[elielscott]

Thanks, osnova, for your reply. I saw those other threads but none quite addressed my issue. As I understand it, DRM helps prevent unauthorized sharing, and happens at the publisher end (iBookstore, for example), but encryption helps prevent unauthorized access and happens, I think, at the creation end. So say my client decided to use iBookstore, his book may be hard to share thanks to DRM, but unless it is encrypted (i.e., opens with a key), then anyone with the iBook app could buy it, and he wants to limit the buyers to only those authorized to read the material (to whom he will provide the key or password). So to clarify my question, I guess I'd say "Does iBookstore support encryption?" and "Is encryption an affordable process for a relatively small project?" If encryption software, like DRM software, costs $10K, then the answer would be no. But perhaps there are those out there who do encryption for individuals, just as Apple aggregators do conversion and DRM for the individual---I just don't know who that would be or what they would be called. It's important to note, too, that this will be a fixed-layout .epub, not the usual flowing-content .epub, as that might make a difference in the answer. Thanks.