Hosted Service Protects Digital Rights for eBooks and other Digital Publications

 

Cleveland, OH – January 23, 2008 –  OverDrive, Inc., a leader in digital media services for publishers, libraries, schools and retailers, today announced that it has begun making available to its customers a hosted application service designed to protect eBooks, digital newspapers and other e-publications for use with Adobe® Digital Editions.  Adobe Digital Experience Protection Technology (ADEPT) protects publishers’ rights while maintaining superior ease of use for consumers.  For more information, visit www.overdrive.com/products/adept.asp.

ADEPT is the only content protection service designed specifically for Adobe Digital Editions, the free, lightweight (less than 3 MB) software application for acquiring, managing, and reading eBooks, digital newspapers and other digital publications.  ADEPT protects, from unauthorized use, files in both PDF and the new reflow-centric epub formats – for example, it allows the publisher (or other rights holder) to set limits for sharing, copying and printing.

“As co-developer and operator of ADEPT, we are proud to also be offering this new Adobe service to our customers,” said Steve Potash, CEO of OverDrive, Inc.  “Adobe Digital Editions is a great leap forward for digital publications such as eBooks and periodicals, and now publishers and other rights holders can confidently profit from this growing market by protecting their content with ADEPT.”

“Adobe selected OverDrive as our ADEPT development and operational partner based on their leadership and experience with e-publishing, libraries and retailers,” said Bill McCoy, general manager for Adobe’s ePublishing Business.  “Customers who choose to purchase this service from OverDrive will benefit not only from OverDrive’s proven solutions for publishers and distributors, but also from their deep working knowledge of Adobe Digital Editions and other Adobe products.”

As a hosted application, ADEPT includes an easy-to-use Web portal designed to streamline the content protection process.  Publishers, distributors, libraries, retailers and other holders of eBooks and digital publications upload their files to ADEPT and then set desired permissions for each file (such as sharing, copying, printing and expiration).  ADEPT applies DRM (Digital Rights Management) so each file is protected against unauthorized use, and provides secure download links via ADEPT Link to be used at the account owner’s public-facing website to enable the files to be safely sold, loaned, rented or freely delivered.   Regardless of the protections applied, the end user enjoys a seamless experience opening and reading the files in Adobe Digital Editions.

With native support for Adobe PDF and the new IDPF standard epub format, Adobe Digital Editions already works seamlessly with more than 150,000 commercially published titles. Using Adobe Digital Editions 1.0 readers have found that epub content automatically re-flows, adapting to different screen sizes, and support for Adobe Flash® software enhances digital publications through the integration of rich audio and video.

OverDrive also offers additional complementary services to ADEPT, including managing and protecting additional digital formats (like .WMA files for audio and .WMV files for video) and developing custom public-facing websites with e-commerce or library/lending features.

For more information about Adobe Digital Experience Protection Technology (ADEPT), visit www.overdrive.com/products/adept.asp, or the Adobe ADEPT web page at www.adobe.com/products/adept.  For more information about Adobe Digital Editions, visit www.adobe.com/products/digitaleditions.

 

About OverDrive, Inc.

OverDrive provides the infrastructure to protect & download premium digital audio books, eBooks, music, video and interactive games on a single platform. We serve hundreds of publishers and thousands of libraries, schools, retailers, enterprises and distributors serving millions of end users.  Our loyal customers rely on OverDrive for complete end-to-end and custom solutions.  Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, OH. www.overdrive.com

Contacts:

David Burleigh

OverDrive, Inc.

216-573-6886 x218

dburleigh@OverDrive.com

 

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