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Originally Posted by conan50
My big concern is that in 5 years or less we will be left with only Amazon for ebooks and subject to their whims as to whether drm-free ebooks are possible at all. Look at B&N as a terrible example of how quickly you can potentially lose purchased ebooks or the ability to control what you do with them.
I wish we had more Independent ebook sellers like Baen, but across a broad spectrum of ebook genres with a focus on the open Epub format. I fear Amazon's Kindle store has made things so convenient that we will one day look back at embracing them solely with serious regret. And no one with power to change things like a Google has stepped up to the plate and addressed the problem of DRM, but rather has embraced it.
http://publishingperspectives.com/20...drm-dictators/ |
What open EPUB format? Or at least, who has implemented such a thing?
Every device/app has their own odd violations of the EPUB spec, or the spec just doesn't cover important rendering details.
Ah, the myth of the universal EPUB strikes again...
KF8 is just as robust a format as EPUB(3?) -- although it doesn't support internal filenames, big tragedy there -- but wrapped in a Palm database instead of
DEFLATE compression. While I suppose you could argue the Palm database wrapper is less "open" than a ZIP wrapper, what does that mean in practice, and does anyone care?
As with most file formats implemented by in-house solutions, mobi7/8 have both been fully reverse-engineered. The full specification can be found as independent implementations in calibre or KindleUnpack, both of which are open enough even for Richard Stallman... so if you are worried about the freedom of your books, don't be.
If that isn't your concern, can you please tell me what is.
I've never really understood the "support Open EPUB format" movement.
Basically, what I'm saying is: don't confuse a
distaste of Amazon-Kindle-the-store policies for a reason to not use a book that has been converted to(/from) the same format as the standard Amazon-Kindle-the-store product format
While there is certainly a problem if Amazon becomes the single vendor for ebooks, I don't see that it has anything to do with the format.
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Edit: can you imagine if Google or Kobo or anyone seriously involved in this industry said: "We refuse to sell any book with DRM in our store. Remove the DRM or we remove your books".
Amazon changed the course of mp3 digital music going DRM-free. They could do the same for ebooks, maybe they are the only ones who have the power at this point, but format-device lock in is working in their favor now.
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Publishers are flirting with ebooks, but they really prefer pbooks (for some odd reason...).
They would probably just pull their ebooks altogether.