Adobe Accept ACS4 Broken?

Adobe have long been associated with publishing and the development tools associated with the development of content and although they have successfully seen off the likes of Quark and established InDesign as the tool of choice to many, they have long floundered in the area of DRM.

Today we read of their latest step change to introduce ACS5, which is aimed at tightening the security and replacing the easily broken and much maligned ACS4. There is a question as to whether it will be widely adopted and also of whether how quickly it will be broken by those who wish to break it. There is also the question that if they accept that they are doing it to primarily address ACS4, what of the ACS4 licences being issues and charged for in the market today?

Some 8 years ago they dropped the then much broken ACS3 offer and with the backing of Sony and Overdrive delivered ACS4. The objective was to establish a cross platform ‘open’ service that could be used by all, on any device and at a small transaction licence fee to Adobe, which was centrally controlled with real time licence authentication. The problems started early. Much of the original specification was done with the help of a single party who mainly operated in a single market and whose input made it unfriendly and cumbersome in other sectors. The original restrictions on devices and the interface with Digital Editions was restrictive and confusing to users and although these have been greatly relaxed the basic process and controls remain. Eight years on it remains cumbersome and unfriendly.

A few years later they found that they were not geared to dealing with small accounts and collecting micropayments. So they outsourced this activity to a couple of partners who were more incentivised to dealing with customers. Prior to this move and after the departure of the main driver and movement of his successor within Adobe, it was almost impossible to find the person in Adobe who could make any commercial decisions or even knew much about it.

ACS4 had other problems. The model was based on a server licence plus transaction fee on each purchase download of some 25 cents and a reduced fee of 8 cents for each library loan up to 60 days. As the demand grew for ebooks and the prices dropped the transaction cost often became a thorn in the side of many. It is in effect a fixed sales tax that is imposed irrespective of the cost of the sale and is not include in the publication price. Today Amazon and Apple each have their own DRM which obviously are incompatible and others such as Kobo and Nook have understandably quietly started to go their own way. Sony remains an also ran and probably still has two DRM solutions one of which is ACS4. More importantly some 85% of all sales in all markets are driven by proprietorial DRM solutions and although ACS4 is still seen by some as ‘open’, to many ACS4 is in reality the same. However ACS4 is only one DRM service that directly charges the retailer and lives off their sales.

Perhaps Adobe should have adopted a more long term and integrated approach by embedding both encrypted and later watermarked solutions within InDesign and collected the money in the upstream development. They could have still offered the downstream licence operation but would have probably achieved greater control of the market. Files could have been automatically exported in multiple formats all offering the publisher multiple channels and retailers an incentive to do what they do best – price and sell. Also it should be noted that as Adobe move towards the subscription based licencing of all their tools, this simpler approach could have been bundled in as a value added incentive to publishers.

We have seen the emergence of streamed cloud based ebook services. Whether these are app or browser driven they do not need ACS4 or 5 and can effectively be far more secure in their offer and more transparent in how they achieve it. Maybe ACSx was built for a downloaded file world that may not be so relevant in the near future.

There remains questions about the cost of ACS5 migration and its associated family of change. There remain questions on how Adobe are going to stimulate the transition and whether, like in the ACS3 to 4 move, they will effectively force it to happen even though their hand is considerably weaker this time round. There remains questions on the backward compatibility of ACS5 and ACS4 licences. However, to many today there is still a bigger question over encrypted DRM and whether we should not migrate to a watermarking soft DRM with authentication of ownership , or be factored into an epub format and service, or whether we should just go no DRM?

Using DRM to Enable ebook Resales?

We all know that the DRM licence is often only as good as the availability of the server ,or service it was initiated and ‘stamped’ by. In other words you may have a perfectly valid and paid for copy of a title, but if for any reason you need to redownload it and the service has gone – poof! So has your licenced copy. Ok you may expect that, but when the licence is from a generic provider such as Adobe and their widely adopted ACS4 service you could transfer the licence but no, Poof, its gone! An interesting challenge when some may not be around into the future.

We now read with some interest another twist on the ‘Poof it gone’ DRM story as it relates to Barnes and Noble. This is about a request to redownload being refused because the credit card details held against the specific ebook licence had expired. This itself raises many questions about why credit card details are being held against a third party additional licence in the first place and whether  these are being held in perpetuity?

It is amazing that we continue to endorse the DRM route claiming protection of publisher and author rights, but we blatantly ignore or abuse consumer rights. It appears a sale is only as good as the consumers ability to back up any file and hope they never change their credit card, or it doesn’t expire and of course, they don’t need to replace the file. Some would suggest that an ebook may be for Christmas and not for life.

However with tongue in cheek, this also raises the thorny question of first sale doctrine. It is claimed that a digital file is always pristine and therefore a second sale practice is not the same as ‘used books’ and potentially undermine the market. However, some would suggest that if DRM is as rigid in its rules as it appears , then it would be easy for a service such as Adobe to validate the file is genuine and enable a resale. After all this is the argument in the current Redigi case where they validate files against itunes. It is also possible then to transfer or create a secondary licence to the new user thus controlling resales by DRM.  

It would be somewhat perverse to think that perhaps DRM does have a place after all? Using DRM to promote and control secondary sales would be an opportunity which we feel would itself send many DRM supporters over to the other side! Of course it will never happen but it demonstrates once again to that we have to becareful what we wish for.   

References:

Original article on Barnes and Noble at The Passive Blog

Back Up Your eBook Files

Sound advice to all ebook user has been posted on the iFlow website:

‘We suggest that you download all of your books to your devices and then do a backup with iTunes. This should allow you to restore them if you change devices. We also strongly recommend that you go to our website and download all of your books to your computer which will let you access them with Adobe Digital Editions or any other ebook application that is compatible with Adobe DRM protected epubs.’

The reason behind the advice was that BeamItDown Software and the iFlow Reader will cease operations as of May 31. In an open statement they lay the blame squarely on Apple and say that their change of rules and absolute control of the iOS platform obviates them making any reasonable return. Apple is now requiring them, to give Apple 30% of the selling price of any ebook that they sell from their iOS app. Their gross margin on ebooks after paying the wholesaler is less than 30% under the “agency model”, which means that they would effectively make a loss on all ebooks sold.

They make the point that existing iFlow installations may not work in future releases of iOS:

• You will no longer be able to access it import books or download your books to your devices or examine any of your bookmarks.
• You will not be able to download library books.
• You will not be able to Sync between devices, and user defined bookmarks will not appear on other devices, only the one where they were created.
• We will no longer be offering any apps in the iTunes App Store.

Will we see other ereaders and ebook services go to the wall and it is vital that users are educated to back up their files especially those licensed via Adobe’s SACS4 DRM service.

To further make the point Entourage Canada has announced that they will be discontinuing manufacturing and distribution worldwide of the Entourage Pocket Edge e-reader. It is a small dual book device with one screen featuring a 6” eink touch screen and the other a 7” full color resistive touch screen and is an Android device. Some say that It bridged the gap between an e-reader and an Android Tablet, others that it was neither one nor the other and was bound to slip down the gap. The major issue today is the fact that it still runs under the outdated Google Android 1.6.

According to a Goldman Sachs report from February, Amazon has 58% and the leading share of ebook sales, Barnes & Noble are second with 27%, then Apple has 9% and forth is Kobo with 7%. This seriously says what little penetration the myriad of other eInk readers and tablets have made in the ebook market. It also should send out huge alarm bells to Barnes and Noble that they have little brand awareness outside of the US and could find themselves increasingly squeezed as ebooks go global. Kobo has recognised the global issue but have to address this from a low position today. We have yet to see if there is to be a Google effect but if as likely they do make strong figures then it may be down to three global brands versus the rest.

Sony eBooks Finally Make the Platform Party

There is a clear move away from the single platform ereader offer, to one that is capable of rendering ebooks on all platforms. This doesn’t kill off the dedicated ereader devices and in a weird way, if anything, makes them more relevant. The question you must now ask is why would I buy a ebooks that only play on one device?

Amazon long understood this and along with others such as Google, Kobo and Barnes and Noble now have a platform offer. However many who entered the market from the hardware perspective now find themselves with a delimia – are they hardware manufactures or booksellers or platform service providers? This starts to separate the serious contenders from the also rans. The devices, from the service.

The only viable glue which offers the manufacturers some opportunity to extend their services is Adobe’s DRM ACS4. ACS4 is very prevalent in the eInk world, was born in the PC world of Adobe’s Digital Editions and now, thanks to developers such as Bluefire and TxTr, is becoming available in the mobile world. The question is what or who is driving the extension of the platform and who owns the service as it moves multi platform?

Today we read that Sony, who along with Overdrive, were one of the primary instigators of ACS4, have finally got their offer onto a mobile. The offer includes ACS4 but today is restricted to Android 2.2. We find ourselves asking yet again where Sony are going? Like those dull people you hate to strike up a dialogue with at a party, try hard to project themselves as interesting and someone to be with they, but continue to be dull and follow not lead. Unfortunately, one fears that like their other past products, such as Betamax, they have lost the plot, or like Walkman, are now past their sell by date.

The Digital Reader reports that they have apparently made a mistake in saying their app is available on the iPhone and IPad, which it should be if they are using Bluefire to develop it. Alas, it apparently isn’t . The question of which Andriod platform supports the app is also a mute point, given that a significant number of smartphones have yet to reach 2.2 and are languishing on 2.0 and 2.1.

Mobiputing have a review of the new apps performance and look and feel and we were somewhat taken aback to learn that it takes up 8MB of storage after moving it to the SD card, which anyone with an Android phone will realise, can be a significant issue.

The challenge for Sony is not extending the service for existing users of the Sony Reader Store to allow them to synchronize their bookmarks, highlights, and reading between mobiles and Sony readers, but getting new users to use their platform and buy ebooks from them and also buy their ereaders. However, there appears to be little compelling reason, or differentiator for people to buy ebooks from Sony’s relatively small selection of titles (we dismiss the Public domain fillers that they even charge for) and their devices are just the same old eink ‘lookie likies’.

We would ask Sony where they see their ebook offer going and what is compelling about their offer today and tomorrow?

Ten Digital Reflections

If we look back over the decade of the ‘noughties’ we see ten technology/service step changes which have all in their own way enabled publishing to be digital. They may have not been the first to market, but were first to get it right and change things.

iPhone: The iPhone redefined the mobile, the user interface, the operating system, the application, the look and feel and much more. It combined the best of the iPod and iTouch and brought them to a smartphone. It made reading on a phone acceptable and was adopted by young and old.

Amazon Kindle: It started out as just another eInk device and ended up a multi device platform, leaving many so called pretenders in its wake. The single focus Amazon applied and their determination to evolve and protect their customers investment in Amazon, was what ultimately swept the others behind them.

YouTube: Youtube did for film what iTunes did for music. It became the enabler, the changer, the vehicle that promoted us from video watchers, to video makers. It gave the masses a common platform to express themselves and view alternatives. It was and is a 'starmaker'.

epub: As a standard it unified the industry and effectively became a 'category killer'. It is far from perfect today. Many see it not one standard, but as a mere container, with many issues and variations. However it effectively killed off Mobibook, MS Reader and nullified Adobe ebook. It enabled everyone to believe we had a single standard.

Widgets: They may have been overly engineered by some and lacked a common specification, but they started to make everyone think outside the box. Context started to be used to promote and sell content. We started to use the jacket as a container for content, metadata, bibliographic record and even to be a two way communication vehicle. Unfortunately, widgets were often not understood, lacked industry standards and leadership and remain waiting to be fully discovered.

Facebook: Many will ask why Faccebook? Why not MySpace, Bebo, or even those many publishing only pretend social networks? Facebook wasn’t the best social network, but it was the one that was adopted and accepted by all. It may have started as a narrow college vertical, but it then became inclusive of all and it was this that ultimately separated it from the rest. Why do we need book social networks such as Copia or BookRabbit when we have Facebook that can include all book social connections?

ACS4: When Adobe killed off ACS3 and embraced epub under the intial Adept service many industry players said 'no way'. Adobe quickly adapted it to what is now ACS4 and it soon became the DRM service across multiple devices. Love or hate DRM, it is here today and Adobe continues to be the glue that secures epub and Aebooks (PDF) on many devices. It offers the reader the ability to buy from a wide range of resellers and read files on a wide range of readers. It offers the author and publisher the security.

The Blog: We now have social networks, twitter and a host of ways to express and share our views. Some would suggest that the blog post has had its day and that the 'real time' snippet and interaction of Tweets is more powerful. Others would suggests that 140 characters says little and merely reflects our growing sound bite culture. Whatever, blogs were the vehicle that redefined journalism and writing and enabled many to be able to express themselves to a wider audience.

The Google Book Settlement: We all have an opinion on this audacious attempt to highjack an industry for little more than chump change. It sits still on the shelve awaiting judgement, but it has single handily woken everyone up to the issues facing copyright in the digital age, the challenges of orphan works, the nonsense of territorial rights in global digital economy and the fact that as a rights business, publishing stands exposed without even a basic rights registry.

Lightening Source: LSI came of age during the decade. It quickly became the aggregator and distributor of print on demand titles. First exploited by academia and smaller niche publishers, it has now grown into a vehicle to maintain back lists, produce short print runs and enable ‘lost works’ to be brought back into print. Interestingly it also enabled Ingram to quickly grow its digital offer.

Some may ask why we did not include Android, OLPC or even the iPad. The answer is a difficult one in that they all have had a dramatic impact on the market, but we feel that they and others still to offer or consolidate a step change.

What are your top ten and have we missed the obvious?

Mobile eReaders Just Got Smarter

Ebook reading has moved from being restricted to one device, to being interoperable and enjoyable across multiple devices. We now have to acknowledge, not just the emergence of the cloud, but a new breed of mobile app readers which are emerging and quietly slipping into the market.

First there is TXTR which is focused at the iOS and Android devices. The app can play on iPhones, iPads the Samsung Galaxy tablet and Android smartphones. Txtr has teamed up with Holland’s largest ereatiler, Bol.com, to sell into the Dutch eBook market. The app allows readers to buy new titles and ‘side load’ existing ePub titles protected by Adobe’s DRM. The key is the capability to support Adobe’s ACS4 DRM which means that files bought on many sites can now be securely read on many mobile devices.

Another ACS4 mobile reader has been developed in the US by Bluefire Productions and has been adopted by one of the US’s largest book retailers, Books-A-Million. The app was released only at the end of November and is already turning heads. It allows users to easily customise their reading experience by choosing the background colour, font size, and either portrait or landscape format,is free and again importantly is fully compatible with ACS4 encrypted titles.

These new generation of DRM enabled mobile readers could prove very popular and have the potential to free users from single application readers and further stimulate the demand for iPad and Android tablets next year. They also offer resellers the opportunity to create branded mobile offers and engage fully with the market, sell ebooks through platforms such as Google ebookstore and do so without having to have a dedicated reader.

Another $199 eBook Pretty in Pink

One a Sony new cheap ebook reader and the same week a competitive ‘lookie likie’ eink reader matches it head on, both on price and secondly by using Adobe’s ASC4 Digital Rights Management (DRM). ACS4 is the only DRM that supports encrypted Adobe eBooks in PDF format and epub files.

Astak has installed the Adobe Digital Editions firmware on their 5-inch and 6-inch devices. Like its 6” big brother the EZ Reader, the new Pocket PRO also supports more than 20 DRM-free formats. New 5” display supports 8-level greyscale and weights 6 ounces. It has some 512MB of memory, plus a SD card slot for additional storage capacity up to 16GB and can play MP3 music files while users read eBooks.

The 5-inch Pocket PRO reader will sell at a promotional price of $199.

We couldn’t download pictures from their site but you can log on and see a Flash image in the various available colours. We liked the shocking pink – very lady like!