OverDrive, the e-book company that loves to inflict proprietary DRM on libraries, hopes to make it big in library video. But could Amazon get in the way? Amazon reportedly is about to crank up a video store. Will library video be next? No hard facts here. But that certainly would be a natural.
Another issue: Amazon is herding publishers into the Mobipocket format. Guess what’s one of the two formats most in use by OverDrive. Yep. Amazon doing e-library books in a big way—just speculation on my part—could harm OverDrive. Unless OverDrive dumps Mobipocket, which would not please customers it’s already weaned on the format, it will rely on a major competitor for a proprietary reading system. Yes, I’ll also be curious about what happens in audio books.
Related: OverDrive Announces Digital Pioneer Award Winners, a news release. Hmm. So how about an award for use of open formats for e-books and the rest—and creative use of public domain books? Maybe ALA would be a better award-giver and user-organizer.
