DRM Is Not A Binary Decision

Consumer rights with respect of ebooks continue to be up in the air.

Only last week, Sony, the prime driver for Adobe’s ACS4 adoption back in 2006 said that they were coming back into the Digital Rights Management (DRM) market.

This week the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced they have commissioned the vocal DRM opponent, Cory Doctorow, to take on DRM technologies that they believe threaten security, privacy, and undermine public rights and innovation. The objective of their Apollo 1201 Project, is claimed to be "a mission to eradicate DRM in our lifetime."

Named after the US Apollo space prograame which took some 10 years to achieve what on its creation was viewed by many as an impossible mission.

What is certain is that the DRM that today inhibits consumers ability to transfer files between the various ‘walled gardens’, is going to either change radically, or be unilaterally be removed. It is hard to envisage what we have today as being sustainable over the next decade. The EFF mission goes past ebooks and is aimed at games, apps, video and all cases when DRM inhibits interoperability.

EFF raise the issue of Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which outlaws the circumvention of copy controls. They agrue, ‘That ban was meant to deter illegal copying of software, but many companies have misused the law to chill competition, free speech, and fair use. Software is in all kinds of devices, from cars to coffee-makers to alarm clocks. If that software is locked down by DRM, tinkering, repairing, and re-using those devices can lead to legal risk.’

However as we have argued many times DRM is not and should not be a binary decision, where DRM is either on or off. We should look hard at the whole issue not just one element and we look at opportunities as well as threats.

One issue that must be addressed is provenance of ownership. In ebook terms look at this as an’ex libris’ stamp that can be traced back to the sale. It doesn’t have to be invisible and it may be open to abuse but if validated could revolutionise the ownership versus licence position and enable the first sale doctrine and resale of ebooks. This may be apporant to many in the trade but if watermarking soft DRM is not adopted then this door shuts whilst the stable door of DRM is potentially flung wide open. Some would say a very stupid situation.

The resale of ebooks is currently being fought out in the Dutch courts where Tom Kabinet is being challenged by the Dutch trade. Tom Kabinet which to resell ebooks and offer a service similar to ReDigi is try to establish in the music market. The court has instructed Tom Kabinet to close temporarily as not all titles can be proven to have full provenance of ownership. So the courts may take a different position if such a position could be established. The door is half open to the trade to create an opportunity, or to blindly slam shut and rejoice in potentially a false victory.

Judith Mariën, a Tom Kabinet’s founder, said that she believes that despite the court verdict, it is ‘good news’ in that the court ruled that the site’s basic business model is essentially legal.

What is important that the trade start to think consumer, think service, think and avoid closed doctrine and protectionism for the sake of protectionism.

ADOBE Says Read The Small Print

Details about the extent of the Adobe security snoop into individual’s reading habits and harvesting of data is becoming clearer and the arrogance adopted by them over what is personal data would appear to many to raise the question as to whether they are fit to manage many services digital content.

There explanation of what they monitor conveys no remiss and some would say carries the usual ‘read the small print’ caveat and even more interestingly appears to blame publishers and others for asking for those controls even though many appear to be naïve to the fact that the controls are not only enforced locally but that the information about them is sent back to Adobe to harvest.

The information has been confirmed by a number of sources to be unencrypted and therefore open to potentially many parties to read or intercept which in this day and age beggars belief and is clearly any responsibility or care. Their privacy statement can be found at Adobe Privacy Policy  and interestingly under ‘Is my Personal Information Secure?’ states:

‘We understand that the security of your personal information is important. We provide reasonable administrative, technical, and physical security controls to protect your personal information. However, despite our efforts, no security controls are 100% effective and Adobe cannot ensure or warrant the security of your personal information’.  

We all understand that many services such as Kindle, Overdrive, etc synchronise our reading such to assist our being able to continue to start where we left off. We respect that there is a wealth of information that goes with that. But these transfers are secured and not open and remain within their walled gardens. Anything that resides in Adobe’s Digital Editions 4 library appears fair game to Adobe snooping and data harvesting, even documents and non DRM ebooks!

Adobe may now find itself under pressure from large library services and others to explain their approach and given their ACS4/5 history, the solid umbilical cord to ADE and their apparent approach to ‘act first think later’, some may now be prompted to look at alternative options. However that in itself is not an easy route. It is also clear that this is not an old data harvesting feature but only applicable to ADE4 and probably tied to the ACS5 features they are desperate to get adopted by all.

It is sobering to think that they know and send via an open stream;  

·         Unique User ID which aligns to registration

·         Device ID to restrict number of devices re DRM

·         Certified App ID to ensure only certified apps (licenced sales and rentals)

·         Device IP to determine geo-block

·         Duration of reading to meter reading against certain licences

·         Percentage of the Book Read to enable publishers to align to subscription models and determine if the book has been ‘read’

·         Date of Purchase/Download

·         Distributor ID and Adobe Content Server Operator URL

·         Metadata provided by Publisher (title, author, publisher list price, ISBN number etc)

It is also reasonable to ask why the new controls aren’t performed at a local level by ADE4 and why the data has to go back to the mothership at all. Surely if the publisher states x, y and z rules these can be enforced locally and the only validation required is at the offset to stamp the file as genuine? Perhaps that’s too simple and perhaps Abobe feel that would loosen their tight control and not give them that rich seam of data that they could………

Related Press

EFF: Adobe Spyware reveals (Again) the price of DRM: Your privacy and security

Ars Technica; Adobe’s e-book reader sends your reading logs back to Adobe—in plain text [Updated]

Digital Reader: Adobe Responds to Reports of Their Spying, Offers Half Truths and Misleading Statements

Adobe Digital Editions 3 Probably Safe From Adobe’s Spying, Experts Say

Statement from Bluefire

Go To Hellman : Correcting Information on the Adobe Privacy Gusher

Copyright and Technology: Adobe’s Latest E-Book Misstep: This Time, It’s Not the DRM 

ALA News: Adobe responds to ALA on Egregious Data Breach

Are Adobe Secretly Watching You Read Via DRM?

The question of privacy on the internet has once again raised its head with the posting by Digital Reader on Adobe’s ACS DRM system and what is claimed to be excessive data gathering of personal information from consumer’s elibraries.

We can’t comment on whether the facts as presented are true or false, but we are able to say that if true, they are a significant shift from where Adobe started from and seriously question the role of DRM and whether consumer privacy rights have been breeched.

Abobe DRM history goes back many years. ACS3 was widely used by retailers but effectively broken and open. The start of the latest ebook revolution was initiated with the introduction of the eInk readers and when Sony entered the fray they wanted a DRM system which would effectively give them a march on the rest. Adobe also wanted to regain control of a space they had clearly lost. Overdrive had also built a ACS4 beta that they were using to control their market. We remember Adobe’s introduction of ACS4 and their lack of market awareness and often rigid mind-set and coupled with Sony’s desire to rule the world, we had many often fraught conversations with the two of them but the rest of the market wasn’t ready and so they won the initial battle. Years later it’s a different story and many have either migrated to their own DRM. Amazon and Apple never did join and Kobo and Nook grew alternative offers and Overdrive stuck with their own variant.

Adobe then went into what can best described as the Dark Ages where they still championed interoperability, but where leaderless and gave up trying to manage micropayments and gave this up to a small handful of agents who managed the retail facing activity and collected the money. They then came up with ACS5 or a tighter model which was part born out of the fact that ACS4 could easily be broken by anyone who asked the right questions on the Internet and part by the fact that they were clearly being squeezed out by the big channels. Unfortunately ACS5 has some basic issues which forced Adobe to retract their initially statements and backtrack on their timelines to force full migration to the new platform.

So today we have the news that Abode appear to be data gathering consumer usage information at title level and also at library level. What was read when, what wasn’t read, and probably much more? Is this right or wrong?

Well Adobe provide a DRM locking service aimed at validating ownership and stamping this such that they can ensure rights are managed with respect to devices, etc. Why on earth do they want to gather data on usage other than to sell back to publishers, retailers and libraries. Did they offer and opt in, or opt out to consumers is a mute question and we would suggest that they had to in order to snoop.

They apparently doing this not through the standard interface with hosting sites but through a mole application in Digital Editions that they plant into the consumer library or device. We would like to see the snooper application flagged as unauthorised by the security systems and users being given at least the choice of allowing it in. Whether the Adobe service will work without the mole is an interesting question.

We have to accept that Amazon, Apple, Nook, Kobo and Overdrive all can gather information on their consumers and their walled gardens allow this, but they are walled gardens. Adobe promotes itself as open and interoperable and importantly does not have consumer customer relationships to build in the same way. Again it begs the question what do they intend to do with this information and is it being resold and if so to whom?

However, all this a new news and we await more information about Abode’s intent and what is behind the intrusion into consumer’s private libraries and reading habits.

Personally, if the facts bear up to what has been reported, then Adobe has single handily done more harm to DRM than all the articles every written about it. Consumers if made aware of it will probably shun and question the violation of their privacy.

Finally, we hope that the wider media picks this story up and fully investigates it and if collaborated exposes it to the consumer.  

Digital Reader : Adobe is Spying on Users, Collecting Data on Their eBook Libraries 

6th Oct 2014

Kobo Takes Over Sony's North American eBook Business

Today, two days after Takahito Aiki, took over the reins as CEO of Kobo, he has announced the effective consolidation of the Sony ebook business under Kobo in North America. It is almost certain that this is the final and long overdue retreat of Sony from a market that they expected to win and sadly lost from beginning. It also sends a strong signal to the market that the dominance of Amazon in this sector is real and is giving even those with potential credentials and market presence a hard time.

Sony entered the market some 8 years ago with huge fanfare, fancy ebook readers based on eink and were the early adopter and major driver and influencer on Adobe’s ACS4 DRM service. I remember meeting their senior players once in San Deigo and listening to how they were going to dominate the academic and educational markets. But their offer and market understanding was always someway behind their words. It’s also somewhat ironic that this death knell has occurred at the same time that Adobe has also gone through the PR mangle and has had to retract so publicly on their ACS5 statements.

So we have Sony ready to preinstall Kobo on its smartphones , laptops and other devices and to hand over their customers and business to Rakuten  and its Canadian ebook subsidiary Kobo. It’s also interesting as it comes at a time when devices matter little and the platform is what counts. How smooth the takeover will be for those who backed Sony and bought their devices and ebooks remains to be seen, but transferring encrypted DRM licences is not always as easy as you would expect. All this is without considering how they are going to deal with those Sony BBeb licences.

Some accept that Sony has been facing many challenges across its business and they may still come back, but with many bases to cover this seems highly unlikely.

So we read the usual hype and words on what this means, and how it is going to make the difference, but the reality is that another door is shutting and real consolidation is happening. The obvious next candidate is Nook, which on the face of it would be destined for Microsoft, the discussion on this are already in play as Barnes and Noble grapple with the same issues and facts of life. Now if we just look at the North American market at a potential combination of Nook, Kobo and Sony that would certainly give Apple a challenge and wake them up from their apparent complacency. This sort of consolidation works best in the established and dominant North American market where it can be honed before it goes global.

So what’s the betting on Nook going somewhere soon?

Adobe Climb Down Over ACS5 Deadline

After the storms comes the calm and time to reflect.

Adobe have now climbed down from their ACS5 stance and have left the migration timetable in the hands of their customers. A statement posted on the Datalogics blog says:

As stated during our January 29th Datalogics and Adobe webinar announcing the release of the new hardened Digital Rights Management (DRM) for Reader Mobile SDK (RMSDK) 10 and Adobe Content Server (ACS) 5, Adobe revealed a July 2014 time table for migrating to RMSDK 10 and ACS 5.

After receiving feedback from customers and webinar attendees, Adobe has revised the migration timetable for customers.  “Adobe does not plan to stop support for ACS 4 or RMSDK 9.  ACS 5 books will be delivered to the older RMSDK 9 based readers”, according to Shameer Ayyappan, Senior Product Manager at Adobe.  “We will let our resellers and publishers decide when they wish to set the DRM flag on ACS 5, thus enforcing the need for RMSDK 10 based readers.”

In other words, ACS and RMSDK customers can migrate to the new hardened DRM that provides a higher degree of security to EPUB & PDF content and prevents unauthorized viewing of content now and in the future in a timeframe that makes sense for them.

As stated during our January 29th Datalogics and Adobe webinar announcing the release of the new hardened Digital Rights Management (DRM) for Reader Mobile SDK (RMSDK) 10 and Adobe Content Server (ACS) 5, Adobe revealed a July 2014 time table for migrating to RMSDK 10 and ACS 5.

After receiving feedback from customers and webinar attendees, Adobe has revised the migration timetable for customers.  “Adobe does not plan to stop support for ACS 4 or RMSDK 9.  ACS 5 books will be delivered to the older RMSDK 9 based readers”, according to Shameer Ayyappan, Senior Product Manager at Adobe.  “We will let our resellers and publishers decide when they wish to set the DRM flag on ACS 5, thus enforcing the need for RMSDK 10 based readers.”

In other words, ACS and RMSDK customers can migrate to the new hardened DRM that provides a higher degree of security to EPUB & PDF content and prevents unauthorized viewing of content now and in the future in a timeframe that makes sense for them.

We welcome the change of softening of the Adobe position but now question what really drove them to do it in the first place?

Does the ebook world really need a hardened DRM that will be broken before it’s widely adopted? Does this PR slip give us all a wake up call to seriously question the benefits of hard DRM, its costs and the fact that it actually can restrict business and as demonstrated by this PR slip put many’s business in the hands of someone who merely operates a toll booth and adds cost. 

Adobe to 'Harden' their Broken DRM

Last week we asked questions about the state of Adobe’s widely adopted ACS4 DRM service and the implications of their announced migration to ACS5. Then we knew little of their plans and only of their intent, but today more has come to light on how they plan to achieve the move and the potential implications for those who sell the service and the consumer who has the files.

Below is Youtube link to a webinar that Datalogics did alongside Adobe last week. It is not recommended that you watch it all as it is not user friendly and aimed at technicians. However some of the salient points can be obtained by cutting to this shortened clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qb-sXVlK_o&t=24m48s . Adobe confirms that it will ‘harden’ their DRM in July and force migration and that this will effectively kill compatibility with older RMSDK9 (reader) based apps and devices. The move is understandable from Adobe’s perspective and very reminiscent to the language that came out in 2006 when the introduced ACS4 to strict deadlines.

What Adobe have failed to grasp is that many devices (readers) that have supported ACS4 will have significant software and maybe firmware upgrades to achieve in what is a relatively short period and inevitably there will be disconnects. It is not possible to comment on the myriad of old eink readers out there but…

Many pundits have taken aim at Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Nook and their proprietary DRM systems. However, all of these effectively can control their own environment and evolve seamlessly. Adobe’s DRM may be usable by others, but as demonstrated by this announcement, it puts your business and commercial transactions charges in Adobe’s hands. Short term this may be fine, but long term is it wise.com?

The Adobe use of the term ‘hardened DRM’ is quite apt and we have to question whether we are being taken done a road which is technology applied for technology sake? ACS4 was easily hacked and broken so one option is to ‘harden’ it and make it more difficult to hack. The other is to migrate away from encryption and find ways to make business easier for all and grow the market.

DRM is not about encrypted hard DRM. It is about digital rights management, be it hard, soft or none and we have to ask what we are trying to achieve and what works best for the market? Adobe by moving part of the individual licence that was previously on the rendering server back to the issuing server and in doing so have tightened their grip on the file, but they have increased the cost of doing business and offered little in return. Adobe is increasingly creating its own walled garden and it begs the question – is it all necessary, or is it a simple case of the Emperor having no clothes and nobody strong enough to say so?

This migration to ACS5 in fact could do more damage to the reputation of DRM that all the stones thrown at Amazon’s system.

We were around pre ACS4 and were involved in the initial services. We also sat down with others trying to seek an alternative option to ACS4 but had little time and much pressure to roll over. Trying to change Adobe’s corporate mind-set is all but impossible. Today there are many alternative options and cloud based services all but render the existing ebook model redundant. As we move towards subscription based online and ‘as much as you can eat services’, many now seek a way to escape the Adobe locked in transaction charges.

However, as we have suggested before we should not rush headlong into no DRM as that could be equally as short sighted. We must look at softer watermarking DRM which can be individually hacked, but if tied to a central licencing registry would provide provenance of legitimate ownership, which in turn could enable that often feared resell market some creditability.

It is also interesting to note the only now some 8 years after ACS4 came to market are some of the business models and issues, which were raised at the beginning are starting to be addressed. Shared devices, bulk downloads, subscriptions, educational loans etc where raised at the time but not seen by Adobe and Overdrive as important then. It drives home the point that hard DRM may not just lock up the files but may also lock up the business from doing business their way. 

Should We Condemn DRM to Room 101?

The latest lawsuit to surface in the US has been raised by three independent US book stores and is against Amazon and the major trade publishers. It is done in the name of all independent bookstore and although it would appear little more than a great PR stunt.

At the core of their claim they assert that Amazon has acted with publishers to effectively  create a monopoly in the marketplace and control prices through the use of their proprietary DRM (digital rights management). The logic begs the question as to whether the stores understand the marketplace, technology and also what outcome they are wishing to achieve?

They claim that if a consumer decides to switch to another company's ereading device, they would lose access to any already purchased ebooks. This is a fact no matter which ‘walled garden’ you buy from. Some would suggest that in signalling out Amazon their argument is in fact flawed.

Kobo has its own DRM and ePub render software but also supports ACS4. B&N has ‘passhash’ which it acquired from Fictionwise and can also support ACS4. Apple has Fairplay and the wholesalers in the main have deployed ACS4 and so has Overdrive. Moving from ACS4 to another ACS4 platform is not straightforward. Unless achieved through a cloud approach, moving downloaded files from one device to another often requires patience and a manual! But moving between and walled garden is often if not impossible. This is without the various DRM technologies that can apply to PDFs. The result is that today we have today some five different DRM technologies being used for both ebook  retail and library distribution market. The technologies often demands their own nuances, encrypted licences and even playing in its own environment can be far from user friendly to the novice. Amazon to its credit, has in the main, kept it simple.

We would love to see an end to DRM ebooks full stop but even today see others such as film and broadcasting entities running to try and get it extended to open and important environments such as HTML5.

But let’s wave the magic wand and condemn Amazon’s DRM to ‘Room 101’. What about the DRM environments that remain? ACS4 may be prevalent but is far from user friendly and Adobe has even outsourced its service as it was not capable of managing the payment collections effectively. Do each of the other DRM services also have to go and if not does the same augment and claims fail the test? You either unilaterally remove DRM, or you construct a better argument. This would appear to be as ill conceived as agency pricing and far less robust than that other legal money-spinner the Google Book Settlement.

Let’s envisage a world free of DRM.

Do we honestly believe that the consumers that have bought into the Kindle platform will suddenly say, ‘now I can buy from the local independent so let’s go there!’ Naivety is hard to rationalise with, but the reason consumers like Amazon is not about their DRM. It is about their platform, one click process, thought through download capabilities from literally anywhere, their secondary offers such as Prime, film, games, music, lending and innovations such as FreeTime. All this without the primary offer of next day service on the constantly often best priced physical books. Some would suggest that its not just about ebooks but books and the independents have not seen past the books in print and some the front list, but Amazon offers used, rare and a marketplace for affiliates to compete in.

Then the authors often now recognise that Amazon and their KDP programme offer the only real clean digital self publishing and importantly volume business. The independent bookstores, even put end to end, can’t make offer that today. 

  

Forget the legal claims and potential counter claims and court outcome and assume we suddenly have a DRM free world, much like the MP3 music world that prevails today. Will it make the playing field level? Will independent book store suddenly become digital centres of commerce and a must go to destination to buy ebooks? Are independent book store capable of presenting a compelling digital proposition? The reality is that they sat on their hands too long. Didn't respond to the early messages and often stumbled from one alternative to another and diluted their digital offer to being commissioned based within others walled gardens. Some would suggest that Waterstones are a classic case of a lack of digital strategy and execution and today could be argued are handing over their customers to Amazon. We must also recognise that Apple whose iTunes dominated the music download market before they moved to MP3 still dominate it today post MP3. Independent music stores and even chains are still sitting on their CDs. An MP3 level playing field did little to save HMV.

The other consideration has to be the current digital ‘honesty box.’ Will publishers want open files to be distributed to anyone to sell, or will they demand that distribution is contained and achieved through a limited number of trusted associates? After all you are highly unlikely to hand out open access ebooks to hundreds and thousands of resellers you can’t effectively audit or even monitor. It was a pity that some industry bodies felt it wasn't their business and beyond them to build book community services when, after all , others were only starting themselves. The independents have not collectively or independently invested in their own repositories and distribution environments and are now reliant on third parties such Overdrive, Ingram, Kobo and others. The chains, or B&N, have invested, but have seen that they by themselves struggled to compete and often any success was limited to their home turf. The point is that the independents today can sell through many options, but even if they do, everyone in the chain will want paying and the resultant price may be itself a non-starter with the consumer.

There are basically two parties that add real value the author who creates the initial value and the consumer who puts in the cash. Any market proposition has to recognise this.

We all want book stores to survive and compete. We all want libraries to survive and compete. But the money spent in futile and expensive legal gestures could be invested far better.

US Libraries to Take Ownership of Digital?

We have to respect that there are only so many hands that can access the till before it becomes uneconomic. One of the challenges faced by public libraries and bookstores is that they are totally dependant on the digital aggregators and service providers for the supply of content and a digital platform. Instead of investing in growing their own infrastructure they opted to leave it to others and then are surprised when those same players threaten to sidestep them or end up having the real relationship with the consumers.

Why did the Bookseller’s and Library bodies not build their own service, to both host digital files and service them to their members? Why did they effectively role over and leave it to others to grab the space? It was potentially on the agenda, but often dismissed as not being ‘their’ businesses. Was this a wise move?
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Last year the Douglas County Libraries in Colorado started to take control of their own content and this has attracted much attention and is being watch by other libraries and publishers in the US. Douglas County have started to purchase ebook files directly from publishers and host these on their own Adobe ACS4 Content Server and serve them up directly to their communities. The Califa Group, which claims to be the largest library network in California, has now decided to follow the same route.

Once a member has been authenticated they will be able to borrow ebooks in the EPUB format that will work on a variety of devices. There may also be links provided to buy ebooks.

The libraries are also working on the legal framework that was produced with librarylaw.com, which is not a formal contract but based on documents that spell out terms of engagement with publishers and avoids costly and time-consuming contracts with each publisher.

A “Statement for Common Understanding for Purchasing Econtent,” asserts the library’s rights under the first sale doctrine of the Copyright Act:
The Library may lend a copy to a library user under First Sale 17 U.S.C. Sect. 109. The Library may make incidental copies as necessary to perform the lending function. The lending copy is an ‘evanescent’ copy that disappears after a set period such as two weeks. During that time, the copy is not available to any other party. Incidental exercises of other lawful rights constitute non-infringing ‘fair use.’

It also affirms the library’s obligation to safeguard the intellectual content of a copyright owner:
The Library may not make multiple unauthorized copies to sell or lend. The Library may lend one copy to one user at a time. For example, if the Library buys four copies of a work, it may lend four copies simultaneously. It may not make derivative works, such as translations or movies. These are exclusive rights granted to the copyright owner 17 U.S.C. Sect. 106.

The framework also describes the library’s need to own (not lease) files, the library’s digital rights management system and the case for traditional library discounts to be applied.

The library market’s ability to act in a consortia manner may add another dimension as they are able to share contract deals with publishers, code, interfaces and much more re experience and for smaller publishers this may prove a real opportunity. Although it sounds straight forward and logical this is still just a small initiative which still faces interesting challenges and many potential push back.

Are Sony's Days in eBooks Numbered?

Sony once aimed its sights at being a big player in digital publishing. It created its own ebook format, was one of the major drivers behind Adobe updating the neglected ACS3 with the ACS4 DRM service, were the early backers of the ePub format and of course introduced several eink ereaders. It even entered into one of those ‘exclusive trade deals’ with UK retailer Waterstones. However it failed to deliver the list, didn't not develop a plausible platform and lost the eink world to Kindle. Some five years on and how times have changed. Sony were around at the begining of the digital reading chapter, but this may be one ebook that will remain unfinished and is in danger of slipping from the front list and going out of digital print.

Sony’s problems would be small if they were just about their ill fated venture into ebooks. However, today Sony have just announced a 159 billion yen ($2bn) net loss for the last quarter of 2011 and have slashed their full-year forecast to a loss of 220 billion yen ($2.8bn). Hard times, require hard action and Sony have reacted and announced that in April ex-PlayStation exec, Kazuo Hirai will take over from Howard Stringer as Sony president and CEO.

The reasons for the challenges facing Sony are as many as the different markets they deal in. They include the implications of the losses it made on selling its S-LCD display shares to Samsung. Also there is the cost of the migration of Sony Ericsson back to Sony with the associated creative accounting on deferred tax assets and a fickle electronics market,where Samsung have eaten into Sony’s once strong market share and it has dropped some 15.7% in the last quarter. Then we have the floods in Thailand a strong Yen and a sales drop of some 24.4% in its consumer products and services sector. Even Sony Music and Sony Pictures didn’t lift the gloom with Picture only registering a modest profit and Music seeing a sale year on year decrease of some 11.7%.

Its hard to see Sony making a comeback into digital publishing and its offer would require some serious investment and change of fortunes at a time when the business obviously reqires to focus on its core operations.So as Waterstones look set to announce another partner is Sony's ebook venture at the end of the road?

Sony to finally bury BBeb

The news that Sony are to scrap their proprietary BBeB format and focus on epub, is both good news and long overdue. It begs the question why they ever thought that their format was ever going to cut it and like many Sony formats before them has proved a bridge too far.We have never been asked to provide the BBeB format.

In adopting Adobe’s ACS4 digital rights management Sony were the first to embrace epub with encrypted protection and also Adobe ebooks which are also fully compatible with ACS4 and the Sony Reader.

It is easy to see both these formats, one PDF based and the other XML, being the dominate formats outside of fortress Kindle. Many of the ‘lookie likie’ eink readers are now openly adopting ACS4 which whilst DRM is still the requirement is the key to providing secure open files that are interoperable between devices.

We presume that Sony will offer customers who have BBeB files a migration in their announcement.

Adobe and Stanza Open Up iPhone to Secure eBooks

The announcement that Stanza will support Adobe’s ACS4 DRM is good news for the wider book industry. It enables PDF Adobe eBooks and epub files to be read on the iPhone platform through Stanza’s market leading free book reader.

It gives Stanza a DRM capability that is widely accepted, secure PDF based and epub files and Adobe a second platform to complement the Sony reader. We don’t believe that it’s the end of the ACS4 expansion into the mobile platform.

Importantly it is a timely shot across the bows of Amazon and comes hot on their 15 minutes of K2 fame this week. It clearly shows an alternative to fortress Amazon and a further home for the Esperanto of ebooks standards epub. It also comes after Google declared their 1.5 million US and 620K worldwide tiles. However it importantly enables many smaller publishers to effect a quick and effective strategy through Adobe ebooks and utilise their PDF files.

Now we just need other mobile platforms to follow Stanza and release secure ebooks to this obvious platform, Adobe and Apple to offer Flash on the mobile platform and both retailers and publishers to now get behind the obvious momentum.

Rhyming Couplets?

We all know that irrespective of the K2 show, the mobile smartphone is the hottest platform today. It is effectively moving the agenda from the standalone readers onto the new platform and 2009 is teed up to be a significant year as ereaders vie with the smartphones and notebooks and downloads vie with rentals and retailers vie with libraries.

The digital dearth is about to change and whether we like it or not, Google is about to unleash ebooks, library subscriptions, free to view and sales onto the market. DRM is still here but is not protecting the content as much as it is locking content into channels and aggregators’ models.

So what is hot gossip and what do we think may make the news now K2 has had its 15 minutes of fame and Plastic Logic has again said its coming sometime?

We believe that Adobe may well announce that it’s going to port its new ACS4 DRM service to the mobile platform. This was always going to happen but it makes more sense to do it sooner than later. When would it be logical to announce it – CES in Barcelona next week, when everyone is talking mobile.

What platform will they choose? It unlikely to be Android as it would be pitching directly against Google. It’s unlikely to be Microsoft which would rule some of the others out. It would be good to select a partner that can promote it and facilitate it and that leads us to a narrowing field of players.

Some would suggest that Lexcycle's Stanza, who already has the leading iPhone application, may make a perfect rhyming couplet in harmony with Adobe's DRM.

Follett Announce a New Educational Reader

We have seen the recent emergence of more digital formats and readers some of which are mere pretenders and others confusing noise. Today we read news that is potentially important because of who has developed it and their position in their market. Follett, has revenues in excess of $2.3 billion and provides universities, libraries and schools and school districts in the US and increasingly globally with a wide range of educational tools and services, touching millions of students ranging from adults to grade school children. Follett is truly an educational force.

A new Follett Digital Reader has been developed specifically to meet the needs of K-12 eBook users and will be released on 9th February. During February the focus will be to get the reader installed on computers and at the beginning of March automatically they will migrate the entire existing digital download collections to the FDR format. The reader only effects downloaded ebooks with the existing online collections remain as current.

Follett downloaded eBooks currently are protected using Adobe’s ACS3 DRM and are opened with Adobe® Reader® or Adobe Digital Editions®. Adobe products are now migrating to ACS4 DRM and are planned to cut over in March. The new Follett Digital Reader replaces Adobe DRM and reader products, which Follett believe limits their dependence on Adobe, gives them the ability to develop and introduce additional functionality and importantly enables them to meet the specific needs of their significant K-12 and Public library customer base.

The new reader currently will only read Follett ebooks and works with Adobe Flash 9.0 and 10 and Microsoft.Net and runs on PC and Mac platforms. To read more visit
http://www.follettebooks.com/readersupport/index.html

We believe that this move is significant and is real news. Together with others, Follet are now taking control of their digital business and channel. The move to Flash is both understandable and some would say a wise move as it offers much moving forwar. The battleground would now appear to be between those who believe ebooks should be downloaded and read on a portable dedicated devices and those who who still belive the online and download PC and laptop world works and potentially have their options open with mobile platforms. The concern is that we have yet another format and what this means further down the digital road.

The Mobile Noise Versus The Mobile News

The smartphone world has started to become the latest ‘in’ place and we are starting to see the explosion of mobile applications. We have long believed that this and the notebook/laptop platforms are the main technology platforms for the immediate future and that all other, unless they have a compelling case, all will migrate to these two platforms. Mobile offers much but also is very restricted today in the size of the display, application and files supported and the yet to be resolved, device/ carrier/ operating system wars.

Single application devices such as the ebook readers are going to have a hard fight to justify their existence against what appears to be an inevitable outcome. PDF requires reflowable text in order to work on mobiles and although this is possible it is crude today. However, epub offers full reflow and therefore the ability to render automatically onto mobiles. Some would argue that Adobe backed the epub ebook standard in an attempt to ‘own’ the mobile world through its ACS4 DRM service.
Some would also point out that Adobe is ‘spreading their bet’ by their push to get Flash onto the mobile platform. The issue here is size and the need to used Flash Lite or as we have reported move the flash application onto the chip and thereby maximize efficiency and also virtually guarantee flash on all devices – even the iPhone who currently are holding out against Flash.

Today there are many applications which will play files on mobiles. Some use proprietary formats and introduce further conversion or restrictions. Some come with no effective DRM and although fine for public domain titles are not suitable for front list. We then have widgets which have in the main have been Flash driven so need to be revisited to present the information in a digestible form. Finally we have the content itself and the question of what the consumer will want to read on a mobile device.

We will read much over the coming months on publishers, and mobiles and many claims much of which will be noise and positioning rhetoric. What is important is that we are able to identify the genuine news and progress from the PR spin and noise that currently engulfs this area.