OverDrive sold to private equity firm KKR

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Basically true, but there is a hardened DRM available for ADE books that OverDrive does not currently use, likely because it is incompatible with older devices. I could see the new KKR OverDrive striking a deal with publishers for better pricing in exchange for switching to locked down DRM.

Perhaps, but then again, there really doesn't seem to be a big DRM push by the publishers. The hardened DRM seems to be more of a product in search of a market, rather than something the market is asking for.

As far as I can tell, the issue between libraries and publishers with regards to eBooks is more limiting books during the initial selling period rather than concern of piracy.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

As far as I can tell, the issue between libraries and publishers with regards to eBooks is more limiting books during the initial selling period rather than concern of piracy.

Limiting books might be directly correlated to increased piracy. Or the other way around. Once the publishers agreed to allow ebooks to libraries, maybe partially in the hope to decrease piracy, they set themselves up. They cannot just take ebook lending completely away, so they try to limit it. Well, they could take it away again, but it would not look good for their reputation. Amazon did not have to worry about that, because they never started allowing library ebook lending to begin with.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

They cannot just take ebook lending completely away, so they try to limit it. Well, they could take it away again, but it would not look good for their reputation. ...

having the overdrive app open up with "here are the best sellers, here are the most popular"..., just worsens that short term demand for what's hot, but that no one will care about in a few months time

there's a lack of smart, joined up thinking

what we get now is more like if the netflix home screen had "here's list of great movies that you can't watch right now "

the lending apps should be promoting stuff that's in stock, on shelves, being ignored!

or the libraries need to cut different deals which lets them meet demand more effectively

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by stumped

having the overdrive app open up with "here are the best sellers, here are the most popular"..., just worsens that short term demand for what's hot, but that no one will care about in a few months time

there's a lack of smart, joined up thinking

what we get now is more like if the netflix home screen had "here's list of great movies that you can't watch right now "

the lending apps should be promoting stuff that's in stock, on shelves, being ignored!

or the libraries need to cut different deals which lets them meet demand more effectively

My library usually seems to list on the front page popular books that are currently available. These are usually less recent books by bestselling authors such as John Grisham, Lee Child, or the person who wrote the Notebook (name escapes me right now, not an author I read).

Of course this is still promoting popular authors. I agree with you that it would be good if they promoted some quality books by less well-known authors. Maybe a "here are some of the best books you probably haven't read" list.

[mitford13]

Some informed speculation and more background on the companies involved, here:

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.or...l_books&wpmm=1

[stumped]

Originally Posted by mitford13

Some informed speculation and more background on the companies involved, here:

https://americanlibrariesmagazine.or...l_books&wpmm=1

It's a good summary for anyone who prefers to skip the previous 3 pages of amateur speculation.

No new alarms, perhaps some faint positives even...

[ezdiy]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Limiting books might be directly correlated to increased piracy. Or the other way around. Once the publishers agreed to allow ebooks to libraries, maybe partially in the hope to decrease piracy, they set themselves up. They cannot just take ebook lending completely away, so they try to limit it. Well, they could take it away again, but it would not look good for their reputation. Amazon did not have to worry about that, because they never started allowing library ebook lending to begin with.

Amazon does, in fact, lend. Just not the Big5 catalog. Amazon would love to lend Big5, but they're simply never given the business. The idea of Big5 is roughly this: Price ebooks to ridiculous heights, and Amazon is just distribution channel of this top end market. But amazon doesn't get the profitable lending rights, the OverDrive et al libraries do who are all small fish who are fully at mercy of Big5.

OverDrive/library lending is special contracts, where each "virtual copy" costs 3-4x more than the (already ridiculous) consumer price. All in all, people see that as sweet deal - books on amazon are expensive, most can't be lent, whereas you can "borrow directly" from Big5, cutting Amazon from the loop.

Sometimes, the libraries rebel when there's a price hike on lending contract, like Macmillan recently. But what they're gonna do, buy em on amazon? Remember folks, e-books are not owned, you're merely buying a license to read it yourself. With no borrow rights, unless publisher permits it.

[cfrizz]

Which is why I mostly read self-published these days. If Overdrive ceases to exist, I will still have plenty to read.

The Big 5 can go screw themselves.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Which is why I mostly read self-published these days. If Overdrive ceases to exist, I will still have plenty to read.

The Big 5 can go screw themselves.

+1

[Fat Abe]

As a subscriber to conspiracy theories, I suspect that KKR will impose a new encryption technique, using blockchain technology, that will be forced upon Adobe Digital Editions. There will be backward compatibility with existing purchased books, but new releases will be encoded using a more secure encryption scheme. Why? To better monetize the value of books, and extract a larger fee from publishers for the conversion process. If their works are less likely to be pirated, the companies may be willing to fork over extra cash. A new generation of eReaders may be required, which makes the manufacturers happy, but the owners of existing eReaders angry/resentful. However, given that the output of an ebook must eventually appear as plaintext, bruteforce screen readers may become more commonplace. Nevertheless, the presence of xerox machines and scanners has not been the default methodology of book copying and epub generation.

[binaryhermit]

That seems somewhat out there.
And like you said, DRM doesn't stop those determined to copy books.
Like, IIRC someone uploaded pictures of every page of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to the internet a few days before the book actually came out and the internet.

[jhowell]

I doubt it will happen, but if KKR is looking to reduce costs then dropping Adobe’s content delivery system and limiting OverDrive books to be only available within their own apps is a possibility.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

That seems somewhat out there.
And like you said, DRM doesn't stop those determined to copy books.
Like, IIRC someone uploaded pictures of every page of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to the internet a few days before the book actually came out and the internet.

Yes. Though it might've been a earlier volume.
They got ahold of a copy from a distributor warehouse.
Also, I hear some pirate videos ripped from disk are released before they hit stores the same way.

Deathly Hallows was pirated by a group that each bought a midnight (UK) copy and scanned one chapter. Then it was proofed, chapter by chapter, until the book was complete and nearly perfect on USENET before morning in the US.

Most determined case I heard of, from before Pottermore, was that somebody scanned and meticulously proofed the entire Potter series and released dot-by-dot pdf replicas of the books, including the illustrations and covers, to highlight to Rowling that witholding the ebook versions only provided a reason to get pirate versions. Must've take months or a small army but theyhad a point to make, much as the creators of the various DeDRM tools over the years.

DRM doesn't deter determined pirates. It only hampers buyers from being overly liberal in lending to friends and family. And often, not even that.

[crich70]

And not every country is concerned with protecting the rights of the actual copyright holders whether for books, music or movies.I understand that a lot of pirate copies of various media are widely available in China for example. It's an ongoing problem with no easy solution so long as a country is willing to look the other way while its citizens commit such acts.

[stumped]

"in china for example" ???
& "so long as a country is willing to look the other way while its citizens commit such acts"
are U serious ?
e.g. think you will find that most of these 54 million copies of Game of Thrones were pirated in the USA
Data from piracy monitoring firm MUSO indicates the show was pirated 54 million times in the first 24 hours
and
Star Wars television show The Mandalorian was uploaded to the internet by pirates within three hours of its launch on Disney+ yesterday.
The debut episode of the show was being circulated on file sharing websites almost immediately after the new streaming platform went live, with most downloads appearing to originate from Spain and the U.K., according to an analysis by Comparitech

try naming a country where stuff is NOT pirated "while the country looks the other way / while its citizens commit such acts"

for English language books, films, music, TV shows the pirates mostly live in the west, and they get rich from the Google etc. adverts on their sites

blaming China is not the answer