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About formats, wasn't there a problem with the Ibook formats? that can only be read on Apple devices? Or the B&N Epubs that can only be read on a B&N reader?
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It is not so much the format that is the problem with Amazon's azw or nearly everyone else's epub, but rather what controls the digital-rights encryption. Amazon owns and controls both the "azw" format used on Kindle and the method of digital-rights management (DRM) used to encrypt it. The epub format is an open standard, free to use, established by the International Digital Publishing Forum. There are two or three different (and proprietary) methods of digital-rights encryption used on epub books, though Adobe Content Server (through the free software Adobe Digital Editions) is probably the main one at the moment. Theoretically an epub DRMed with Adobe can be read legally on any device or software that uses the same encryption method, thought it's not quite as simple as copying files from one place to another. An encrypted Amazon file, though, can only be read (again, legally) with a device or software either owned or licensed by Amazon. Apple uses epub, but its own DRm, so reading an ebook bought from Apple essentially comes with the same type of restriction as an ebook bought from Amazon.