To Anyone reading this who currently uses an e-reader,
Digital books aren't going away. By 2013, some analysts are predicting sales of the Kindle, Nook, and Reader alone to increase to 30 million units.
It also stands to reason that the books, newspapers, magazines, and other content on these devices isn't free to produce, free to maintain, or free to distribute. However, almost all of these devices contain formats with some form of DRM, digital rights management, that control access to content on specific devices. Digital books you buy through the Amazon storefront cannot be carried over to the Sony Reader, for example, without some sort of workaround method.
For the average consumer, the e-book marketplace is a confusing place. Consumers want an easy purchasing decision and that means picking the one format/device being the standard bearer for all e-reading devices everywhere. Unfortunately, because of market forces and sometimes downright strange business decisions, this is not possible at the moment because no one has decided what the "best" format is, and when they do (eventually) decide, no one knows to whom the money the royalties will go to for owning that format (if anyone). Of the current popular formats, ePub has the best bet of becoming the general standard, but again, is not supported by all devices directly.
DRM is not even the worst of it; the fear is this kind of protection will reach some Orwellian level to the point where some purchased, legitimate content gets taken away from consumers. It happened already once with Amazon's Kindle device.
This is the intent of Books Without Borders, a place for news and general knowledge about e-readers and DRM: a web site dedicated to the elimination of DRM that cripples law-abiding, legitimate consumers of e-books and e-readers. There are other e-reading devices than the ones listed, but I've selected a few of the market leaders for clarity's sake. More information about these products never hurt anyone, especially when it is with the purpose of opening the marketplace to healthy competition and goodwill towards all involved.
Because the last thing anyone wants is for people to stop reading altogether.
Cheers,
Ryan
