And you hit the nail on the head of one of the reasons I wouldn’t switch to e-readers – or at least not entirely switch; I still plan to get one someday. I like keeping books forever, and files and digital media don’t seem “forever” enough to me. How many times have I lost music/podcasts because of a computer crash? Er… a couple. Whereas I still have a copy of my dad’s (falling apart, paperback) Lord of the Rings books from the 70′s. Hm. You got me thinking!
Jessica Peter´s last [type] ..Jessica Peter and the Deadly Synopsis

Could publishers pressure Apple to adopt Adobe DRM? Not likely. The recording industry tried to pressure Apple into either licensing Microsoft’s PlaysForSure DRM or licensing FairPlay to third party device manufacturers. When Apple refused to do either the labels were left with no option but to drop DRM entirely.

I doubt book publishers have any more leverage with Apple than the major record labels did. In fact, I would guess they have much less. Smaller industry, lower sales, less consumer demand.

Also, I think it’s misleading to point to the number of devices and booksellers that support Adobe DRM as a sign that said DRM is close to being an industry standard. As we learned with music, widely licensed and supported does not necessarily translate into market dominance. You’d get better insight into where this is all heading by breaking down DRM schemes by total unit sales. A graph of that sort would likely reveal Adobe’s DRM is firmly in the no. 3 position.

To address your larger point of the need for interoperability, that’s something publishers can have today with almost no effort. DRM-free is guaranteed ticket out of this mess.
Kirk Biglione´s last [type] ..The Daily Loper – Jun 18, 2010

But more flexible licensing will be needed long term. I hope Amazon and Apple figure this out sooner rather than later, as it also applies to libraries and the broader literary impact the change to digital formats will have.

You note there is some frustration with the Kindle platform, and I’ll assume that is true. People also love the seamlessness of the Kindle platform. I’d wager the majority of customers do not realize they are under the thumb of DRM — this knowledge comes when they try to port their books to competing platforms. Of course, the platform builders put the blame for all DRM on the publishers, and as long as publishers demand DRM, there is no incentive for Amazon or Apple or Sony to switch their practices.

I remember both the BluRay versus HD DVD and the Beta versus VHS wars — I had an interesting front seat to both battles — and it’s not always the best technology that wins as much as it is the one most consumers seem to want. If Warner’s had sensed the consumer marketplace was headed toward HD, they would have gone that way, too. What I suspect consumers really want, even if they don’t know it yet, is no DRM at all. Either that or they’ll increasingly demand that pricing and rights (such as the number of allowable downloads) reflect the lack of true ownership of their books.
Kassia Krozser´s last [type] ..Change Begins at Home