It’s Simple: ePub is Open, Except When It’s Wrapped in DRM, And Then It’s Not - Unwrap the Fish

It’s Simple: ePub is Open, Except When It’s Wrapped in DRM, And Then It’s Not | Publishing In the 21st Century

Looking back at an August post on E-reads reminded me to take another look at this issue.

Search for "strip drm epub" in google and you would be inept if you can't figure out how to unwrap the epub from the DRM wrapper. This is, of course, moving to the Dark Side. If you are want backup copies of books you own, want to transfer them to another e-reader, or feel that DRM is an insult to your sense of justice (buy an e-book for the same price as a hardcover and you are only "renting" it?) then you may want to investigate further.

Three New Editions in Sony Reader Family - decent hardware but SonyDRM fragments market

Three New Editions in Sony Reader Family | e-Bookvine

Of course Sony is using its own flavour of DRM on ePub books so they cannot be transferred to other systems. There are now three major ePub DRM systems out there --  essentially that means there are three versions of ePub. This can cripple the open ePub format thus opening the way for the standardization on proprietary formats like Amazon's AZW.

Thoughts on the Kindle and libraries | The Digital Reader

Thoughts on the Kindle and libraries | The Digital Reader:

"came across an interesting story yesterday about the West Vancouver Memorial Library and how they now have 6 Kindles on hand that can be checked out to library patrons. I was sitting here and pondering the cost benefit analysis of a Kindle ebooks when I realized there was an opportunity here.

I wonder how long it will be before Amazon announce a new ability for the Kindle: support for Overdrive library system? It wouldn’t take all that much work to accomplish. The Kindle is already running a modified version of Mobipocket Reader, so the technical work would be doable."

There may be legal issues with lending out Kindles with DRM crippled e-books installed on them. While it is unlikely that Amazon would go out of its way to sue a library, the legal mumbo-jumbo attached to the book gives them the legal right. The DRM language prevents the transfer of ownership (even temporarily).


LibraryLaw Blog: May a library lend e-book readers?
West Vancouver library puts Kindle e-book readers on shelves | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com
West Vancouver Memorial Library to lend Kindles | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home