Sony Set to Launch New eBook DRM in April, Targeting Educational and Corporate Markets
Already last year, there were initial reports that Sony would soon enter the market with its own eBook copy protection. At that time, however, there were only a few details, among which was the speculation that Sony might offer the new DRM protection for the sale of “used” eBooks.
Considering that second-hand sales of digital books continue to exist in a gray area in many countries, the usefulness of having its own copy protection was questionable.
A few days ago, new details emerged from our colleagues, Nate from The Digital Reader. He spoke with a Sony DADC employee at the Digital Book World Conference (DBW 2015) and learned that the launch of the DRM protection is expected to take place as early as April of this year. According to the (few) details released during the conversation, the Japanese electronics company does not initially intend to serve the regular consumer market, but plans to be more active in the educational and corporate sectors, as well as in other (unspecified) market segments.
Focus on B2B?
No further (specific) details were mentioned. However, it is speculated that Sony’s eBook DRM could serve as a connector for different copy protection systems, i.e., for centralized library management. Libraries, in particular, should benefit from this. There might also be the possibility to lend eBooks to friends or acquaintances.
However, since more questions remain unanswered than answered at this point, things could ultimately turn out quite differently. Especially the existing market dominance of Adobe DRM suggests that Sony will indeed focus primarily on the business sector, rather than the consumer market. This is further supported by the fact that the Japanese company withdrew from the eBook reader business not too long ago and instead aims to meet entrepreneurial and university needs with the high-priced DPT-S1. The ever-growing DRM resistance among consumers could make it more challenging for a “standard” copy protection to succeed.
Hopefully, we will soon learn which business areas Sony actually targets with the DRM protection that has been in development for several years.
