Adobe Digital Editions 3.0 released

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

But man... under the hood, the kepub's coding is considerably uglier than the same title's "normal" epub version. I figured they'd be basically the same. Oh well.

There are worse things than Kepubs.
Have you heard about Google's Kepub equivalent?

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20.../#.UvAh1o7D_MI

Kobo's not the only outfit looking for ways to minimize their dependence on Adobe.

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by tomsem

There is always that used bookstore in the cloud: amazon. When I want to have a book that's not available digitally, I can usually find it there for a good price and selection of 'condition'.

Amazon doesn't carry that inventory of used books, they only act as a middle man. The used books are still mostly carried by used book stores. As the latter disappear, so shall the offerings of used books on Amazon (and AbeBooks) disappear, as well. It's definitely good to be able to shop at all participating used book stores when your local ones disappear, but the online used book inventory is still disappearing as fast as the used book stores are.

[oj829]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Kobo's not the only outfit looking for ways to minimize their dependence on Adobe.

Yeah, but once Kobo does THAT, then the 2nd shoe to drop is Kobo changing its own DRM. I think the takeaway for people who want to read freely is that our options are dwindling. I detect in the thread "sighs of relief" that there are still stores out there with easily crackable proprietary schemes, but they're only crackable because canned solutions exist, created by smart people working hard. There's nothing stopping a Kobo or B&N from muscling up their own DRM and creating a dry spell for readers.

Once any store "goes it alone" and rolls their own without Adobe, you're only reading until THEIR next software upgrade.

(FWIW, once my OverDrive-driven library adopts the mandatory new Adobe snake oil, that's a book source that's cut off to me until a new solution is found. If that could be as early as next month... yikes. I hope the people who have the books on my hold list are fast readers. )

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

At the moment RMSDK10 supports the older RMSDK9-encryption. So all your old books will work with new readers.

What happens in another five years, when RMSDK11 and CS6 (say) come out, and support for the 'obsolete' RMSDK9 encryption is dropped?

Not a problem, not a problem. Never mind the five years. In July, they will simply take your entire old book collection, decrypt and re-encrypt them on the fly with the new DRM. So all your old books will be upgraded. For free! Isn't that great?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Not a problem, not a problem. Never mind the five years. In July, they will simply take your entire old book collection, decrypt and re-encrypt them on the fly with the new DRM. So all your old books will be upgraded. For free! Isn't that great?

But since Adobe don't have a central list of books owned by any particular Adobe ID, this would have to be a manual process, like the older CS3->CS4 encryption change.

DRM is a just a silly idea. Changing DRM schemes is even sillier. How to really annoy even those customers who hadn't already been inconvenienced or worse by your DRM scheme - change it!

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

DRM is a just a silly idea. Changing DRM schemes is even sillier. How to really annoy even those customers who hadn't already been inconvenienced or worse by your DRM scheme - change it!

For ebook sales cryptographic DRM is indeed silly.
For library checkouts, though, it is indispensable.

The big fail here is that Adept's sole added value is interoperability and anything that undercuts it renders it worse than useless because of the precedent; not only can they cut you off from the books you paid for, they will *have* actually done it. People trusted their devices would be compatible with the generic stores. That is no longer a guarantee. Now or ever again. The entire generic ebook ecosystem is built on quicksand.

They made the unilateral decision to effectively kill Adept and substitute an entirely incompatible replacement with no effort to accomodate users who've been supporting them for five years. The onus is going to be on the user, especially if you have an older generic reader. For a lot of people this is going to mean having to get a new reader if they don't know alf and if they do and the new DRM holds up it'll mean going to Amazon for ebooks. And even a small wave of defections could kill some of the smaller generic ebookstores.

And they already did it once before so it is pretty clear they will do it again whenever they feel like it.

Great way to build confidence in an "industry standard", huh?
Makes the walled gardens look even more attractive than ever.

[oj829]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The big fail here is that Adept's sole added value is interoperability and anything that undercuts it renders it worse than useless because of the precedent; not only can they cut you off from the books you paid for, they will *have* actually done it. People trusted their devices would be compatible with the generic stores. That is no longer a guarantee. Now or ever again. The entire generic ebook ecosystem is built on quicksand.

Or, just redefine "interoperable" to mean "download our custom (DRM) app to any of your tablets/phones"! Whatevs. Personally, one of the reasons I rip is because I don't want to be burdened with remembering where I got Book X when I feel like reading it. (Go to Calibre, pop a copy on my Dropbox, and I'm GTG.)

Nonetheless, as time goes on, these retailers will simply turn around and say "Hey, we gave you a solution to getting to your books." And I'd actually sympathize. Because otherwise, their support costs are going to be primarily Adobe-related, as it craps out all over the world.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Not a problem, not a problem. Never mind the five years. In July, they will simply take your entire old book collection, decrypt and re-encrypt them on the fly with the new DRM. So all your old books will be upgraded. For free! Isn't that great?

Yeah, really great since my reader can't use the new drm.

[Garry Lancaster]

I wonder how many of the independent ePub retailers will actually switch to ACS5?

I can't really see what's in it for them, given that if they do this then a large proportion of their existing customer base will be unable to read purchased books on their current ereaders (come July).

Sounds like a customer support nightmare to me.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Yeah, really great since my reader can't use the new drm.

[sarcasm]I'm sure Sony will be delighted to spend the resources producing a firmware update for your PRS-950s so that you can read books with the new DRM on them.[/sarcasm]

[simond]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

[sarcasm]I'm sure Sony will be delighted to spend the resources producing a firmware update for your PRS-950s so that you can read books with the new DRM on them.[/sarcasm]

This is where I'm glad I don't have my PRS 500 anymore, that may take a while until an upgrade is released...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by oj829

Or, just redefine "interoperable" to mean "download our custom (DRM) app to any of your tablets/phones
.

Which is the model for proprietary walled-gardens like Kindle, Nook, kepub, etc that have so long been decried as non-interoperable.

I agree that it is now going to be hard to knock Kobo if they go all-kepub or if Sony switches back to Marlin.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

[sarcasm]I'm sure Sony will be delighted to spend the resources producing a firmware update for your PRS-950s so that you can read books with the new DRM on them.[/sarcasm]

Or Pocketbook for the original PB360.
Anybody want to lay odds that Rebadged Hanlins or netronix readers get updated?

Ahem.
<<<---------

[hwlester]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

[sarcasm]I'm sure Sony will be delighted to spend the resources producing a firmware update for your PRS-950s so that you can read books with the new DRM on them.[/sarcasm]

Especially since they've given up on the US market. I might not mind replacing my T1 with a T3 (assuming they update to the new RMSDK), except I can't easily buy one in the US.

[WillAdams]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Amazon doesn't carry that inventory of used books, they only act as a middle man. The used books are still mostly carried by used book stores. As the latter disappear, so shall the offerings of used books on Amazon (and AbeBooks) disappear, as well. It's definitely good to be able to shop at all participating used book stores when your local ones disappear, but the online used book inventory is still disappearing as fast as the used book stores are.

Amazon does stock some used items on behalf of the seller --- that's what ``Fulfillment by Amazon'' means (though I quit buying such since they come w/ a barcoded sticker which I found annoying to remove).

Some are sold by individuals, though it's gotten hard to compete w/ the bookstores selling remaindered books which they purchase by the pallet @ wood pulp rates (at least the books are saved from being destroyed) and then sell for a penny, counting on making some money by shipping the books using a UPS merchant discount.