downdb.net

Reading a Wired.com article about last week’s BookExpo America, I was pretty excited to see this:

Ultimately, consumers want freedom, said David Shanks, chief executive of leading publisher Penguin Group USA.

“Our fondest wish is that all the devices become agnostic so that there isn’t proprietary formats and you can read wherever you want to read,” Shanks told Reuters. “First we have to get a standard that everybody embraces.”

Awesome! Not only is this someone from the publishing industry talking sense about open standards, but it’s the CEO of one of the sister companies of my employer!

Then I read on to the next paragraph…

The issue, he said, is the fear of piracy and how to set a common digital rights management system to thwart it.

Sorry, Shanks—you lost me. It’s not so much restrictive proprietary formats that you’re concerned about, it’s that there are too many restrictive formats, and you don’t know which one to go with. The books you publish will be copied and shared and re-used in ways that don’t immediately lead to profits for your company. Live with it, and give up the pipe dream that if you just hit on the right marketing and management scheme, you’ll be able to preserve your income without making too many changes to your business.