Comments on: WSJ’s Digit Blog understands the Adobe DRM problem

By: Rich Adin

Rich Adin — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:58:58 +0000

I think Murray is correct. But a more important point is being missed here: Amazon’s DRM works only on the Kindle, Adobe’s DRM overlay works on multiple (13?) devices with more coming. The problem is less one of DRM than one of DRM babel. As an increasing number of device manufacturers adopt the Adobe DRM, the more that DRM will become a standard. With both a standardized DRM and a standardized format, combined with a multitude of devices capable of accessing those standards, the less of a problem DRM becomes. Yes, it would be better if there were no DRM at all, but between the current two extremes, I’d rather compromise on standardized DRM and formatting.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:36:13 +0000

Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Murray.

“Personally, I prefer the article that’s encouraging if slightly misleading to the one that’s overly scary and discouraging.”

But for people who want to own books for real, the NYT article was more than just slightly misleading. What if Amazon does ePub and uses its own DRM and people throw out their Adoble-DRM-capable machines and get Kindle-DRM-capable ones? Books lost! Look at the current mess for BeBook owners who sank a fortune into Mobipocket books and now want to be able to read Adobe-DRMed ePub.

What’s more, although I’m a big e-book booster, I’d rather people be discouraged than misled. I see TeleRead’s main job as not to talk up e-books but to tell the truth about them–whether it be on consumer issues or otherwise. I just happen to be believe that the truth will inherently serve the cause of e-books. But truth first!

Thanks,
David

By: Murray C Park

Murray C Park — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 12:14:00 +0000

Look, I hate DRM and I strip it off whenever I can just on principal even though I never share my ebooks, but this uncompromising attitude toward Adobe epub DRM may do more harm than good.

An ebook newbie reading the NYT article would likely get the impression that epub books could be read on a wide selection of hardware and that would be true despite the misleading use of the term “open”.

An ebook newbie reading that WSJ blog entry would likely get the impression that if you buy an ebook there’s no telling what hardware it will or won’t work on and the whole thing is just a big mess and it’s safer just to avoid ebooks. That, as we know, would be false.

Personally, I prefer the article that’s encouraging if slightly misleading to the one that’s overly scary and discouraging.