E-readers: To be open or not to be open -- that is the question

30.10.2009
As e-readers grow in popularity, a debate is growing about how well proprietary formats such as Amazon.com uses with the Kindle will do against more open approaches that allow users to download e-books to just about any device.

LibreDigital Inc. is previewing its AllAccess content delivery platform to allow publishers, authors and book resellers to offer book readers the option of downloading and reading e-books they purchase on virtually any device, such as a desktop computer, , or .

AllAccess will be available sometime in the first half of 2010, a spokesman for LibreDigital told Computerworld today. The company already provides a Web-based warehouse and distribution system for six of the top 10 book publishers, and more than 175 newspapers and periodicals.

Customers will pay for the books, textbooks and periodicals that they receive via AllAccess at prices set by publishers and resellers. LibreDigital will take a percentage of that cost, an amount still not determined, the spokesman said.

AllAccess is also supporting a wide variety of open e-book publishing standards, including ePub. In addition, LibreDigital is offering the ability to enhance and optimize book art and text for all the devices it will run upon, the LibreDigital spokesman said.

Anyone with Web access can get a preview of an actual book with the AllAccess tool through .