Sony Plans to Adopt Common Format for E-Books; New York Times, 8/13/09

Brad Stone via New York Times; Sony Plans to Adopt Common Format for E-Books:

"On Thursday, Sony Electronics, which sells e-book devices under the Reader brand, plans to announce that by the end of the year it will sell digital books only in the ePub format, an open standard created by a group including publishers like Random House and HarperCollins.

Sony will also scrap its proprietary anticopying software in favor of technology from the software maker Adobe that restricts how often e-books can be shared or copied.

After the change, books bought from Sony’s online store will be readable not just on its own device but on the growing constellation of other readers that support ePub...

“People need to remember, when they buy books that come with digital rights management, they don’t have the freedoms they normally would have with a book,” said Holmes Wilson, campaigns manger of the Free Software Foundation, which obtained the signatures of nearly 4,000 authors and tech pundits on a petition saying Amazon’s anticopying software was a “clear threat to the free exchange of ideas.”

Companies like Sony and Adobe do not want to abandon anticopying measures, fearing that piracy of books would run rampant. Rather, they want to push the e-book industry toward common standards to avoid a replay of Apple’s domination of the digital music business.

Early this decade, Apple sold music from its iTunes store that was protected by its own FairPlay software and could be played only on the iPod.

The result was what is known as “lock-in.” Apple built up extraordinary market power and leverage to dictate terms to the major music labels on matters like the price of digital songs. Then, as now, second-tier players banded together to promote the increased flexibility and choice that open standards gave to consumers."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/technology/internet/13reader.html?_r=1&hpw

Is It Time for RealNetworks to Switch Gears?; New York Times, 6/28/09

Brad Stone via New York Times; Is It Time for RealNetworks to Switch Gears?:

"Now Real is waging a new war. Last fall, it introduced software called RealDVD that lets people overcome Hollywood’s anticopying software to make backups of the DVDs they own. Six major Hollywood studios and Real are now fighting over the technology in a federal court in Northern California. A preliminary decision from a judge is expected soon, but the case, and Real’s antitrust claims against the movie studios, could drag on for years.

Real’s cause — to let people make personal copies of movies they own — would appeal to average people, just like the company’s last crusade to sell music for the iPod. But is it a cause worth fighting for, particularly when there are more important challenges in Real’s core businesses? Many shareholders and pessimistic Wall Street analysts do not think so."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/business/28stream.html?scp=1&sq=real%20networks&st=cse

Simon & Schuster to Sell Digital Books on Scribd.com; New York Times, 6/12/09

Brad Stone via New York Times: Simon & Schuster to Sell Digital Books on Scribd.com:

"In another sign that book publishers are looking to embrace alternatives to Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book store, Simon & Schuster has agreed to sell digital copies of its books on Scribd.com, a popular document-sharing Web site.

Simon & Schuster, a division of CBS, plans to announce Friday that it will make digital editions of about 5,000 titles available for purchase on the site, including books from best-selling authors like Stephen King, Dan Brown and Mary Higgins Clark. It will also add thousands of other titles to Scribd’s search engine, allowing readers to sample 10 percent of the content of the books on the site and providing links to buy the print editions.

“We are interested in getting our books in front of consumers in as many formats and distribution platforms as possible,” said Ellie Hirschhorn, chief digital officer of Simon & Schuster."...

The Scribd Web site is the most popular of several document-sharing sites that take a YouTube-like approach to text, letting people upload sample chapters of books, research reports, homework and recipes. About 60 million users a month read documents on the site, embed them in blogs and share links to texts over social networks and e-mail messages.

Scribd has been criticized by publishers in the past for allowing users to upload pirated copies of their works. In an effort to combat the practice, Scribd will use the digital files of Simon & Schuster’s books to find and remove unauthorized copies from its site."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/technology/internet/12books.html?_r=1&sq=scribd&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1244909378-hifOeZiF+9Odinrgj8r/Xw