ePub and the group behind it can vex me—a lot. I agree with Paul on such matters as the long-delayed ePub logo. Look, IDPF, where’s the logo contest you promised to announce at Frankfurt? Furthermore, I hate the way proprietary DRM de-standardizes ePub or any other format. What a laugh when Sony brags about “open ePub” or whatever, but feels compelled to use Adobe DRM on bestsellers in the ePub format. Can’t Sony try harder to coax publishers to at least experiment with social DRM (embedding customers names and addresses in e-book files)?
Even so, I remain a gung-ho ePub backer. Publishers such as Hachette will tell you of the economies that ePub has achieved as a distribution format. And if consumers care more about books than about brand names, then they’ll go for ePub, which will increase the number of reading choices. The new Sony wireless reader will eventually let you download from a whole bunch of e-stores. And standards will make that possible. Already many more books exist in the ePub format than the Kindle format, especially with public domain titles included. Just recently, as chronicled by Fran Toolan and picked up by if:book, the Internet Archive announced that all of its 1.6 million books were available in ePub format—ready to be read on anything from a Sony Reader to an iPhone. That’s a proud Brewster Kahle, archive founder, in the photo. At the same time, Google, the archive’s big rival in the public domain area, continues to offer ePub, not just PDF.
Meanwhile Ross Rubin of the NPD consulting group has observed that "It is all but assured that any other major consumer electronics vendor that enters the e-reader market moving forward will support ePUB." Rubin raises the issue of Amazon continuing to sell proprietary-format books even while supporting ePub in its hardware, but I think that in the end standardization could offer too many economies and other advantages for Amazon to resist. Notice how the Sony eBook Store has ditched its proprietary format in favor of ePub? To put it mildly, ePub has already shown up the skeptics and couldn’t be more relevant to the future of the e-book industry.
So why is the Kindle 2 is faring well without ePub? Because Amazon offers good ergonomics and other wrinkles such as wireless downloads and text to speech. And because many consumers and journalists have not yet fully caught on to the follies of proprietary formats. Why should my eternal access to a book—read on machines I buy in the future—depend so heavily on Amazon or its treatment of e-books or me? The more sophisticated e-booklovers become, the more likely they’ll demand ePub, ideally nonDRMed, so they can own ePub books for real.
Let me also add that, regardless of the successes of ePub, it could be faring still better if the big publishers were not such tightwads when it came to supporting the IPDF. I don’t see ePub developing as rapidly as it would, technically and commercially, with proper backing. But perhaps in a sense that’s good news. Imagine what ePub—with such touches as better ePub promo, a logo and reliable interbook linking—could do for e-books. I hear that the IDPF is at work on such matters. Good, as long as it’s less sluggish than about the logo. Go ePub!
Related: Is ePub important for an ereader? Maybe not, says Amazon Kindle Review.
The Rubin-related link: Big thanks, Felix (even if I know we don’t always see eye to eye on format and DRM issues)!
First, Epub books can be converted to the Kindle via Calibre very easily. Yes, that means some computer knowledge and skill. But all 1.6 million are available to the Kindle with this conversion.
Second,. Epub with DRM is really no different than Kindle’s proprietary format. So, there is no real reason for Amazon to open up to EPub unless DRM is eliminated. (Don’t hold your breath waiting for that one.)
Richard, I share your belief that it’s misleading to talk up open ePub without playing up the proprietary DRM gotch. I’ve written about the same. No prob there!
That said, DRMed ePub is better than a DRMed proprietary format. At least if the Kindle can read ePub, then other book sources can supplly the nonDRMed variety.
Thanks,
David
Richard, I share your belief that it’s misleading to talk up open ePub without playing up the proprietary DRM gotcha so often present. I’ve written about the same. No prob there!
That said, DRMed ePub is better than a DRMed proprietary format. At least if the Kindle can read ePub, then other book sources can supply the nonDRMed variety. Ideally they’ll do so without conversion costs, either directly or through Amazon or anyone else building it into the corporate cost structure.
Thanks,
David
DRM-free epubs easily convert to DRM-free mobi or anything else. And that’s when they’re not already available as mobi to start with.
So far, it’s hardly a loss to worry about.