Quote:
Originally Posted by nickbogaty
...leading to increased selection for customers and allow interoperability for unencrypted digital books between software that implements .epub.
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I certainly look forward to that, and in the long run I hope it is a reality. In the short run, I think epub actually makes the current situation worse. The key in the above quote is
unencrypted. I look forward to devices that support epub, and I hope to see support at Fictionwise, where they have a nice variety of unencrypted books. Still, how much of the market is unencrypted? Without a standard DRM, the various vendors will have to implement their own systems, resulting in additional file types. It's like buying videos protected by Real Media, MS WMV, and iTunes DRMs. The fact that all the files contain MPEG4 video makes things easier for the content producers, but does not simplify things for the end user.
I would love it if DRM went the way of the dodo, and maybe this will be the impetus publishers need, but that seems unlikely.
Jack