Adobe + Barnes & Noble Partnership

[muirhejs]

From the Adobe Blog website:

Adobe and Barnes & Noble announced today that they are working together to standardize the open EPUB and PDF eBook formats and collaborating on a content protection standard based on Adobe and Barnes & Noble technology. This collaboration will make Barnes & Noble the most portable and compatible eBookstore and provide customers with the ability to access digital content from thousands of content providers that is protected with Adobe technology. Soon enough, customers who use the Adobe Reader Mobile software development kit will also be able to purchase and read content from BN.com, the world's largest eBookstore.

I think this could have very interesting implications with EPUB, among many other areas. Thoughts?

[AnemicOak]

Jim Lester from Adobe posted a bit about this in another thread...

Originally Posted by Jim Lester

The Adobe/B&N joint press release is here:
http://newsblaze.com/story/200910201.../topstory.html

The summary is this:
B&N will be using their current flavor of DRM (content locked to a user name/CC#) for selling ePubs from their store.

B&N has licensed this scheme to Adobe for inclusion in the RMSDK (Reader Mobile SDK – it’s the ePub/PDF engine we license to device manufacturers) and ACS (Adobe Content Server).

Adobe in turn has licensed the RMSDK (that includes this method as well as our current method) to B&N, who is using it to implement ePub/PDF rendering on the Nook.

Other RMSDK customers will get this as part of the 9.1 release of the RMSDK (early 2010). When those customers choose to include it on devices/firmware upgrades will be up to them.

ADE 1.7.1 (the current version) does not support the new DRM format, but we do plan on releasing a version that does (and no there is no publicly released date for that version of ADE available yet).

This will cause confusion in the short term about what will work where as we get everyone (including us) ramped up, but the long/medium term goal is that from a customer perspective – it’ll just work.

I just hope that the various device manufacturers using ADE will be sure and update their firmware when this all happens or it's likely to cause problems.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Jim Lester from Adobe posted a bit about this in another thread...

{...snip...}

I just hope that the various device manufacturers using ADE will be sure and update their firmware when this all happens or it's likely to cause problems.

And that is the problem...what happens with re-badger clone sellers who simply do not have the developer staff to keep up with that moving target. And of course they will need to maintain backward compatibility. Books are not like software, a new book format cannot render old books inaccessible on the same device. A book purchased today should be readable on devices 25yrs from now.

[DawnFalcon]

You expect things to stay static? No, the ePub format itself is being worjked on as well, and Adobe are doing regular updates to their SDK. If companies can't update their firmware, it's telling of their service quality and business plan.

[ranma]

wow, It is nice to see most publisher/retailer goes to one open format. Hear that, amazon?

[Hellmark]

I was afraid of this. All they are doing is adding the ereader DRM to epub instead of ADEPT. The bit about "most compatible" is bogus, since no current devices support it, even if they have epub support from Adobe. Unless EVERY company release patches to existing reader using Adobe, it'll cause mass confusion over which form of DRM is actually being used. People will buy a book, thinking it'll work because it is using epub, only to find it won't.

[GntlmnBndt]

One of the reasons I was looking forward to this announcement is that I expected it to be EPUB with some variation of eReader DRM, which is to say that it would not be dependent on server authentication. Now, I am left wondering if even the password protected version of the DRM will require server authentication. It sounds like protected books must either be sideloaded from a PC (with ADE?) or downloaded directly from B&N. Either case is a deal breaker for me.

Admittedly, mostly I have been buying unprotected books of late, so it probably should not matter to me. Still a disappointment, though.

The Bandit

[=X=]

@Bandit you cwn out your concern at ease. It appears B&N is using Adobe's SDK to render ePub and PDF. In return Adobe is licencing B&N DRM.

This is good news for ePub and all devices that licenced Adobe's SDK that means a firmware update can easily make older ereader support B&N DRM.

This is a brilliant move for Adobe and strengthens there domenance over the eBook format war and their association as the defacto standard for an epub solution.

=X=

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by =X=

This is good news for ePub and all devices that licenced Adobe's SDK that means a firmware update can easily make older ereader support B&N DRM.

An update can be done. Now hopefully all the manufacturers will do one.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by GntlmnBndt

It sounds like protected books must either be sideloaded from a PC (with ADE?) or downloaded directly from B&N.

The "sideloading" approach is the way that all existing mobile ADE devices (Sonys, EZ Readers, etcetera) work, since they don't have 3G or WiFi. You need to use a Windows PC or a Mac (or a Linux system and Wine) to download the DRMed ePub (i.e. to initially interact with the DRM server), but this file can then be copied to the device via USB.

I don't think it is clear yet if downloading a CC-DRMed ePub from B&N will be possible to a Desktop or if direct download to the Nook via its 3G/WiFi is the only way. If B&N adds ePub to its Desktop Readers, then you clearly will be able to download the ePub files to your Desktop.

[Xerxes]

Oh dear....

That's pretty much all that comes to mind. It's so back and forth for them to both win, but what about the people with readers. If it's not the nook, BN doesn't care, and Adobe dominates regardless.