Adobe PDF DRM Is Not Open Source You Idiot!

Teleread: Has open source helped or hindered the e-book industry?

Good lord, I have seen some gibberish on the Internet before but Steve Jordan you take the cake… So tonight Steve Jordan starts accusing “open source” for eBook DRM issues and the headache it has caused the eBook industry for years now and then get this… the guy then jumps right on in there and tells us, the eBook reading public, that DRM is not really all that bad. pfffffffffft!

WHAT THE FUCK! Has Steve ever read Mobipocket DRM eBooks on Mac OSX? I want this idiot to go try and read a DRMed Mobipocket eBook on Mac OSX and get back to me about how great DRM is. Or hey hey Steve try Microsoft LIT DRM on Mac OSX! Yeah, DRM works great big guy!

Following this logic, it would be understandable to say DRM has not hurt e-books as much as open source development itself has. Badly-executed DRM systems can hardly be said to be good for the industry… but because of adverse effects on customers, not for stifling of innovation. The overwhelming stifling of e-book innovation is being caused by an unfocused, foggy, misdirected, every-man-for-himself open source melee. The e-book industry needs to end the churn and refine its direction and focus, in order to progress properly and efficiently.

I need to calm down lets take a quick look at a list of eBook DRMs some available and some not anymore and see if we can tell what exactly caused this mess.
Maybe inflict some knowledge on people like Steve Jordan.

OK first off some quick explanations here…

First rule of “open source”… License must not be specific to a product (technology neutral) or restrict other software.

Files formats like PDF is just a file format like TXT or DOC is a file format. No license required to create PDF, TXT or DOC files and any OS can do this easily so these FILE FORMATS are “OPEN SOURCE”. Now say we want to lock that PDF, TXT or DOC file with special software and hardware.

That my friends is DRM.

Now these following doohickeys are DRM “locked files” meaning you need specific hardware or specific software licensed to open them. Remember my first rule of “open source” guys?

Adobe PDF/ePub DRM licensed by Adobe. Adobe PDF DRM came into eBooks from the proprietary Adobe Acrobat software that is needed to unlock it.

PRC or PDB is the Palm DRM format for use with “licensed” proprietary Palm devices and software.

AZW is the Amazon Kindle format for use with “licensed” proprietary Amazon Kindle devices and software. By the way, Amazon also owns Mobipocket and will not allow any other DRM to be used in conjunction with their DRM. That’s not very “open source” of them.

LRF or otherwise known as BBeB is the Sony format for use with “licensed” proprietary Sony devices and software.

LIT is the Microsoft Windows format for use with “licensed” proprietary Microsoft devices and software.

Here’s some old ones…

IMP is the eBookwise DRM format for use with eBookwise hardware. Remember how that eBookwise reader was the eBook reader of the future? So IMP was created specifically for eBookWise and it’s “licensed” proprietary hardware.

RB is the old Rocketbook Reader format and since there are no more Rocketbook and Gemstar eBook readers around guess what happened to this “licensed” proprietary DRM and the eBooks locked with it… Buh bye!

My point is each one of these licensed DRMs has specific licensed hardware and licensed software involved in it’s use or in one case a HUGE licensed NON-”OPEN SOURCE” operating system attached to it. None of this is “open source” and none of this has anything to do with “open source” and none of this was created even remotely based on the very idea of “open source”. This alphabet soup of DRM is more about greed and market share. Each one of these companies wants to license it’s proprietary DRM protection schemes to as many publishers and hardware makers as they can so that those publishers and hardware makers are locked into supporting that proprietary companies DRM. That’s not creating an “industry standard”, that’s beating everyone else to paying a “license fee”. Adobe is winning by the way.

All of these DRMs including Adobe are hackable so none of these DRMs actually works outside the specific hardware and software needed to “protect” the DRM (Not the eBook) so the eBook itself is never really “protected” from anyone wanting to strip it, copy it, to change it to another format for another eBook reader. I do this all the time but it is time consuming and annoying and stops me from buying many eBooks depending on their DRM availability. Again another sign that the term “open source” is not applicable here because of having to change the format to change eBook readers.

And last but not least the worst nightmare for any eBook owner is if the company licensing the DRM goes away hopefully your eBook access will not also go away but we all know how that works. Sony has dumped hardware before and left customers with no support (Google Sony CLIÉ). Amazon has dumped eBooks before and left customers holding the bag (Google Amazon, Lightning Source). We the eBook Readers always get screwed and people like Steve-the-clown blame random things like “open source” to distract us from the real issue of these companies and publishers insisting on this illusion of IP safety in using expensive proprietary DRMs that never worked to begin with.

The facts are DRM is a blatant obstacle to your typical everyday customers purchasing and owning a eBook. If you want to successfully sell eBooks never create or use or support anything that is an obstacle to your customers even if there is only a few DRMs still left out there. Is that really all that difficult to understand?

Now we could talk about all the eBook file formats out there and how there should only be one but that’s a whole different topic.

Tags: eBook Commentary