Adobe Digital Editions support

[HappyMartin]

If my Cybook stopped supporting mobi I would be annoyed. Very very annoyed.

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

If my Cybook stopped supporting mobi I would be annoyed. Very very annoyed.

Guess I won't reflash my Cybook until I'm absolutely sure I'm keeping my mobi-support...


Anny volunteers for the new firmware ??

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Krystian Galaj

Only of those users that are reading books using mobi format. As there's been no research on the subject, I don't see why you believe all their current users are using mobi.

Well, it's the only DRM format currently supported...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Krystian Galaj

Only of those users that are reading books using mobi format. As there's been no research on the subject, I don't see why you believe all their current users are using mobi.

Mobi is the Gen3's primary eBook format. Although I'm sure that not all Gen3 users read Mobi books, it's probably reasonable to believe that the vast majority of them do.

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Mobi is the Gen3's primary eBook format. Although I'm sure that not all Gen3 users read Mobi books, it's probably reasonable to believe that the vast majority of them do.

Yes, undoubtedly true.

[Abelturd]

Originally Posted by ErwinOtten

Guess I won't reflash my Cybook until I'm absolutely sure I'm keeping my mobi-support...


Anny volunteers for the new firmware ??

You betcha! I will reflash it right away, that's how psyched and expectant and eager I am for the new update.
If they keep some sort of dictionary support, I won't miss mobipocket at all. Instead of prc I will use html, no biggie. I don't like this mobicentrism anyway.

[Justy]

Originally Posted by Krystian Galaj

Only of those users that are reading books using mobi format. As there's been no research on the subject, I don't see why you believe all their current users are using mobi.

Personally I chose the Cybook specifically because it *did* support Mobipocket. I already had a large collection of Mobi eBooks from all my reading on my PDA. I would be extremely disappointed if it was removed in the next update.

[JSWolf]

So how can Bookeen add in Adobe DRM and still keep Mobipocket on the Gen3? Sounds like someone at Bookeen didn't read the contract they signed.

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So how can Bookeen add in Adobe DRM and still keep Mobipocket on the Gen3? Sounds like someone at Bookeen didn't read the contract they signed.

As far as I know nobody has said that there will be Adobe DRM support. Maybe it's only DRM-free support, like e.g. bebook had for mobi-pocket for a while........

[tompe]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

So how can Bookeen add in Adobe DRM and still keep Mobipocket on the Gen3? Sounds like someone at Bookeen didn't read the contract they signed.

How do you know what is in the contract. I have only seen speculations about this and no hard evidence (or maybe I have forgotten the hard evidence...).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

How do you know what is in the contract. I have only seen speculations about this and no hard evidence (or maybe I have forgotten the hard evidence...).

We don't know what's in Bookeen's contract, but we have been told by several other device implementors who use Mobi (eg iRex and Astak) that the contract includes a "DRM exclusivity" term.

As has been said, though, the fact that the Adobe SDK allows one to implement Adobe DRM doesn't mean that Bookeen will necessarily do so. I'm sure that many people would welcome simply the addition of PDF reflow capabilities, for example, without DRM.

[ProfJulie]

All this speculation about something we have no clear knowledge of. We don't even know for sure if the PDF support will even be extended to existing devices or only to some new version of the Cybook. It is like a man who proposes marriage to himself and after much internal debate and discussion, he decides to accept his proposal of marriage. We are not going to know what we don't know until Bookeen provides the promised firmware update.

[chlorine]

From Bookeen's announcement:

The Bookeen products will be compatible with Adobe Digital Edition Desktop application (compatible both on PCs and Macs) enabling users to acquire and download their content from a variety of sources.

I don't know about this Adobe thing, but I guess this means that, whether cybooks get the possibility to read drm'd epub ebooks or not, there's no way this will work for people with a linux computer, right?

OK, so I' like to read ebooks in French, I live outside the US, _and_ on top of that I'm running a linux computer, I guess I should consider myself lucky to be allowed to even think about ebooks.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

We don't know what's in Bookeen's contract, but we have been told by several other device implementors who use Mobi (eg iRex and Astak) that the contract includes a "DRM exclusivity" term.

Yes, but we do not know the specifics or the possible alternatives (maybe it is just more expensive to have non-exclusivity). Also it is in the manufacturers interest to claim DRM exclusivity since they then can get away with only supporting one format.

Mobile Phones and PDAs have no problem supporting more than one format so obviously other types of contracts are available for some devices at least.

[Prospect]

It might be that a clause in an agreement between Bookeen and Mobipocket prohibiting Bookeen from putting another DRM-alternative on their devices would be illegal under EU competition law. Even if that is not the case it would be a position that Bookeen can take and hope that Mobipocket/Amazon will not dare to challenge because of public relations. A public dispute regarding this would raise publisher’s and customer’s awareness regarding the lock-in and monopoly in Amazon’s model. Going after Bookeen would therefore come at a high price for Amazon. Given Adobe’s interest in the case it might even be that they offer some kind of indemnification to Bookeen.