|
pdurrant: Thank you! You clarified my point exactly.
HarryT: quote: "I'm sorry - how does DRM "prevent you from backing up your books"? An eBook is just a file; it can be backed up, regardless of what it contains."
My jaw hit the floor.
I'm confused:
Do you really not understand how being unable to decrypt a DRM file (even though you can theoretically back it up) is an impediment to the book being usable?
Or are you deliberately misinterpreting my point to avoid refuting the argument?
Non-open formats are going to be a significant issue to long-term usage and adoption of ebooks. Yes, yes, I know, epub is an open format...but that doesn't mean ANYTHING when the epub book is shrink-wrapped in DRM to prevent the average person from using the book in the manner they see fit.
To the average person who does not bother to look into the details, the epub format will be blamed. If publishing does not get its act together, in the consumer's mind the equation will be "ebook = crippled, tied to a specific machine, can't use on other devices I own, time to go search the torrents."
Publishing refuses to acknowledge that, I really don't want to see it happen because it hurts everyone, but that is what IS going to happen if publishers don't get it.
And Epub, open standard and all that, is irrelevant--and will be blamed for this mess, even though it is DRM's fault--if you can't back it up, read it on your other devices, and use the book you bought (and not licensed, no matter how much publishers want to cram the word license down our throats).
I would LOVE to be able to decouple the Epub discussion from the DRM discussion -- and if you read my earlier posts, I do distinguish between a plain vanilla epub reader and a DRM-enabled epub reader -- but I CANNOT at this time because the publishers WILL NOT ALLOW IT.
It's like trying to discuss bacon while ignoring the fact that it comes from pigs. At this time the two are intertwined and big publishing shows no signs of changing that. THAT is harmful to readers and harmful to the original poster's objective:
"about the ebook format that would be the standard in next future. I know it its a stupid question, but, i would buy an ereader, and i want to be sure it will support the 'standard' of ebook."
The main issue is, as I see it, "I want a way to read ebooks now and in the future. What is the best way to do that?"
I've posted my lengthy arguments in favor of plain old HTML -- and I do support non-DRMd epub -- but the only argument shooting down HTML is "DRMd Epubs CAN be backed up." But if you can't actually read them after backing them up, the point is irrelevant.
|