Kindle books could soon reach other devices

Amazon in a support document for publishers using its Digital Text Platform has revealed that it will let those selling Kindle books shed the copy protection. Where it had previously been difficult to remove, the digital rights management (DRM) can now be left off of a book or periodical simply by marking a checkbox. To date, all known Kindle books to date use DRM.

While not a complete change of policy for Amazon, the gesture signals a backing away from the company's previous attitude towards its book sales. It has so far relied on the Kindle's proprietary DRM as a competitive advantage that prevents readers from either buying a non-Kindle reader to view books or for Kindle owners to shop at other stores. Formatting will still likely limit unprotected books to transfer between other devices, such as computers or to the iPhone's Kindle app, but with a more publicized loosening of rules could also extend to supporting other devices.

Many other companies, such as Barnes & Noble, Plastic Logic and Sony, have all opted to support optionally protected but universal standards like EPUB on their own e-book readers. The restriction also comes less than a week before Apple may introduce a tablet ready for e-books, though Apple has historically preferred its own file formats when not using widespread standards. [via ReadWriteWeb]

By Electronista Staff