As one of the co-founders of the OpenReader Consortium, which I agree with you is the “David” in the “David vs. Goliath” sense, I enjoyed your blog.

As David Rothman noted, he was never an IDPF member or contributor. But I’ve been involved with OeBF/IDPF since 1999 in its standards efforts, working as an invited expert on every version of OEBPS (including the ill-fated OEBPS 2.0 and the newest update now being developed) and even served in leadership roles in the OEBPS Working Group.

I’m not sure what more I can add to David Rothman’s comment!

However, let me stress that the OpenReader Consortium is fully committed to a long-term solution to the DRM mess, and in a way which is acceptable to the many content user groups (this includes individual book readers.) We believe that if the user base is accepting of a DRM solution (even though we know they prefer no DRM), it will benefit publishers. If the DRM is made too strict, the user base will rebel with its pocketbook to the detriment of publishers.

So, one thing we are thinking of is to gather the various user groups together and see if they can agree on a set of principles and associated list of general requirements as to what constitutes “minimally acceptable DRM.” Doing this will give OpenReader a basis by which to evaluate existing DRM solutions so it can “bless” those that meet the requirements (blessing involves use of the OpenReader trademark), and hopefully lead to the development of an industry-wide solution which is user-friendly.

There’s not much more OpenReader can do here other than simply banning the use of DRM , and that obviously will lead many publishers to shun the standard.

IDPF, with its OEBPS standard, has an even knottier problem in dealing with DRM in that the membership includes several companies offering proprietary DRM solutions, so expecting IDPF to resolve the DRM thing to everyone’s satisfaction is unlikely any time soon.

But OpenReader is not so encumbered, so we are free to take a position which we think will benefit both publishers and readers. After all, in OpenReader, the constituencies we represent are authors, publishers, and book readers, not high technology companies.

Jon Noring

In fact, we fervently do even though this isn’t our favorite technology. The big publishers insist on it, groan. If the publishing biz is to use DRM, however, let’s do it well. Methinks the present DRM is pretty much in waterboarding territory for the typical reader–and e-book sales!

Jon Noring hopes to be along later today or tomorrow with further info.

Meanwhile, just so you’ll know, I’ve never been a member of the IDPF. Jon himself, in his ecumenical mode, is still reaching out to the IDPF as an invited expert. But that’s not the same as being a member.

Meanwhile your readers might want to check out my PW piece for more context.

I hope you keep focusing on these issues. In my own opinion, of course, a genuine common format will help immensely. I’d love to see both the DRM and core format matters turned over to an OASIS-blessed tech committee with access to a wider range of disinterested experts than the IDPF has.

Thanks,
David

Further, with ITUNES,it is not impermissible to create a CD of your music and then create mp3s of this while it is impermissible to strip an ebook of its DRM to use it on another reader/device.

DRM for ebooks is just the latest battle for copyright enforcement. Just take a look at all the ebook compliations being put together and sold on eBay – illegal copies, I might add – that the publishers (and by extension their authors) are not being paid for. That alone is enough to push for a standard in Rights Management for eBooks. What they want is something like CSS (Content Scrambling System) used on DVDs to keep them from being copied, recopied and resold all over the place. Yeah, you can get software that gets around this – but that takes work and commitment that most so-called petty criminals don’t want to do.

Just so you know – there is DRM of MP3s. You can not play a content-managed MP3 from Media Player on iTunes, nor can you play an iTunes MP3 on anything other than the computer it was purchsed on (via iTunes) or a linked/synced iPod. Yeah, a hacker found a workaround – but until that’s commonly available, you have to record to CD, then rip again in another software in order to share the file or ‘play anywhere’. This was and is a common complaint among music sharers/lovers regarding the oh-so-popular iTunes.

Oh, and so you know – the two links to Adobe Blogs you have don’t work – giving 404 errors.

Avaron