New Adobe DRM/Lending Software

On September 22, Adobe launched its latest software for ebook retailing and lending: Adobe Content Server 4. In partnership with a number of prominent library vendors including Overdrive, Ingram Digital, NetLibrary, and Libre Digital, as well as major publishers like Random House and HarperCollins, the product gives companies new means to package their ebook content for distribution to consumers and library patrons. “The market is ripe for ebook content,” said Tom Prehn, senior product manager for Adobe, adding that the features of Content Server 4 enable publishers to distribute their content easily in a secure digital package.

Content Server 4 works with a variety of content formats, including the International Digital Publishing Federation's XML-based reflowable .epub standard, to encode ebooks with digital rights management (DRM) software. For example, copy and print functions can be allowed or disallowed according to the copyright owners' wishes, with the potential to specify how many selections from the book can be copied or printed in a given week.

Content Server 4 works in conjunction with Adobe's Digital Editions 1.6 (also released September 22) installed on an end user's computer to verify rights to the downloaded content. Validated ebooks can be transferred to as many as six separate computers or devices, though the latter currently include only the relatively few devices that support Adobe's DRM, such as the Sony Reader Digital Book PRS-505.