay to Adobe but at the cost of incompatibility with other reader brands. They tried to mitigate this by reaching an agreement with Adobe to build B&N DRM into the Adobe's software. Not sure if Adobe is dragging its feet or if other vendors (Kobo, Sony...) don't care about giving that option to their customers.

Second, the issue with Adobe ADEPT is that it restricts the number of devices you can download a book to (used to be 5). To load the DRM'd book on more devices, you need to remove it from others first. B&N's social DRM gets rid of this limitation by using your encrypted credit card number as the unlock key for their DRM. There are issues with this approach too (what if you cancel and forget your CC#?). However, this was meant as a feature that removed ADEPT's limitation and not a restrictive policy to compete with other vendors.

05-31-2011, 02:33 PM	#53
Kitabi Connoisseur Posts: 77 Karma: 66 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Nook	If memory serves right, the separate B&N DRM is a result of two things. First is their eReader acquisition - much as Kindle's MOBI format is a result of Amazon buying out the owner of that format. It probably does save B&N royalties they would otherwise pay to Adobe but at the cost of incompatibility with other reader brands. They tried to mitigate this by reaching an agreement with Adobe to build B&N DRM into the Adobe's software. Not sure if Adobe is dragging its feet or if other vendors (Kobo, Sony...) don't care about giving that option to their customers. Second, the issue with Adobe ADEPT is that it restricts the number of devices you can download a book to (used to be 5). To load the DRM'd book on more devices, you need to remove it from others first. B&N's social DRM gets rid of this limitation by using your encrypted credit card number as the unlock key for their DRM. There are issues with this approach too (what if you cancel and forget your CC#?). However, this was meant as a feature that removed ADEPT's limitation and not a restrictive policy to compete with other vendors.