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Adobe has announced that it will continue to support the older DRM encryption formats for PDF and EPUB eBooks. This flip-flopping on this specific matter was due to the firestorm that erupted due to our recent post on Adobe killing the e-reader industry. We had so much feedback, that Adobe themselves commented on our original story and announced that they will continue to support the old formats indefinitely. Last week, Adobe stated that they were upgrading the security of their eBook encryption systems. They mandated that they would start petitioning the greater eBook industry starting in March and would prevent older e-readers from reading new eBooks. Basically, if you have an old device, and buy a new eBook, you would not be able to read it, unless the company who made the e-reader updated the firmware. Needless to say there is a ton of older models on the market and perfectly good devices in service, that would never receive the firmware update. "Adobe does not plan to stop support for ACS 4 or RMSDK 9. ACS 5 books will be delivered to the older RMSDK 9 based readers", according to Shameer Ayyappan, Senior Product Manager at Adobe. "We will let our resellers and publishers decide when they wish to set the DRM flag on ACS 5, thus enforcing the need for RMSDK 10 based readers." In other words, ACS and RMSDK customers can migrate to the new hardened DRM that provides a higher degree of security to EPUB & PDF content and prevents unauthorized viewing of content now and in the future in a timeframe that makes sense for them. Although Adobe will not cut old e-readers off, they still won’t be able to read the new eBook formats, once more companies start adopting them. One silver lining, was that Sony was the largest company that used the stock Adobe DRM, but they have since abandoned their bookstore in the USA and Canada. Kobo has picked up their customers and all the old books, and Kobo uses their own offshoot of Adobe DRM. Adobe may not have the clout in North America that they used to, but still have a major presence in the international digital scene. Thalia, txtr and many other companies use their stock encryption, but all of these stores only account for 4% of the global eBook market. Adobe Announces it Will Continue to Support old eBook Formats is a post from: E-Reader News |
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Adobe Announces it Will Continue to Support old eBook Formats
Poorly Translated Public Domain Titles Removed from Amazon
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A number of books uploaded by an individual going by “M Angelo” were nothing more than Google translate-style quick jobs of well-known classics of literature, muddled together in a variety of foreign languages, prompting Amazon to remove the ebooks after complaints about the books barely being readable, let alone offering a quality translation. Before anyone expresses concern that Amazon is now stripping books from its retail website due to simply not thinking they are worthy, the terms of service for using KDP have always allowed the retailer to do so, a right they have exercised in the past in regard to immoral, pornographic, and pirated works. Even more compelling, though, is the fact that the terms of service don’t allow any author to charge for a public domain work, even one that was sloppily translated. This recent uproar in the world of self-publishing is a demonstration of what many critics fear most about the ability to flood the book market with garbage. An unscrupulous individual saw an outlet for making quick money–even while listing himself alongside the author and charging only 99 cents for each language’s edition of these works–and dealt another blow to the credibility of authors who do put forth incredible amounts of time, talent, effort, and even financial resources to ensure that their works are well-received and worthy reads. Hopefully, this get-rich-quick scheme does not become another notch in the yard stick by which consumers measure self-publishing.
Poorly Translated Public Domain Titles Removed from Amazon is a post from: E-Reader News |
Daily Deals & Freebies – February 8
| Kindle Daily Deals Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward Winner of the 2011 National Book Award. A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch’s father is growing concerned. A hard drinker, largely absent, he doesn’t show concern for much else. Esch and her three […] |