Did you really think book publishing would go the way of the music industry and publish eBooks without DRM? Amazon already wraps their eBooks in DRM for the Kindle and now, Apple will do the same for publishers in its iBookstore.
According to the Los Angeles Times, sources in the book publishing industry have indicated that Apple’s FairPlay DRM – the same DRM used for its apps and its audio and video content – will be made available to any book publisher who’d like to use it.
If you check out the Apple iPad Features page on the company’s web site, there’s a point that could be easily missed if you don’t read the fine print: the iBooks app isn’t bundled with the iPad. You’ll have to download it from the AppStore like any other eReader.
The iBooks app is a great new way to read and buy books. Download the free app from the App Store and buy everything from classics to best sellers from the built-in iBookstore.
This is good news for a few reasons.
Of the five major book publishers mentioned at the iPad unveiling on January 27th (Hachette, MacMillan, Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, Penguin) the first three are now leveraging that relationship to engage Amazon in negotiations over eBook pricing on the Kindle platform.
