Ebooks

Index

What are ebooks? Why is there so much hype about ebooks. And those readers...what do they do?

“An electronic book (also e-book, ebook, digital book) is a text and image-based publication in digital form produced on, published by, and readable on computers or other digital devices.

The Oxford Dictionary of English defines the e-book as "an electronic version of a printed book," but e-books can and do exist without any printed equivalent. E-books are usually read on dedicated hardware devices known as e-Readers. Personal computers and some cell phones can also be used to read e-books. “ The most popular method of getting an eBook is to purchase a downloadable file of the eBook.

Just like normal books, ebooks cover pretty much every topic that exists. Ebooks can be read from your computer of an specialised reader. Ebooks readers are popular because they enable options similar to those of a paper book - readers can bookmark pages, make notes, highlight passages, and save selected text. They also include built-in dictionaries, and alterable font sizes and styles.

HTML is the most multi-dimensional mass format, therefore it should be used for ebooks. Ebooks need standard shells to contain HTML pages. XML-based ebooks are even better, but there seem to be no authoring tools for them in the foreseeable future. Again, it must support real hypertext, so print-oriented markup languages are of a very limited value.

Most common formats of ebooks are PDF and HTML.

What is PDF?

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format developed by Adobe Systems for representing documents in a manner that is independent of the original application software, hardware, and operating system used to create those documents.

Acrobat and Reader are widely used as a way to present information with a fixed layout similar to a paper publication.

The PDF format has become a standard for document transfer between computer architectures. A PDF file retains formatting for the file being transmitted.

A PDF file can describe documents containing any combination of text, graphics, and images in a device independent and resolution independent format. These documents can be one page or thousands of pages, very simple or extremely complex with a rich use of fonts, graphics, colour, and images. PDF is an open standard, and anyone may write applications that can read or write PDFs royalty-free. PDF captures formatting information from a variety of desktop publishing applications, making it possible to send formatted documents and have them appear on the recipient's monitor or printer as they were intended. To view a file in PDF format, you need Adobe Reader, which is free from Adobe Systems.

The PDF format offers several forms of technical protection, including encryption that can prevent software piracy.

Since PDF is designed to reproduce page images, the text traditionally could not be re-flowed to fit the screen width or size. As a result PDF files designed for printing on standard paper sizes are less easily viewed on screens with limited size or resolution, such as those found on mobile phones and PDAs. Adobe has addressed this by adding a re-flow facility to its Acrobat Reader software, but for this to work the document must be marked for re-flowing at creation, which means that existing PDF documents will not benefit unless they are tagged and resaved.

The main difference between PDF and HTML is with zooming: Enlarging a PDF document without reflow magnifies the text but preserves the original layout and spacing; a practical limit on zooming follows from the requirement to keep a text column within the width of the screen (otherwise horizontal scrolling would be needed during and after reading each line).

PDF is designed for page-oriented documents. Scaling, zooming, printing are expected functionalities for PDF viewers. The quality of viewing depends on the quality of the embedded image.

PDF has become one of the most used formats to upload, download and transmit files over the Internet. Although this dramatic rise in popularity may surprise some, it does not surprise those who have been using PDF for quite some time and know the unparalleled advantages that PDF offers.

PDF files are readable on all platforms MAC, Windows, or Linux OS.

PDF documents are optimally sized: When you convert an existing file, from any format, it becomes highly optimized, i.e. it become much smaller in size without losing any quality. In case you have to send large volumes of PDF files on the internet, you can easily compress them. Smaller size results in PDF documents being easily uploaded and downloaded. An electronic document converted into a PDF document compresses to approximately 25% of its original size. For example, a 20KB word processing document is compressed to under 5KB. This allows the PDF document to open quickly at the workstation and is ideal for use on a network/internet/intranet.

PDF documents are secure: PDF files have great security features that do not allow just anyone to edit them. This feature is especially liked by people publishing legal document and research papers on the Internet. Also, they are not infected by viruses or Trojans.

PDF reading software is free: PDF reader (Adobe reader) can be downloaded free from the Internet.

PDF documents can be easily viewed in most web-browsers: PDF can be easily opened in most web browsers, just click the link that links to a PDF file and the PDF file will open.

The emergence of various PDF converter softwares has further given a boost to the popularity of PDF documents. Users can now download PDF files and convert them to Word and excel using PDF to Word or PDF to Excel converters (Able2Extract), they can then edit them in Microsoft Word and convert them back to PDF and transmit them on the Internet. These PDF softwares are affordable and come with easy PDF conversion functionality.

PDFs are great for forms and manuals because the layout will faithfully reproduce your original document. They deliver high-resolution images in a relatively small file format. PDFs are also good for text documents with embedded graphics

Advantages of PDF

Quickly and easily created
Securable (Adding watermarks, encrypting data, using passwords)
Compact and able to compress large files
Self-contained
Portability: All PDF files exist independently from the Operating system, hardware, software that is being used to view, edit or Convert PDF files. It not only makes it easy to transfer files among computers with different hardware and software architecture. Using PDF files also make sure that the document you send reach the destination clearly (preserving the look and feel of the original source file) without any error.

Pdfconverter.com's Free PDF Creator offers the ability to implement all of the advantages of the PDF format above quickly and easily.

PDF Files Offer Document Level Security

Document security is always an important factor for businesses today that are sharing information over a network, over an Intranet or over the Internet. One of the advantages that a PDF file has to offer is the ability of the organization to put password security at document level. This allows you to e-mail documents between people or locations without the fear of an unauthorized person viewing the document. Also being a "read only" document, where it cannot be altered without leaving an electronic footprint, it meets all the legal requirements to stand up in a court of law.

The PDF format is designed for printable material

PDF files are formatted more like books than web pages. They are files that will look the same on the screen and in print, regardless of what kind of computer or printer someone is using and regardless of what software package was originally used to create it.

PDF format derives from PostScript, but without language features like loops, and with added support for features like compression and passwords. Because PDF documents can easily be viewed and printed by users on a variety of computer platforms, they are very common on the World Wide Web.

PDF files typically contain brochures, product manuals, magazine articles — up to entire books, as they can embed fonts, images, and other documents. A PDF file contains one or more zoomable page images.

Comparison between PDF and HTML

Both PDF and HTML are commonly found on the Web. Using the reflow feature, tagged PDF documents behave much like HTML. HTML is a method for describing the content of a webpage in a manner that is open to interpretation by the browser which renders it on the user's screen. This permits content to be rendered to suit the viewer rather than the content provider, and also means that an HTML file will not necessarily look exactly the same in different browsers. PDF without applying reflow, on the other hand, is strictly concerned with describing the content of a document such that the original layout and typesetting are fully preserved. Since many content providers do not like the fluid nature of HTML rendering, PDF without reflow has been widespread to force a particular layout. With HTML the same can be achieved by using a raster graphics (or recently, SVG, a vector graphics standard) image to present text, but then the text can not be copied as such, nor can a subtext be searched within it. Use of images also leads to larger file sizes.

Since the format is designed to reproduce page images, the text traditionally could not be re-flowed to fit the screen width or size. As a result PDF files designed for printing on standard paper sizes are less easily viewed on screens with limited size or resolution, such as those found on mobile phones and PDAs. Adobe has addressed this by adding a re-flow facility to its Acrobat Reader software, but for this to work the document must be marked for re-flowing at creation, which means that existing PDF documents will not benefit unless they are tagged and resaved.

PDF files are supported on the following e-book readers:

Mobipocket,
iRex iLiad,
iRex DR1000,
Sony Reader,
Bookeen Cybook,
Foxit eSlick,
Amazon Kindle,
Barnes & Noble Nook,
the iPad,
PocketBook Reader,
Bebook Neo
and the Kobo eReader

Ebook Readers

There are ebooks for computers and for mobile devices. In other words the same ebook need not have to be readable on both computer and smartphone. It may have different editions.

The most important part of an e-book reader is the screen. The first e-books used small versions of LCD laptop screens which have a resolution (sharpness) of about 35 pixels per cm (90 pixels per inch). You could easily see the dots making up the letters and it was quite tiring to read for more than a few minutes at a time. The latest e-books use an entirely different technology called e-ink. Instead of using LCD displays, they show words and letters using tiny, black and white, plastic granules that move about inside microscopic, spherical capsules under precise electronic control. Displays like this have about twice the resolution of ordinary computer screens, are clearly visible in sunlight, and use much less power. In fact, they're almost as sharp and easy to read as printed paper. 'e-Ink' is short for Electronic Ink. It is a type of display film made by E Ink Corporation, and is used in electronic displays, such as E-books. 'Electronic Ink' works by using electronically charged micro-capsules suspended in a clear fluid, the polarity of the charge changing the appearance of these mini-points (pixels) from light to dark, or vice versa.

e-ink film can be applied to almost any material/surface, including glass, fabric and paper.

The lack of books in electronic format is one of the things that puts people off using e-book readers—and that's what makes Amazon.com's new Kindle reader such an exciting development. Amazon already works with virtually all the world's publishers as a bookseller, so it's been able to make huge numbers of titles available for Kindle in electronic format—over 88,000 books were available on the launch date. That's certainly what people want and expect from an e-book reader, but whether it will finally make electronic books as popular as iPods remains to be seen.

	Amazon Kindle 3	Amazon Kindle DX	Barnes and Noble Nook	Sony PRS-650
Screen size (inches)	6	9.7	6	6
Resolution	800x600	824x1200	600x800	600x800
Touch Screen	no	no	yes	yes
Screen Type	E-Ink	E-Ink	E-Ink	E-Ink
Overall size	7.5″ x 4.8″ x 0.335″	10.4″ x 7.2″ x 0.4″	7.7″ x 4.9″ x 0.5″	118.8 x 168 x 9.6 mm
Weight	8.7 ounces	18.9 ounces	12.1 ounces	215 g
Internal Memory (Gb)	4	4	2	512 Mb
Removable Memory	none	none	16 GB	32 GB
Formats supported	Kindle (AZW), PDF, TXT, MOBI, PRC, HTML, DOC	Kindle (AZW), PDF, TXT, MOBI, PRC	EPUB, PDB, PDF	EPUB, PDF, Microsoft Word, TXT, RTF, BBeB
Image formats Supported	JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP	JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP	JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP	JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP
Grayscale Levels	16	16	16	16
Wireless	Wi-Fi	3G, Whispernet	3G, Wi-Fi	none

	pandigital novel	Kobo eReader	COOL-ER	Astak 5“ EZ Reader Pocket pro
Screen size (inches)	7	6	6	5
Resolution	600x800	600x800	600x800	600x800
Touch Screen	yes	no	no	no
Screen Type	TFT LCD	E-Ink	E-Ink	E-Ink
Overall size	7.5″ x 5.5″ x 0.5″	7.2″ x 4.7″ x 0.4″	7.2″ x 4.6″ x 0.4″	6″ x 4.1″ x 0.4″
Weight	16 ounces	8 ounces	6.3 ounces	6 ounces
Internal Memory (Gb)	1	1	1	512 Mb
Removable Memory	32 GB	4 GB	4 GB	16 GB
Formats supported	EPUB, PDF	EPUB, PDF, Adobe DRM	PDF, EPUB, FB2, RTF, TXT, HTML, PRC	PDF, DOC, ePub, LIT, PRC, MOBI, WOLF, DJVU, HTML, TXT, CHM, FB2, PPT
Image formats Supported	JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF		JPEG	BMP, JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF
Grayscale Levels	16	8	8	8
Wireless	Wi-Fi	none	none	none

	BeBook NEO	Bookeen Cybook Opus	Apple iPad
Screen size (inches)	6	5	9.7
Resolution	600x800	600x800	1024x768
Touch Screen	yes	no	yes
Screen Type	E-Ink	E-Ink	LED
Overall size	7″ x 4,7″ x 0,4″	4.2″ x 6″ x 0.4″	242.8 x 189.7 x 13.4 mm
Weight	298 g	150 g	680 g
Internal Memory (Gb)	512 Mb	1	16, 32 or 64
Removable Memory	16 GB	4 GB	NA
Formats supported	EPUB, PDF, TXT, HTML, RTF, MOBI (Non DRM only), CHM,and PDB	HTML, TXT, JPG, GIF, PNG, ePub, FB2	ePub, PDF, iBooks, Kindle using the kindle app
Image formats Supported	BMP, JPG, TIFF (*including Adobe DRM, compatible with Adobe Digital Editions) and PNG
Grayscale Levels	8	4	Color
Wireless	Wi-Fi	none	3G, Wi-Fi

Other Ebook formats

AZW stands for Amazon Whispernet, is an eBook format used exclusively on the Amazon Kindle and compatible Kindle software on PC's or iPhones. It is basically the MOBI format using the high compression option. The AZW extension is used on both eBook files that are protected with DRM and files that are not protected. Personal files can be submitted for conversion to the Amazon web site will be returned (via an email account) as files with the AZW extension but they are not protected. Unprotected AZW files can be renamed with a .prc or .mobi extension and they will be able to be read on the MobiPocket Reader on a PC. Protected DRM files cannot be used on the MobiPocket Reader.

The Kindle device itself can only use AZW files for protected content but can read MobiPocket files for unprotected content with or without the AZW extension.

TPZ - Topaz is an Amazon format for Kindle devices. It differs from the AZW format in that it can have embedded fonts in the file itself. A .tan sidefile is used to store metadata and bookmarks and other user generated content on the eBook. The metadata is used to help the library mode to reference information about the eBook itself.

While not much is currently known about the internal format used in a Topaz file there is some likelihood that it is related to the standard AZW format. It uses a different compression than standard MOBI files and it can have embedded fonts in the file allowing more complex display using font sets and characters that are not standard to Amazon Kindle. It is also likely to remove other restrictions found in MOBI files such as image size limitations although some of these may have been removed in AZW as well.

According to one publishing industry blogger, Topaz is an implementation of the open EPUB standard. It follows the OEBPS 2.0 specs, and probably the later IDPF guides. It’s a proprietary implementation which means they use ePUB as the source but then convert it to their internal format.

AZW1 - is an eBook in the Topaz (TPZ) format that has been delivered via Whispernet.

TPZ - is an eBook in the Topaz format that that been delivered via Internet download.

TXT - The TXT file type is primarily associated with 'Text File'. Open in Notepad, WordPad, or many other programs designated as text editors. A true text file will be pure ASCII text with no formatting. The Macintosh file type is: TEXT.

MOBI - The MOBI file type is primarily associated with 'Mobipocket' by Amazon.com, Inc.. The Mobipocket file format is a binary format for the distribution of eBooks. It is one implementation of the Open eBook Publication format with a number of proprietary extensions. Mobipocket is an Amazon company since April 2005. The Mobipocket e-book format based on the Open eBook standard using XHTML can include JavaScript and frames. It also supports native SQL queries to be used with embedded databases. There is a corresponding e-book reader. A free e-book of the German Wikipedia has been published in Mobipocket format.

The Mobipocket Reader has a home page library. Readers can add blank pages in any part of a book and add free-hand drawings. Annotations — highlights, bookmarks, corrections, notes, and drawings — can be applied, organized, and recalled from a single location. Mobipocket Reader has electronic bookmarks, and a built-in dictionary The reader has a full screen mode for reading and support for many PDAs, Communicators, and Smartphones. Mobipocket products support most Windows, Symbian, BlackBerry and Palm operating systems. On Linux and Macintosh applications like Okular and FBReader can be used to read non-encrypted files.

The Amazon Kindle's AZW format is basically just the Mobipocket format with a slightly different serial number scheme (it uses an asterisk instead of a Dollar sign). Mobipocket is working on an .epub to .mobi converter called mobigen.

PRC - The PRC file type is primarily associated with 'Corel Presentation'. PRC (Product Representation Compact) is a 3D file format that can be used to embed 3D data in a PDF file.

This highly compressed format facilitates the storage of different representations of a 3D model. Varying levels of compression can be applied to the 3D CAD data when it is converted to the PRC format using Adobe Acrobat 3D.

HTML HyperText Markup Language - Web page coded in HTML that can be displayed in a Web browser; formats text, tables, images, and other content that is displayed on the page; most pages within static websites have an ".html" extension.

Ebooks formatted in HTML are basically designed just like a website. They can contain an unlimited number of pages that are navigated via hyperlinks. Unlike ebooks formatted in PDF, the design of an HTML ebook is only limited by your imagination.

Depending upon the type of HTML compiler you purchase, HTML formatted ebooks can have customizable fields that will enable your users to customize fields you specify. This technology can enable you to provide your affiliates with an ebook they can use as a sales tool to sell your products and services. Your affiliates can have the ability to customize your ebook with their affiliate ID and earn commissions simply by giving the ebook away.

DOC - The DOC file type is primarily associated with 'Word' by Microsoft Corporation.

Files with an extension of ".DOC" are usually documents created from word processors, most notably WordPerfect or more-frequently Microsoft Word.

DOC files can contain text, images, photos, or any other type of information commonly found in word processing documents. While most are safe to open, unfortunately some malicious DOC files can contain macro viruses that can do damage to your machine. Luckily, you can increase macro virus protection by using anti-virus software or changing word processor settings, including in Microsoft Word 2003.

EPUB - A file with the EPUB file extension is an Open Publication Structure eBook file.

Electronic Publication (EPUB) is an open ebook standard from the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). One of the advantages of EPUB is its ability to work with familiar technologies such as XHTML, CSS and of course XML. Technically, EPUB is the XML format for reflowable digital books and publications. Reflowable means that the text can adapt to a display device used by the reader.

WOLF - Wolf format usually has a .wol extension. It can support DRM using a sim card installed in the reader to supply the unique id. Not all readers have a sim slot. At this point there is no known commercial english source for eBooks in this format, although chinese books can be purchased via the iStation application. There are some free eBooks at http://www.walkbook.net a Turkish company that sells these Readers. Note that these are images and thus the books are rather large.

It supports a cover page, table of contents, text and embedded images with up to 4 levels of gray scale.

Images are a raw bitmap with 1 or 2 bits per pixel and can be uncompressed or compressed using LZSS compression. For monochrome images 1 is black and 0 is white; in 4-level gray images 0 is black and 3 is white.

The eBook format seems to primarily use images rather than text data although there may be a way to generate text based data in wolf format using tools from Jinke. The printer support is image based.

Microsoft LIT - DRM-protected LIT files are only readable in the proprietary Microsoft Reader program, as the .LIT format, otherwise similar to Microsoft's CHM format, includes Digital Rights Management features. Other third party readers, such as Lexcycle Stanza, can read unprotected LIT files. There are also tools such as Convert Lit, which can convert .lit files to HTML files or OEBPS files.

The Microsoft Reader uses patented ClearType display technology. In Reader navigation works with a keyboard, mouse, stylus, or through electronic bookmarks. The Catalogue Library records reader books in a personalized "home page", and books are displayed with ClearType to improve readability. A user can add annotations and notes to any page, create large-print e-books with a single command, or create free-form drawings on the reader pages. A built-in dictionary allows the user to look up words.

Desktop Author - Desktop Author is an electronic publishing suite that allows creation of digital web books with virtual turning pages. Digital web books of any publication type can be written in this format, including brochures, e-books, digital photo albums, e-cards, digital diaries, online resumes, quizzes, exams, tests, forms and surveys. DesktopAuthor packages the e-book into a ".dnl" or ".exe" book. Each can be a single, plain stand-alone executable file which does not require any other programs to view it. DNL files can be viewed inside a web browser or stand-alone via the DNL Reader.

DNL format is an e-Book format, one which replicates the real life alternative, namely page turning Books. The DNL e-Book is developed by DNAML Pty Limited an Australian company established in 1999. A DNL e-Book can be produced using DeskTop Author or DeskTop Communicator.

TomeRaider - The TomeRaider e-book format is a proprietary format. There are versions of TomeRaider for Windows, Windows Mobile (aka Pocket PC), Palm, Symbian and more. Several Wikipedias are available as TomeRaider files with all articles unabridged, some even with nearly all images.

Capabilities of the TomeRaider3 ebook reader vary considerably per platform: the Windows and Windows Mobile editions support full HTML and CSS. The Palm edition supports limited HTML (e.g., no tables, no fonts), and CSS support is missing. For Symbian there is only the older TomeRaider2 format, which does not render images or offer category search facilities. Despite these differences any TomeRaider ebook can be browsed on all supported platforms. The Tomeraider website claims to have over 4000 ebooks available, including free versions of the Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia.

Arghos Diffusion - The ARG format is an XML-based proprietary format developed by the French firm Arghos Diffusion. ARG files use a proprietary DRM and encryption method and are readable only in the Arghos Player. It supports various input formats for text, audio or video, such as PDF, WMA, MP3, WMV, and allows multiple interactive functions such as bookmarking, advanced plain-text searching, dynamic text highlighting, etc.

DJVU - DjVu (pronounced like déjà vu) is designed primarily to store scanned documents, especially those containing a combination of text, line drawings, and photographs. It uses technologies such as image layer separation of text and background/images, progressive loading, arithmetic coding, and lossy compression for bitonal (monochrome) images. This allows for high-quality, readable images to be stored in a minimum of space, so that they can be made available on the web.

DjVu has been promoted as an alternative to PDF,[2] promising smaller files than PDF for most scanned documents. DjVu can contain an OCR (optical character recognition) text layer, making it easy to perform copy and paste and text search operations.

CHM - CHM format is a proprietary format based on HTML. Multiple pages and embedded graphics are distributed along with proprietary metadata as a single compressed file. In contrast, in HTML, a site consists of multiple HTML files and associated image files in standardized formats.

PS - PostScript is a page description language used in the electronic and desktop publishing areas for defining the contents and layout of a printed page, which can be used by a rendering program to assemble and create the actual output bitmap. Many office printers directly support interpreting PostScript and printing the result. As a result, the format also sees wide use in the Unix world.

FB2 - FictionBook is a popular XML-based e-book format, supported by free readers such as FBReader, Haali Reader and STDU Viewer. It is based on the XML standard from W3C, and FictionBook documents are well-formed XML documents, conforming to the FictionBook schema. Since the adoption of hyperlinks in FictionBook version 2.0, XML namespaces are now mandatory for all FictionBook documents. The main FictionBook namespace is “http://www.gribuser.ru/xml/fictionbook/2.0”, the version number in the namespace URL will change as new versions of the standard are developed. The other required namespace is “http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink” for XLink. It should be included if any hyperlink elements are used in the document.

The overall document structure is straightforward and resembles that of HTML. However, the main goal of this work is to design an XML based document that focuses on the document’s logical structure, and not on the presentation features. An essential characteristic of structured markup is that it explicitly distinguishes the structure and semantic content of a document. It does not mark up the way in which the document will appear to the reader, in print or otherwise. In this specification we deliberately didn’t include any direct means for specifying presentation features. The only way to influence the rendering process is by specifying styles for paragraphs and strings of characters. Instead some unique elements are provided to separate logical parts of book, like poems, citations, and epigraphs.

OPF - OPF Open Packaging Format is an XML-based e-book format created by E-Book Systems. Digital publications in FlipBook format feature an impressive 3D Page-Flipping interface (simulating the reading experience of paper-based publications). The FlipBook format was developed by E-Book Systems and is capable of integrating multimedia contents such as video, audio and animations. The OPF specification's purpose is to "[define] the mechanism by which the various components of an OPS publication are tied together and provides additional structure and semantics to the electronic publication." This is accomplished by two XML files with the extensions .opf and .ncx.

.opf file - The .opf file houses the EPUB book's metadata, file manifest, and linear reading order. This file has a root element package and four child elements metadata, manifest, spine, guide. All of these except guide are required. Furthermore, the package node must have the unique-identifier attribute. The .opf file's mimetype is application/oebps-package+xml.

DRM

DRM is unpopular with customers, and for good reasons. Many people won't buy ebooks if they include DRM. This is especially important now, during the early stages of the ebook industry. What's happening is that early-adopters – the first people to try out ebooks – are technically literate and are noticing the limitations of DRM. And if early adopters don't like the system then it won't easily move on to become mass market.

Digital Rights Management Meaning of DRM - "Digital Rights Management", is a system of solutions created or designed as a means to control the unauthorized duplication and illegal distribution of copyrighted digital media. DRM technology was created for the publishers of digital works as a means to stop the illegal reproduction and distribution of their products.

DRM technology was first introduced in the late 1990s but was not widely used by consumers because the software was very complicated and overwhelming for the average person. Since that time, software vendors have designed several DRM tools and some have been successful but some have not. Although the vast majority of DRM tools have been designed to protect copyrighted creative works or intellectual property, vendors have created DRM’s for other reasons such as protecting an entire pc system. As of today, DRM technology is still evolving. Vendors are currently working on DRM tools that will restrict access to eBooks. There are several popular DRM’s available for purchase that offer protection for copyrighted games, music and videos. As with most products available for mass distribution, DRM technology has had many opponents and supporters. State, federal and non-US laws dealing with DRM have been introduced and some have passed and put into affect. The majority of these laws, whether still pending or already in affect, call for DRM technology installation on all computer systems for control and protection of digital media. The creative and design process continues as vendors continually strive to come up with new DRM technology that will work and sell better than the tools currently available.

DRM means Digital Rights Management and is both a mechanism and an idea. It generally intends to enforce a restriction on a user in what they can do with a particular file. In many countries it is not legal to remove DRM from an eBook. This is related to copyright in the sense that it is illegal to copy or distribute copyrighted material without permission except in certain limited cases, such as quoting a section in another work. In the USA the DMCA act prohibits DRM removal. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

To DRM or not to DRM?

There is an argument that using DRM means higher sales, because there will be less pirate copies floating around. For a bestseller this is probably a valid argument. Genre is also an issue. For example Science Fiction books are more likely to be pirated than romances, because in general the customers are technically more skilled. But then Science Fiction readers are also likely to be more DRM aware and put off by its limitations.

Commercially weak DRM has perfomred much better that the strong one, as the customers are put off by the fact that they can loose the file if something goes wrong with their PC.For example Apple iTunes/FairPlay holds more than 80% of the legal download market. It uses weak DRM, allowing multiple copies on computers and almost unlimited copying direct from these computers on to handheld devices.

With eBook text, the quality issue doesn't add any protection, so some types of copying need to be even more carefully controlled. For example, if you allow full printing, there's a chance somebody may have a PDF driver included amongst their print drivers . So anything they can print they can also turn into an unprotected PDF. You shouldn't allow too much sampling and any printing...

Best DRM system

The clear winner is Adobe (ebook PDF). PDF is a very popular format, and has lots of security options. The company won't be going out of business soon. Customers have to download a special PDF reader (not the normal one) to read their books, but no big deal.

Another ok option is Microsoft Reader. Very similar to the Adobe system in many ways, and the company isn't about to disappear. It also needs a customer download for ebooks to be read.

Another ok one might be the Palm (hand-held) eReader DRM

Digital rights management (DRM) is a generic term for access control technologies that can be used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to impose limitations on the usage of digital content and devices...

Saving, keeping and converting the files

With some ebook readers having the capability of having memory cards of up to 32 Gb I don't think that there will be any shortage of storage space. AN average ebook (one with 200 pages) is 300 kb, therefore you can store thousands on the memory card. The rest can always be kept on your computer. The possibilities are endless, having, folders on one big memory card, having a few memory cards, etc. You can take thousands of books with you and you will not even feel it.

Advantages that e-books offer over paper books:

The ability to download them immediately.
Free downloadable upgrades for a year are offered by some suppliers.
Guarantee offered by some suppliers, and also the refund is likely to happen very fast.
They are delivered to your reader almost instantly.
They keep the trees growing, as there is no paper needed.
some ebook sellers offer bonuses, which are not present with a printed book.
They take up less space than normal books. You can store hundreds and thousands of ebooks in your reader (depending on the memory available).
They are portable. You can carry your whole library with you.
You can read them anywhere.
They are more safely stored and carried from one place to another.
They can include links for easy access to more information and related websites.
They are searchable. You can easily search for any piece of informationin without turning pages.
They can be interactive and contain audio, video and animations, which can enhance the message that the author is trying to convey.
No postage expenses.
They can be printed.
Fonts in ebooks can be resized.
With an additional software it is possible to turn some of the ebooks into audio books.
They are easy to sell and distribute.
People living very far from any bookshop, have the commodity to downloads ebooks instantly, and they can also download the newest edition.

Sites where you can download free ebooks

OnlineComputerBooks – contains details about free computer books, free ebooks, free online books and sample chapters related to Information Technology, Computer Science, Internet, Business, Marketing, Maths, Physics and Science which are provided by publishers or authors on their websites.

SnipFiles – offers free software and book downloads in PDF or Word format.

BookYards – offers around 16,000 books, and other reading materials including web links, videos, ebook links and access to online libraries.

The Online Books Page – provides access to books that are freely readable over the Internet. Lists over 35,000 free books available online.

AskSam Ebooks – organizes, searches, and manages online information. askSam offers free ebooks downloads as well.

Baen Free Library – offers both free e-books downloads and online viewing from their site.

Free-eBooks – offers unlimited e-books downloads covering many categories. You can also subscribe to the site’s RSS feeds to get updates about new e-books added to the site.

ManyBooks – lets you browse through popular titles, recommendations, recent reviews. There are 23,216 eBooks available online.

GetFreeEBooks – free ebooks site where you can download free books totally free. The ebooks which you find within this site are collected from all over the net or either personally compiled by the site owner.

FreeComputerBooks – contains a huge collection of Free online Computer, Programming, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technical Books, Lecture Notes and Tutorials. The e-books are categorized by topics, with 12 top level categories, and over 150 sub-categories.

FreeTechBooks – a list of free online computer science, engineering and programming books, ebooks, texts, textbooks, lecture notes, documentations and references.

Scribd – offers free downloads of e-books in PDF format. These e-books were submitted/uploaded by users, so they are freely available for download.

OnlineFreeEBooks - prides itself for providing a real e-book download service and not just links to e-books site.

MemoWare - contains thousands of documents for PalmOS device, Pocket PC, Windows CE, EPOC, Symbian or other handheld device.

World Public Library – the world’s largest digital archive of PDF e-books and other eDocuments. Membership is required to download books and to get access to their entire collection.

Project Gutenberg – Of course, a list of top free e-books sites will not be complete if Project Gutenberg is not included. It is really your ultimate resource for millions of e-books but the site needs a little bit of polishing when it comes to usability though.