DRM (Digital Rights Management) is both loved and hated but is clearly focused at protecting copyright abuse and infringement. Often it can be transparent and the majority accept it as a necessary precaution. There will always be those that set out to break it in a mission to ‘free content’ or because they can and the more restrictive the restrictions the stronger the will to break it. It doesn’t apply to just content but also to locking devices to networks on an exclusive basis and a classic case of this is the iPhone.
The one thing that is certain in life is that it will be broken, the music, video and games sectors can vouch for that. If you buy an iPhone but don’t wish to use their exclusive network deals then there are a significant number of people queuing up to break it so it can be used elsewhere.
We new read about a breach of Fortress Amazon, which has effectively locked the content to their site, to the network and to their device – the kindle. In other words its exclusive, exclusive, exclusive and exclusive. Mobileread have been served with a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notice which despite contesting they complied with.
Amazon asked an online forum to remove links to software that lets people load ebooks on their Kindles that they have bought from sources other than Amazon. The kindlepid.py script enables users to discover their device's personal ID (PID). Armed with their PID, a user can buy an ebook on a site other than Amazon or download one from a public libraray and the book will display on their Kindle.
Alexander Turcic, on MobileRead says, "Although we never hosted this tool (contrary to their claim), nor believe that this tool is used to remove technological measures (contrary to their claim), we decided, due to the vagueness of the DMCA law and our intention to remain in good relation with Amazon, to voluntarily follow their request and remove links and detailed instructions related to it." MobileRead has removed the pages.
Whichever side you take over DRM the exclusive restrictions applied by Amazon are crying out to be broken. Amazon makes money if people buy say a Mobibook elsewhere and download it as they own Mobibook. Enabling other resellers to sell ebooks for the Kindle would open up the device and make it more acceptable to many. It is claimed that the program can also enable users can to buy ebooks from Amazon for their iPhones and then transfer them onto readers other than the Kindle. iPhone application users are only allowed to transfer books to Kindles.
Some would suggest that ‘Fortress Amazon’ be it, Booksurge only POD, the the Audible stranglehold on audio market, or the ‘Kindle Only’ digital world is at best naïve and at worst could seriously backfire and damage Amazon’s consumer friendly image that they have built their empire on.
Showing posts with label Mobibook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mobibook. Show all posts
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Friday, February 06, 2009
Mobile Books are Here
The NYT reported that Google will make their 1.5 million public domain books, that are available for free on PCs and now also make these accessible on mobiles. The same article also reported that Amazon was working on making the titles for its popular e-book reader, the Kindle, available on a variety of mobile phones.
So this tells us that the consumer is certainly going to have a mobile ebook experience and in the case of Google a free one. But before everyone around the world rushes, as we did, to experience Book Search on a mobile, it appears to be limited to those operating under Android (Google’s own mobile operating system) and the iPhone.
It certainly wasn’t working under Symbian, the system used by Nokia. Also although 1.5 million is the figure quoted, this only applies to the US and outside of there only around 620,000 titles currently available. Still a large number by anyone’s standards!
While these books were already available on Google Book Search, these new mobile editions are not image but text files, enabling a better reading experience and download performance to a small screen. To try it out, open up your iphone or Android phone and go to http://books.google.com/m.
Google said it would extend the service to include out-of-print titles and current books. This then extends their land grabbing settlement benefit sales and licensing opportunities.
Amazon who are expected to unveil the Kindle 2 next week, did not say when Kindle titles would be available on mobile phones, or importantly what the implications would be. The Kindle currently offers about 230,000 titles.
Amazon’s move onto the mobile is a no brainer. If they stay marooned in Kindleland they may well end up with the content, but on a device no one wants. What many forget is that they also own Mobibook and could easily move onto the mobile using a tweek of the mobi format. Some would question whether Amazon would open itself up by using the standard mobi format or that its more likely that the files will remain Amazon only but mobi exclusively restricted. It is as unlikely that they will embrace epub for delivery as to see them loosing their grip on their digital content.
Some say that the reading experience on a small screen will never take off stating that the printed page and ereaders have been optimised for reading. Others will point to the Blackberry and emails that are being read all around us today, the Keitai novels in Japan, texts and also the great variance of quality and size that exists in print that some of which some would say is just as hard to read! The reality is that the market will decide what and when they read.
What is clear is that Google now has arrived in the market and given the treasure trove they have potentially acquired for chump change, they are certainly going to have an increasing impact on the market. Secondly those who doubted the mobile platform would work for books better start to think again! Whatever happens it's certainly interesting times on the mobile platform and with Plastic Logic and K2 coming on the 9th, a hard choice time for many today.
So this tells us that the consumer is certainly going to have a mobile ebook experience and in the case of Google a free one. But before everyone around the world rushes, as we did, to experience Book Search on a mobile, it appears to be limited to those operating under Android (Google’s own mobile operating system) and the iPhone.
It certainly wasn’t working under Symbian, the system used by Nokia. Also although 1.5 million is the figure quoted, this only applies to the US and outside of there only around 620,000 titles currently available. Still a large number by anyone’s standards!
While these books were already available on Google Book Search, these new mobile editions are not image but text files, enabling a better reading experience and download performance to a small screen. To try it out, open up your iphone or Android phone and go to http://books.google.com/m.
Google said it would extend the service to include out-of-print titles and current books. This then extends their land grabbing settlement benefit sales and licensing opportunities.
Amazon who are expected to unveil the Kindle 2 next week, did not say when Kindle titles would be available on mobile phones, or importantly what the implications would be. The Kindle currently offers about 230,000 titles.
Amazon’s move onto the mobile is a no brainer. If they stay marooned in Kindleland they may well end up with the content, but on a device no one wants. What many forget is that they also own Mobibook and could easily move onto the mobile using a tweek of the mobi format. Some would question whether Amazon would open itself up by using the standard mobi format or that its more likely that the files will remain Amazon only but mobi exclusively restricted. It is as unlikely that they will embrace epub for delivery as to see them loosing their grip on their digital content.
Some say that the reading experience on a small screen will never take off stating that the printed page and ereaders have been optimised for reading. Others will point to the Blackberry and emails that are being read all around us today, the Keitai novels in Japan, texts and also the great variance of quality and size that exists in print that some of which some would say is just as hard to read! The reality is that the market will decide what and when they read.
What is clear is that Google now has arrived in the market and given the treasure trove they have potentially acquired for chump change, they are certainly going to have an increasing impact on the market. Secondly those who doubted the mobile platform would work for books better start to think again! Whatever happens it's certainly interesting times on the mobile platform and with Plastic Logic and K2 coming on the 9th, a hard choice time for many today.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Amazon Take Off their eBook Format Gloves
Publishers Weekly today announced that Amazon.com has notified its publisher and author clients that it plans to cease offering e-books in the Microsoft Reader and Adobe e-book formats.
What does this mean? Is it like their declaration that they made on POD via Booksurge? As with Booksurge Amazon own Mobibook and if that’s they way they wish to do business then who will say no?. They store, they have the content, they deliver the content via their own wireless network connection, they own the store, they own the reader - so why not own the format? Although they accept epub files these are converted these to their own format. Some may say that by playing the format card they in fact strengthen their hand and make it Kindle independent. So the publisher may be happy but the problem remains.
Mobibook remains probably the dominant ebook format alongside Adobe and epub. If plays on as many as any other format and isn't dependant on Adobe to apply DRM. So if you view Sony as the main competitor to Amazon then you start to see a clear division of ebook camps. Adobe remains in the picture with their new ACS4 DRM, without which the Sony can’t use epub and are left with their own overlooked format and poorly represented format. We have reported on the Fictionwise and Follett ‘own brand’ formats and can only see more as the battle hots up.
Some may envisage that Amazon and Mobi will try to cut off old DRM versions the same way that Adobe did in their move from ACS3 to ACS4. Some may also see the move as a swift response to the high profile ereader format and iPhone applications. Whatever the game plan its obvious that Amazon wants to challenge the Adobe ebook format which is the cheapest route for many publishers and push the market towards a richer tagged format.
This format warring is inappropriate as retailers and publishers start to see the shoots of a digital business. However, we now have a confusing consumer offer. The publishers may back epub but the consumer is the person who matters and if Amazon want an Amazon only world we are in for potentially trying times.
We still believe that the ultimate platforms will be online and split between the mobile and the notebook /laptop world and if we are right the current format tiffs are not so important.
What does this mean? Is it like their declaration that they made on POD via Booksurge? As with Booksurge Amazon own Mobibook and if that’s they way they wish to do business then who will say no?. They store, they have the content, they deliver the content via their own wireless network connection, they own the store, they own the reader - so why not own the format? Although they accept epub files these are converted these to their own format. Some may say that by playing the format card they in fact strengthen their hand and make it Kindle independent. So the publisher may be happy but the problem remains.
Mobibook remains probably the dominant ebook format alongside Adobe and epub. If plays on as many as any other format and isn't dependant on Adobe to apply DRM. So if you view Sony as the main competitor to Amazon then you start to see a clear division of ebook camps. Adobe remains in the picture with their new ACS4 DRM, without which the Sony can’t use epub and are left with their own overlooked format and poorly represented format. We have reported on the Fictionwise and Follett ‘own brand’ formats and can only see more as the battle hots up.
Some may envisage that Amazon and Mobi will try to cut off old DRM versions the same way that Adobe did in their move from ACS3 to ACS4. Some may also see the move as a swift response to the high profile ereader format and iPhone applications. Whatever the game plan its obvious that Amazon wants to challenge the Adobe ebook format which is the cheapest route for many publishers and push the market towards a richer tagged format.
This format warring is inappropriate as retailers and publishers start to see the shoots of a digital business. However, we now have a confusing consumer offer. The publishers may back epub but the consumer is the person who matters and if Amazon want an Amazon only world we are in for potentially trying times.
We still believe that the ultimate platforms will be online and split between the mobile and the notebook /laptop world and if we are right the current format tiffs are not so important.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
iRex to Launch new eBook Reader
Special edition aimed at the book market
iRex Technologies, the Dutch spin-off from Royal Philips Electronics and ebook pioneer is introducing a , iLiad Book Edition, an ebook reader aimed at the book market. They have reduced the price and simplified it from the previous iLiad.
The new iLiad Book Edition will be available for sale beginning 9 May at a cost of €499 and as many comes pre-loaded with 50 English classic works and 8 gigabytes of extendable memory. The screen allows ease of reading with close to a 180°viewing angle. Userscan make notes on the pages and can transfer these to a PC and also share them with friends and colleagues.
Over 50,000 titles, are available to buy via Mobipocket, the e-book format from amazon.com.
Will the iRex be better than the Sony? When will Sony announce their upgrade to accomadate epub? Will users choose epub with Sony or Mobi with iRex and the Kindle? We live in interesting times.
Is there such a thing as Standard?
Standards have always been open to variation. Going right back to our days with ecommerce EDI, tradacoms and later the EDIFACT standards often differed between trading partners. The basic schema and semantics were the same but the actual interpretation and use of individual fields could vary. We all adapted and built or used front end conversion services that could normalise the data.
When we moved into the digital content world, we all understood format wars were a necessary evil and often wished them away. They often fed consumer apathy and indecisiveness. After all we have all bought technology that soon became obsolete. We remember the old 8 track, the Sony Walkman, we lived through betamax versus VHS wars and much more. Often one standard or format dominated but the logic as to which was going to win was not always done to the best technology or the best format but down to factors often outside of these.
We now have print on demand services which are now becoming pivotal to certain publishing programmes such as vanity publishing, short cycle print runs and academic. So is one print on demand file the same as another? Can you take a file created for one service and automatically use it on another? Unfortunately not, but the differences although often minimal are still a change. Files created for one service are not truly generic.
Today we have digital books that can be formatted in several different ways; Microsoft Reader, Mobibook, Adobe ebook, etc. We have added digital rights management encryption that can be applied to protect the content and have a myriad of devices that can render the files. So what happens with open formats such as OEB and epub? Well the reality is that they are often both open and proprietary. There are exceptions and the most well know of these is MP3. Not the best format technically but one that is able to be played on almost any device and through a vast number of software players. The fact that makes this possible is lack of DRM on MP3.
OEB (Open Ebook) has long been used by many as an open digital standard. Are all OEB files the same? No, and many aggregators have their own interpretation. Its derivative epub is now being heralded by many as the new dawn and a truly open standard, but today there is only one DRM service that can encrypt it and only one player that can render the encrypted download. Will others follow – almost certainly? Will they be the same in their encryption and rendering requirements - almost certainly not.
iTunes built an empire on the service, the player and a proprietary format. Audible has built an empire on a proprietary format and DRM operability on many players. Both are now seen to have helped open up the market but also restricted it.
Today we have Mobi and Amazon and epub and Sony. Sony appear to have dropped their previous proprietary format and see epub as a more acceptable industry way forward. Adobe’s PDF based ebook reader is still a major force and will be dominant in the market but as we shift towards the mobile device market then the ability to reflow text and chunk files would indicate that the tagging formats of Mobi and epub will come to the front. However, DRM remains the key to the downloadable file world and the mobile platform the real battleground.
When we moved into the digital content world, we all understood format wars were a necessary evil and often wished them away. They often fed consumer apathy and indecisiveness. After all we have all bought technology that soon became obsolete. We remember the old 8 track, the Sony Walkman, we lived through betamax versus VHS wars and much more. Often one standard or format dominated but the logic as to which was going to win was not always done to the best technology or the best format but down to factors often outside of these.
We now have print on demand services which are now becoming pivotal to certain publishing programmes such as vanity publishing, short cycle print runs and academic. So is one print on demand file the same as another? Can you take a file created for one service and automatically use it on another? Unfortunately not, but the differences although often minimal are still a change. Files created for one service are not truly generic.
Today we have digital books that can be formatted in several different ways; Microsoft Reader, Mobibook, Adobe ebook, etc. We have added digital rights management encryption that can be applied to protect the content and have a myriad of devices that can render the files. So what happens with open formats such as OEB and epub? Well the reality is that they are often both open and proprietary. There are exceptions and the most well know of these is MP3. Not the best format technically but one that is able to be played on almost any device and through a vast number of software players. The fact that makes this possible is lack of DRM on MP3.
OEB (Open Ebook) has long been used by many as an open digital standard. Are all OEB files the same? No, and many aggregators have their own interpretation. Its derivative epub is now being heralded by many as the new dawn and a truly open standard, but today there is only one DRM service that can encrypt it and only one player that can render the encrypted download. Will others follow – almost certainly? Will they be the same in their encryption and rendering requirements - almost certainly not.
iTunes built an empire on the service, the player and a proprietary format. Audible has built an empire on a proprietary format and DRM operability on many players. Both are now seen to have helped open up the market but also restricted it.
Today we have Mobi and Amazon and epub and Sony. Sony appear to have dropped their previous proprietary format and see epub as a more acceptable industry way forward. Adobe’s PDF based ebook reader is still a major force and will be dominant in the market but as we shift towards the mobile device market then the ability to reflow text and chunk files would indicate that the tagging formats of Mobi and epub will come to the front. However, DRM remains the key to the downloadable file world and the mobile platform the real battleground.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
eBooks - the Next Chapter
The gloves come off and the digital wars really start this year.
Amazon is set to launch the much hyped and long overdue Kindle ebook reader with rumours rife that this will be in October (surprise surprise Frankfurt). The rumours also predict the price at $400 to $500 and that it will wirelessly connect to an e-book store on Amazon’s site. The device will also connect and download books and periodicals, and browse the Web, without connecting to a computer. It also has a keyboard, so its users can take notes when reading or navigate the Web to look something up.
The real key issue is the use of the Mobibook format which is proprietary to Amazon and which raises the format war issues between OEB, Mobi and Adobe PDF. Publishers who backed a single format may find themselves having to revisit that decision. After all if Amazon can’t make ebooks work who can?
So Amazon enters the iTunes world for books, with a device, the catalogue, the connection and of course the brand.
Also, Google plans to do what we all new it would do and be a bookseller. It is strongly rumoured that it now plans to start charging users for full online access to the digital copies of books in its database. Publishers will set the prices for their own books and share the revenue with Google.
What it planed with the masses of content it has hovered up from every library in its content vacuum exercise remains to be seen but the likelihood that these will not sit alongside the current titles is hard to believe. We now sit back and wonder how many rights queries will be raised.
The hands of Steve Jobs who yesterday announced Apple’s new iPod and Microsoft and its book programme are still unclear but it seems inevitable that they will follow.
Amazon is set to launch the much hyped and long overdue Kindle ebook reader with rumours rife that this will be in October (surprise surprise Frankfurt). The rumours also predict the price at $400 to $500 and that it will wirelessly connect to an e-book store on Amazon’s site. The device will also connect and download books and periodicals, and browse the Web, without connecting to a computer. It also has a keyboard, so its users can take notes when reading or navigate the Web to look something up.
The real key issue is the use of the Mobibook format which is proprietary to Amazon and which raises the format war issues between OEB, Mobi and Adobe PDF. Publishers who backed a single format may find themselves having to revisit that decision. After all if Amazon can’t make ebooks work who can?
So Amazon enters the iTunes world for books, with a device, the catalogue, the connection and of course the brand.
Also, Google plans to do what we all new it would do and be a bookseller. It is strongly rumoured that it now plans to start charging users for full online access to the digital copies of books in its database. Publishers will set the prices for their own books and share the revenue with Google.
What it planed with the masses of content it has hovered up from every library in its content vacuum exercise remains to be seen but the likelihood that these will not sit alongside the current titles is hard to believe. We now sit back and wonder how many rights queries will be raised.
The hands of Steve Jobs who yesterday announced Apple’s new iPod and Microsoft and its book programme are still unclear but it seems inevitable that they will follow.
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