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Feedbooks outstrips Apple in ebook downloads

Teleread’s Paul Biba has just posted a very important set of juxtaposed numbers with an elegant economy of expression, and I re-post his words here in their entirety with his permission:

Feedbooks outstrips Apple in ebook downloads

By Paul Biba
logo.pngThere are numbers, and then there are numbers that mean something.
Engadget has reported that 1.5 million ebooks were downloaded to the iPad in the first 28 days after its introduction. Wow! the press says. “It shows that the iBookstore will rule the world”.

Not.

I picked up a Tweet from Hardrien Gardeur of Feedbooks, the site that specializes in public domain and original books from new authors. Get ready ….. here it comes ….

Feedbooks distributed 2.6 million books during the same period!!

Enough said.

Would We Be Better Off Without "Industry Standard" Epub Format?

Here’s an interesting post by Paul Biba, editor of the Teleread blog. He says, among other things:

The Nook can’t read Sony DRM and Sony can’t read Nook DRM and, of course, the Kindle can’t read either and “either” can’t read Kindle DRM and now Apple is saying it will have its own DRM that Kindle and Sony and Nook can’t read. I’m sure it’s all very clear to you now, especially since they are, almost, all using the new “industry standard” Epub.

Of course everybody, except Amazon, is practically lying through their teeth by telling consumers that they are using the so-called “standard” Epub format and how this is a great benefit to everybody. Hogwash! No matter how much you dislike Amazon’s DRM at least you know where you stand with it.

I’m beginning to think that we’d be better off without Epub. 

The issues involved in Digital Rights Management are important and multi-faceted, and Paul is right in suggesting that merely sticking a misleading “Epub” sticker on the front cover of an ebook accomplishes nothing. 

Click here to read more.