A Study on eBook DRM interoperability based on IDPF Readium SDK

In order to secure the compatibility of eBook viewers based on EPUB 3.0, IDPF launched an open project of Readium in February 2012, which supports the standard platform for eBook viewers and the related SDK that can be implemented on different OSs. The current EPUB standard, however, does not provide DRM standards to protect eBook copyrights. Therefore, the compatibility of Readium SDK cannot be secured. Even though the Readium project has tried to design a standard reference software in order to apply DRM independently of EPUB standards, it still does not definitely solve compatibility problems of plural DRMs. This paper suggests a compatibility model based on Readium SDK and ContentMudule technology, in which eBook viewers can work together with plural DRM technology.