SAN FRANCISCO -- The publishing industry was supposed to have learned from the music industry's mistakes with Napster.
But with the recent arrest of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov -- the alleged hacker who wrote a program that bypasses encrypted Adobe Acrobat files -- some are questioning whether e-books, and the nascent e-publishing industry, are truly secure.
"For those who are convinced that e-books can never be properly encrypted and that publishers are about to deliver their intellectual property to a horde of maleficent pirates, the Adobe case proves that anything can be hacked," said Richard Nash, director of acquisitions for eBookagent.net.
"From a business standpoint, however, the jury remains out," Nash said. "Have any book sales been lost because this Russian guy cracked the encryption and made the decryption software available? Doubt it."
Nash will moderate a panel, "Copyright Issues for E-Books," at this week's BookTech West Expo in San Francisco on Tuesday.
Copyright will be among the major topics of discussion at this book and technology publishing conference, which runs through Wednesday and is expected to draw more than 1,400 book-publishing professionals.
While the music industry is still reeling from the effects of Napster, it's unlikely that books will face the same risks of widespread illegal electronic distribution that music does, said Kevin Sayar, president of ebrary, who is speaking on the copyright panel.
Yet some publishers have been reluctant to redistribute their copyrighted content electronically. Many fear that making their content available online for free will kill their revenue channels.
"If valuable copyrighted content is made freely accessible, then a publisher is at extreme risk," Sayar said.
Ultimately, the risk for publishers who don't have control from the outset isn't from hacking and encryption, Sayar said. The real risk, he insists, is that consumers might perceive that electronic content itself has no value.
"Throughout history, hackers have always kept us on our toes," Sayar said. "But any immediate harm done will only result in a better product in the long run."
Nash agreed. "Publishers didn't lose sales because of Xerox. They won't lose them because Adobe can't create impregnable digital rights management."
Copyright is just one barrier against e-books gaining acceptance in the marketplace. With relatively high costs, new technology and slow adoption by publishers, e-books have been slow to take off.
"The challenge for e-books right now is adoption," Sayar said. "We are in the beginning stages. We do have a lot to learn to make e-books a reality and a viable marketplace."
Aside from copyright issues, this year's BookTech West event will feature e-book sessions on everything from e-book interfaces and formats to sales and marketing.
