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Hmm, maybe I am still missing something...
If the files are going to be generic formats, then doesn't the protection also have to work in conjunction with the reading software and and/or the PC? (Otherwise what stops people from freely copying the SD card e-book and delivering it to their friends in non-protected form?)
As I understand it, here are the two choices being discussed:
1) Encrypt the file and force the reader software to verify identity or authority to the content.
2) Use generic file types, but force the SD card hardware to be present in order to access it, AND only allow authorized reader software to access it (software that has been pre-approved by the body managing the protection scheme) so that copies can't be made.
If the second option doesn't include the reader software in on the game, you can't prevent copies from being made of unprotected files. Or alternatively, you have to encrypt the files, which puts you back in the same case as #1, except you now have to have a dongle (the sd card) instead of a password to authorize it's use.
In the SD card case #2, it seems like you have added a layer of protection, not eased anything. They only change is that now you use the SD card as a dongle in the sense that it verifies authority to use the file. But all the other overhead is still there.
You do have the benefit of being able to pass your book to someone else, but is that worth the extra requirement that you can't read any book unless you have the SD card dongle in addition?
Think of the SD card collection as being software DRM, but with one password per book, and the password is the SD card! I could be wrong, but I think people would really hate being backed into a corner about how they could use the book.... requiring them to carry around a collection of cards instead of the freedom to use one card and a password, and the freedom to make (encrypted) backups or to re-download files from the online store the book was purchased from.
Back to my example, suppose you buy 50 books. Either way you have proprietary reading software required. So do you prefer to be forced to keep 50 physical SD cards with the option to loan them, or do you prefer to be able to put the files on one SD card and have one password? (Even the option to give or loan a book is still possible with software DRM schemes, so that's really not a benefit, except maybe that the controlling organization can die and you would still be able to give away a book in the hardware version -- until the technology goes away. And unfortunately that's the niche security technology, not the standard file layout or SD card technology!)
So I guess what I'm saying is not that nobody would want to keep the SD card books, but that for the vast majority of people, it probably wouldn't make a lot of sense to be constrained that way, and that either way we're probably stuck with the proprietary software to read. The encrypted file approach seems to actually give MORE flexibility than the SD card approach, with the possible exception of the potentially grey area related to giving away a book to someone else.
But I still know that I'm only starting to think about this topic, so I do suspect I have blind spots with regard to the discussion. I don't mean to pound out my points. It's just the only way I can see it at the moment. But I'd love to learn more from "EBSD" card advocates if there's more to the whole thing!
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