More DRM pitfalls

So, with the popularity of e-readers and tablets, DRM, and thus piracy, has found a new frontier... books. eBooks have been around for a while, of course, but it's only lately that they became a big thing.

I wanted to read the new Iain M Banks book, so went to Apple iBooks to get it. Only to find that, for the moment, iBooks doesn't sell books in Ireland at all. Apparently, even in countries where it does sell books, the selection is pretty minimal.

Now, Amazon has a Kindle app for the iPad, so off to the Kindle store! They did have it, and I bought it, for 10 euro. Now, that's cheaper than it would have been in the shops, as it's new release, but not much cheaper, surely not enough to cover the cost savings in electronic distribution.

It wasn't just the cost that was an issue, though. You see, Kindle for iPad has a much, much worse interface than Apple's iBooks reader, but of course they use different styles of DRM; Apple uses ePub with its own DRM (seemingly everyone has a different, incompatible ePub DRM style), while Kindle uses its own personal made-up format. So you have to read it in the Kindle reader. Not only would it (of course) have been cheaper to pirate the book, but it would also have been more convenient!

This is something that eBook vendors need to deal with, quickly. The problem is actually worse than that with, say, DRMed video; at least most video players basically have the same features. Every eBook reader, though, is different, and it is rather annoying to have to read eBook type A in reader A, type B in reader B, and so forth. A single standard that all apps could read and that everyone could publish to would be a massive improvement, and would, I think, help to push eBooks as a credible concept quicker.

And then, of course...

 Unlike print books, digital books are subject to VAT.

Oh, yeah, that will help the format. Not Amazon's fault, of course, but it's a bit stupid.