Lack Of Ebook Standards Hurting Industry

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.teleread.org/blog/2003_12_21_archive.html#107202367166994231' target='_blank'>http://www.teleread.org/blog/2003_1...202367166994231</a><br /><br /></div>"Book people--whether editors, writers, publishers or librarians--hate it when bean-counters and politicians tell them how to run their business. So how about Microsoft, Adobe, Palm Digital Media and OverDrive? Do we really want them to intrude on book people--and balkanize our readerships by e-book formats? The format war is no small reason, according to a HarperCollins executive, why e-books sales of perhaps $10-$12 million a year are still a speck of the industry total."<br /><br />David Rothman, of TeleRead, has written up a post on his blog about the toothlessness of the <a href="http://www.openebook.org/">Open eBook Forum</a> and strongly believes that incompatible standards are actively hurting the ebook industry -- and believes that the Forum has done little to stop it and should be replaced.<br /><br />I'm inclined to agree. I know a lot of our readers use either MS Reader or Palm Digital Media formats, but it would be <i>infinitely</i> simpler if an easy standard that supported multiple platforms existed. As it is, if I want to pick up a Smartphone 2002 or (gasp!) a Palm device and use my MS Reader books with it, I can't. Only Microsoft can make .lit readers, and they won't make readers on those devices -- which effectively locks me in to a limited subset of handheld devices, unless I decompile books and circumvent the DRM encoded into them -- which, at the minimum, is a huge hassle and is fraught with legal issues. It would also be nice if that standard's DRM was user-friendly. Sadly, I'm not holding my breath, even though I'm an avid ebook fan.

[dh]

I do agree that having the multiple formats is a pain and must be really confusing for new users. I simply want to be able to buy the books I want and be able to read them on any device I own now and might have in the future.

I have taken the trouble to convert all my .lit books into Mobipocket format. I won't buy them in that format because their DRM is as bad, if not worse than Microsoft's. I simply buy books in .lit format and convert them myself. I own one secure MP book and I have had problems with their device specific DRM.

So on my Axim I have MS Reader - in ROM, not activated, Mobipocket Reader and Laridian Bible Reader. (I'm rather agnostic but I like to read the NIV from time to time). I have an activated MS Reader on my laptop so I can buy and download books. I've never opened it to read anything.

If there are not enough readers cluttering up my system already, I just downloaded the Wikipedia and have to get TomeRaider to be able to read it. As much as I don't want to have to spend $25.00 on a reader program, the Wikipedia is so fantastic I think it will be worth it.

When I think about it, I've spent quite a lot of time and money on fine tuning my eBook reading. I'm sure most people would want to just read the bloody books and get on with it. Since that seems to not be possible right now, I'm sure 2004 will be another tough year for the eBook business.

[dma1965]

If there are not enough readers cluttering up my system already, I just downloaded the Wikipedia and have to get TomeRaider to be able to read it. As much as I don't want to have to spend $25.00 on a reader program, the Wikipedia is so fantastic I think it will be worth it.

Where can I download the Wikipedia from?

[[email protected]]

I have been for years accused of "piracy" or other acts of theft, because I like to view my media on my terms. For instance.... MP3's. I listen to my cd's that I purchased in MP3 format, because I can get more of them on my MP3 player than regular CD audio. I have been forced for all my life to pay very high prices ($20.00) for an entire CD when I only like 1 or 2 songs. I won't complain too much, because I support the artist, and more music is produced. I refuse to have sombody tell me that the music I just paid $20 to buy can't be copied for my own use. The record companies are very smart. they don't want you to be able to buy just the song you want, because the money they make will go down. They will fight it tooth and nail. What they fail to realize is that as long as they fight it, and refuse to give the consumer what they really want (in the right format or just the song they want) there will continue to be theft, or violation of copy rights, etc. The same holds true for Video. I pay about $20 for a new DVD. The first thing I do is rip it to a 128meg wmv so I can play it on my PPC. I will continue this practice regardless of what the law is. I paid for that movie, I should have the right to view it anyway I choose, as long as I don't make money by playing it, or duplicate it for others for free.

All of this is related to the copy protection scheemes that have been less than successful. The first thing that the companies need to realize is nothing is protected. There is no standard that cannot be hacked. Nothing. So instead of fighting the wave and loosing the battle, the music and movie companies should find ways to give the people what they really want and to profit from it. sorry for the soap box.

[dh]

If there are not enough readers cluttering up my system already, I just downloaded the Wikipedia and have to get TomeRaider to be able to read it. As much as I don't want to have to spend $25.00 on a reader program, the Wikipedia is so fantastic I think it will be worth it.

Where can I download the Wikipedia from?
Here's a page to download the TomeRaider version: http://members.chello.nl/epzachte/Wikipedia/
Wikipedia actually works really well on the PPC.

[Janak Parekh]

I have been for years accused of "piracy" or other acts of theft, because I like to view my media on my terms. For instance.... MP3's. I listen to my cd's that I purchased in MP3 format, because I can get more of them on my MP3 player than regular CD audio. I have been forced for all my life to pay very high prices ($20.00) for an entire CD when I only like 1 or 2 songs.
This is true... until now. You should give a service like iTunes or Napster a shot. You can download and burn the tracks to CD, and then rerip them as MP3.

All of this is related to the copy protection scheemes that have been less than successful. The first thing that the companies need to realize is nothing is protected. There is no standard that cannot be hacked. Nothing.
But it gets more complicated than that. :( The industry would just like to get to the point where it's very inconvenient to circumvent the technology -- both by law and by practical means. Imagine a system where the music, to the sound card, to the speakers are all digitally encrypted. The only way you could "rip" the music would be to hack the format or to hook up a microphone next to the speakers. Both are rather inconvenient.

To instead of fighting the wave and loosing the battle, the music and movie companies should find ways to give the people what they really want and to profit from it. sorry for the soap box.
This, I suspect you'll find most PPCT people agree with. But they've always been shortsighted -- with VHS, with CDs, and now with ebooks.

--janak

[rskoss]

I pay about $20 for a new DVD. The first thing I do is rip it to a 128meg wmv so I can play it on my PPC.

I'd love to know how to do that.

[Felix Torres]

I big to differ, folks.
ebooks have not taken off for two reasons-one major, one lesser-neither of which has anything to do with the formats.

The "lesser" problem is that book publishers do not understand digital media at all, hence their unwillingness to listen to the folks at Overdrive, MS, Mobipocket, etc, who do understand that ebooks are more like digital music than they are like printed books; their unrealistic pricing and sales expectations; and their whining over formats instead of dealing with the real problem: hardware!

The mayor problem is just that: the hardware, the lack of good (read: cheap and rugged) dedicated ebook readers that will take ebooks out of the realm of techies and into the hands of the general public, and people who are willing to *pay* for content.

Just remember that MP3 files existed for years on PCs but only *really* took off when Rio came out with the first mass-market mp3-player.

The same applies to ebooks; as long as they mostly remain readable only on computers they will not take off. Neither pdas nor smartphones are viable ebook readers for the mass market--the screens and battery considerations are simply unacceptable for non-techies and the design considerations run in the opposite direction of where pdas and phones are evolving; books want big high-res screens, low-power cpus, and minimal interfaces; b&w is better than color for outdoor readability; low response time screens are fine, and idle times of weeks is a must.

The closest thing to a mass market ebook reader to date was the Reb-1100--size, screen, battery life are all acceptable--but the idiots at gemstar wrapped it in a brain dead business model that basically walled it off from the pople who could most appreciate it.

Until we see a similar product for $99 at walmart, with easily downloadable content, ebooks will be strictly for techies and no amount of fussing over formats will change the fact that the hardware is simply not out there.

[Janak Parekh]

and their whining over formats instead of dealing with the real problem: hardware!
But formats are intricately tied to the lack of hardware. Would you manufacture a device if you knew that Microsoft could withhold support, and therefore many thousands of ebooks would not be readable? And what would you do if you couldn't get MS Reader format or PDM format to be readable on your device? You'd give up.

Mind you, MS/PDM might be willing to license their formats, but as a developer I'd like to see a standard format with one license fee before I go on making an investment on hardware nowadays -- otherwise, the obstacles to adoption are just too high.

Of course, it's not the only reason, but I feel it reverbrates throughout many different problems in the industry.

--janak

[Felix Torres]

But formats are intricately tied to the lack of hardware.

Would you manufacture a device if you knew that Microsoft could withhold support, and therefore many thousands of ebooks would not be readable? And what would you do if you couldn't get MS Reader format or PDM format to be readable on your device? You'd give up.

Mind you, MS/PDM might be willing to license their formats, but as a developer I'd like to see a standard format with one license fee before I go on making an investment on hardware nowadays -- otherwise, the obstacles to adoption are just too high.

Of course, it's not the only reason, but I feel it reverbrates throughout many different problems in the industry.

--janak

See, that is exactly the smoke screen I was talking about, the worrying about formats:

The hardware is most definitely *not* tied to formats.
That's what upgradeable firmware is all about.
The only reason we have seen device-specific formats isbecause the hardware vendors *want* to be content publishers.
They don'thave to be.
Sony didn't have to buy Columbia studios to get into the VCR business.
Samsung and Panasonic certainly didn't and they sell more DVD players than SONY.

Similarly, MS is not in the e-publishing business.
They don't provide any content, except freebies they buy and give away.
The power to select formats lies in the hands of the publishers.
If the five or six big publishers out there decided to put their entire catalogs for sale in mobipocket format (to pick a format at random), much as the movie studios did withdvds, that format would be the instant winner of the much-hyped but ultimately irrelevant format war.

Similarly, if a group of Consumer electronics vendors came up with a good cheap standalone reader using plain encrypted and compressed Html, the content would materialize overnight as long as they could prove to the publishers that some kid in scandinavia won't crack the encrytion in a week.

The talk over formats and who controls them is a diversion from the fact tgat nobody is even trying to build hardware that meets the needs of the market.

If MS is in the lead in this nascent market it is by default since they are the only player with a plan; not that tgey arethe only ones capable of doing it but the ones most likely to make it stick.
Adobe could make it stick but they have postcript on the brain and their business model scares publishers more than even MS.

If ebooks ever take off, it will be because a hardware vendor had the guts to follow the digital music example and give us a plain html or lit reader to start with and bundled in the whole Gutenbetg text.

Sell that for $100 at Walmart to buikd up a non-techie customer base and the publishers will follow.

Chicken and egg conundrums have historically been broken by the hardware vendors taking a risk. After all, the firmware can always be updated.

But first the hardware has to exist.
No hardware, no market.
And if there is no market, the format is irrelevant.

[Janak Parekh]

See, that is exactly the smoke screen I was talking about, the worrying about formats:
Not smoke screens, IMHO -- I disagree with your analogies.

That's what upgradeable firmware is all about.
Only if you know there will be the possibility of upgrades.

Sony didn't have to buy Columbia studios to get into the VCR business.
Samsung and Panasonic certainly didn't and they sell more DVD players than SONY.
So, here's the big problems with your two examples: the formats were set first. ebook formats are more in the BetaMax realm: completely isolated and controlled by one company. The DVD forum consisted of Panasonic from the very beginning. Columbia didn't dictate the VCR format. However, in the ebook industry, everything's balkanized. It's too much of a risk to build a hardware reader because you don't know if publisher X will accept format Y that will be licensable by hardware manufacturer Z.

Similarly, MS is not in the e-publishing business.
They don't provide any content, except freebies they buy and give away.
They negotiate with publishers to sell in the .LIT format. That's huge.

If the five or six big publishers out there decided to put their entire catalogs for sale in mobipocket format (to pick a format at random), much as the movie studios did withdvds, that format would be the instant winner of the much-hyped but ultimately irrelevant format war.
But... that accomplishes almost exactly what I'm saying. OK, so the format's not opened, but at least we have a de facto standard. That will overcome the major hurdle we have right now.

Similarly, if a group of Consumer electronics vendors came up with a good cheap standalone reader using plain encrypted and compressed Html, the content would materialize overnight as long as they could prove to the publishers that some kid in scandinavia won't crack the encrytion in a week.
To my knowledge, no one has cracked Palm Digital Media or Mobipocket format, and publishers haven't signed on yet. By all means, this is not just because of formats, but I debate it's a smokescreen.

If ebooks ever take off, it will be because a hardware vendor had the guts to follow the digital music example and give us a plain html or lit reader to start with and bundled in the whole Gutenbetg text.
But various hardware manufacturers tried... and failed.

Sell that for $100 at Walmart to buikd up a non-techie customer base and the publishers will follow.
To get to that price, you need economies of scale. Yet another chicken-and-egg problem.

Chicken and egg conundrums have historically been broken by the hardware vendors taking a risk. After all, the firmware can always be updated.
But in the past we never had the problems we do today, given the DMCA, encrypted formats, and DRM. They've been at it for years in the music industry, and there still isn't a resolution there -- despite "firmware-upgradeable" devices.

--janak