Apple to bring back DRM for ebooks

Those looking forward to the upcoming release of Apple’s iPad and planning to use it as an e-reader may be a bit disappointed to hear that Apple plans to use DRM on all the books in the Apple iBook Store. The company will use FairPlay, the DRM system once used for songs in iTunes. Like Amazon’s Kindle books, books purchased in the iBook store will have a limit on how many devices they can be copied to. While they will ultimately leave the decision of to DRM or not to the publishers, most are expected to use it.

One of the things the Kindle is often sharply criticized for is its DRM, but it looks like the iPad will have similar limitations. It’s not yet known if books purchased from the iBook Store will work on devices other than the iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone, but if they do, it will give the iPad a definite advantage.

Read [LATimes]