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There are some good arguments here but I still think this little proposal has legs. The idea in it is that ePub books without DRM would be offered for loan to subscribers to Kindle Unlimited. It does not propose going beyond KU.
Some have pointed out that there are several versions of DRM used to lock down ePub, but I propose only offering ePub books without DRM. These can be read on Kobo, Nook and Sony eReaders as well as many brands that are not readily available in the US, so without DRM ePub is readable on most existing ePub eReaders no matter the manufacturer.
DRM is not necessary to enforce the loan format used for KU. We are allowed ten books at a time. To borrow another one you must return one of the last ten. And as we all know, DRM does not correlate with piracy so suggestions that KU will lead to piracy is a red herring.
Amazon is starting to go into new markets where ePub is strongest. They will not win many friends in those countries if they appear to potential customers to be just another big, rich American with a “my way or the highway” attitude.
Most of those new markets are not English speaking so expect Amazon will have to develop a library of books in many languages. Additionally, many countries do not allow American style DRM anyway.
If Amazon has to use ePub overseas, why not do so in the US as well, at least as an experiment with KU, which is, itself, an experiment.
Without the genius of Steve Jobs there is no one to persuade people a walled garden is the best place for ebooks, not when people around them are obviously reading ebooks on thousands of different devices.
I appreciate all the objections to this little idea but as far as I can tell, the only rational argument for Amazon not to offer Kindle Unlimited book loans in DRM free ePub would be if Jeff Bezos says “no”.
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