Quote:
Originally Posted by astra
If ebook reader manufacturer adds DRM support. Do they have to pay royalties to someone for enabling this particular format and DRM on their devices?
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Few companies discuss the details, but that seems to be the case. The only price I have seen is $75K per year for Adobe Digital Editions, see
No problem on future Fictionwise DRM. There are no details, and Astak is now saying that ADE will be on their future devices - so perhaps the $75K did not apply to them. It would certainly be possible for someone like FictionWise to make their reader software available to companies for little to no cost in order to get more eReader supporting devices out there. Even then, there would be a cost in porting the SDK to the device.
Netronix and Jinkie seem to be planning to amortize their software costs over a range of devices, from a low cost 5" to a high cost 9.7". That might make the cost of DRM support negligible on a unit basis. However, DRM may be a significant expense if you are entering the market with a low cost device.