Interview w/Kobo CEO

[Graham44]

I found the section on DRM really interesting too, the CEO seems like a genuine guy who understands that people who read love their books and want to have a choice of what they buy and where. But he's also probably got a legal team just behind the camera screaming at him to watch what he says, and as he himself said they have to please their publishers who rightly don't want their IP ripped off. The fact he also intimated that he really didn't like Amazon locking people into their ecosystem is another good sign, hopefully with this sort of attitude Kobo will always aim for a DRM system that isn't to draconian.

[PocketBookFan1]

Originally Posted by The_Enobee

That is my hope, that they're committed to maintaining file access, and once a DRM system is in place that will be that.

I'm a bit nervous, with Adobe ADE no longer being developed, that recent changes such as netgalley moving away from ADE will cause Kobo to look at a new system that won't be so user friendly. Time will tell, but nice to see that file access and usage across device types is something they're thinking about.

From what it looks like, Most modern book DRMs are based on Readium LCP(which is open source). Pocketbook e-readers and other devices support it natively and it is trying to be one of the most user-friendly options. A quick example of a company going from ADE to LCP is (the main one you mentioned) netgalley. Although some LCP implementations might try to be proprietary, the underlying technology is meant for any file protected by LCP.

[John F]

Originally Posted by The_Enobee

...

I'm a bit nervous, with Adobe ADE no longer being developed, ...

Is there a link to Adobe stateing this?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

I think he's been the head or near the top since before Kobo was called Kobo.

He became CEO of Kobo in January, 2016, 4 years after Kobo was acquired by Rakuten. He was associated with ShortCovers/Kobo as an executive before ShortCovers became Kobo when Indigo spun it out in Dec., 2009.

[Cyfranek]

A nice talk, which is an example of how not to say anything important for half an hour

[Quoth]

DRM needs to be illegal. Controls & cheats consumers and doesn't stop piracy of music, ebooks, video or streaming content.

[kyôdai]

Originally Posted by John F

Is there a link to Adobe stateing this?

I don't think ADE has been officially abandoned by Adobe, yet. But like The_Enobee said developement of the software has pretty much come to halt.

Version 4.5 was released in 2015, so 10 years ago, and since then ADE has only received minor bug fixes, the current version is 4.5.12.

The iOS app got its last update in 2020, to version 4.5.11.
The android app got its last update in 2023, to version 4.5.12.

The iOS app-store shows a version history. There you can see what has been done over the last 10 years. -> https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adobe-...ns/id952977781

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by The_Enobee

I'm a bit nervous, with Adobe ADE no longer being developed, that recent changes such as netgalley moving away from ADE will cause Kobo to look at a new system that won't be so user friendly. Time will tell, but nice to see that file access and usage across device types is something they're thinking about.

I just hope it's not LCP, considering how aggressive they are.

[PeterT]

I doubt they would remove ADE support; I wouldn't be at all surprised though to see them add support for LCP along the existing DRM models.

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by Quoth

DRM needs to be illegal. Controls & cheats consumers and doesn't stop piracy of music, ebooks, video or streaming content.

Amen!

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I just hope it's not LCP, considering how aggressive they are.

Netgalley has moved to LCP. That seems to be the new DRM that companies and libraries are moving to, unfortunately.

[Falkor]

LCP is already working on the Tolino Shine 5 and according to this thread it's coming to the Kobo branded models as well: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=366846

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by kandwo

Did they ask why there's not Libra BW?

That's the question I was hoping to hear.

[Apollyon202]

A lot of talk and absolutely nothing about upcoming features, devices and plans. I hope not because they don't have any.

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by Apollyon202

A lot of talk and absolutely nothing about upcoming features, devices and plans. I hope not because they don't have any.

I'm quite surprised that they haven't released anything of late.

There are some obvious devices they could release like Libra BW and Elipsa 3 (with 300 PPI to truly compete with Kindle Scribe and Onyx devices).

Or a new Kobo mini, which people here are clamoring for. There seems to be a market for it as Onyx Boox Palma and the new Bigme Hibreak Pro are very popular; and a lot of people want a cheap version of those just for reading. I would buy one (even though I already have too many handheld e-ink devices).

[Lavender]

Thank you for sharing this. I didn't see it yet.