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Originally Posted by nekokami
I think this could be solved by standards too. There have been several formats that have been distributed by multiple websites. The much maligned PDF is one. Mobi is another. I don't see any reason publishers couldn't generate the files and pass them off to online sellers like Amazon.
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Agreed, once they generate them.
I'm cynical about ePub as an end-user format, but from what I know, it might be a perfect intermediate format. Once you have the book in ePub format, all the elements are there that you might want, and converting from ePub to Mobipocket, Sony LRF or what have you should be fairly trivial.
And Adobe Indesign creates ePub formatted files, and lots of folks already use InDesign for publishing markup.
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Getting electronic content into brick-and-mortar stores wouldn't be that hard either-- it would just take some imagination (in-store wireless networks, cheap smart cards with a deposit/return scheme, USB download... they all have strengths and weaknesses, but they're all doable.)
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Yep. I believe Barnes and Noble was experimenting with some takes on that.
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I don't trust any DRM for this. I have enough trouble reading files from old versions of word processors. I want my books in a completely open, public standard, with no encryption. And I don't think it's needed, in any case.
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DRM is the fly in that ointment. I don't like DRM either, but I fear we'll be stuck with some form of it. I more or less favor the Mobipocket format because Mobi will let me register up to five devices, and read a Mobi edition on any of them.
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Dennis