<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">The LA Times reports that Apple is offering their DRM "FairPlay" (currently used on iTunes) to publishers for their ePub-formatted ebooks on the upcoming iPad. It limits how many times digital songs can be copied to other devices; presumably it would work the same, limiting how many instances of a downloaded ebook could co-exist on a user's devices. (Link below article.)<div><br><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; "><h1 class="entry-header" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 26px; font-weight: 100; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/02/apple-ibooks-drm-fairplay.html" rel="bookmark" title="Apple to wrap digital books in FairPlay copy protection [Clarified]" style="font-weight: 100; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: underline; ">Apple to wrap digital books in FairPlay copy protection [Clarified]</a></h1><div class="time" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">February 15, 2010</div><div class="entry-content" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; "><div class="entry-body" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; ">When Apple launches its iBook store to sell titles for its new iPad device in March, many of its titles are expected to come with a set of handsome digital locks designed to deter piracy.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; ">Veteran iTunes customers will recognize the locks as FairPlay, a digital rights management software that once limited how many times digital songs can be copied onto different computers. (Apple <a href="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/06itunes.html" target="_blank" style="font-weight: normal; color: rgb(34, 98, 204); text-decoration: none; ">phased out</a> FairPlay for music a year ago, and now sells unfettered tunes.)</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; ">Next month, Apple will be dusting off those digital cuffs for books, according to sources in the publishing industry.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; ">No doubt some publishers, including O'Reilly Media -- which has vociferously argued that digital locks are harmful to sales -- will opt not to deploy FairPlay. (O'Reilly, which puts out technical books, was not on the list of five publishers during Apple's announcement of the iPad, but is discussing a deal with Apple.)</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; ">But the majority of publishers are expected to embrace FairPlay, along with other copy protection software such as Adobe's <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/contentserver/" target="_blank" style="font-weight: normal; color: rgb(34, 98, 204); text-decoration: none; ">Content Server 4</a>, as a means to squelch incipient book piracy as the e-book market begins to take off.</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; ">-- Alex Pham</p><p style="margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left; "><strong style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; ">Clarified 1:50 pm:</strong> <em style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; ">An earlier version of this post said Apple phased out FairPlay a year ago and now sells songs without DRM. Apple continues to use FairPlay to protect other iTunes content. Thanks to our readers for noticing this omission!</em></p></div></div></span></div><a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/02/apple-ibooks-drm-fairplay.html">http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/02/apple-ibooks-drm-fairplay.html</a></div></body></html>