[thelist] selling ebooks

[Stephen Rider]

On Apr 4, 2007, at 11:02 PM, sbeam wrote:
> When selling an Adobe ebook (or the MS or Palm ones for that matter)
> using the DRM feature <shudder> - how does the reader software on the
> customer's computer know that they are allowed to read what they have
> downloaded?

Not a solution, just an FYI...

In my experience, Adobe's DRM is quite bad.  I bought a number of  
books in DRMed PDF format from an site a while back, and in the next  
release of Adobe Reader, the DRM was totally broken.  The files in my  
"library" were not just un-openable, some were actually _deleted_.   
Horrible, horrible update from Adobe, and total disregard for their  
users.

On the other hand, I use Palm Reader ebooks all the time, and have  
had no problems with them.  I like that system as it even allows you  
to update your credit-card-based unlock key to a new card, so you can  
keep all your ebooks on the same key.  The reader is available for  
desktops as well -- Mac and Windows.

(I have no experience with MS ebooks.)

If you want to go the PDF route, I might recommend watermarking  
instead of DRM locks.  Don't make your customers depend on Adobe's  
good faith.

Stephen Rider