eBook security is quickly becoming a contentious issue, as evident in the Barnes and Noble decision to remove the ability to backup your paid content on your PC. Kobo made headlines this week when they nixed their own proprietary KePub format from also being downloaded to a users PC. The Toronto based company is now assuring readers that this is a bug and they are hoping to remedy it soon.
Kobo CTO, Trevor Hunter, said “Kobo’s mandate of allowing people to read anytime, anywhere, on any platform remains unchanged. We are aware of the issue where a small percentage of books are not able to be backed up, and are working quickly to resolve it. We are currently working on other enhancements that will further embrace our open platform concept, which will give customers ever more options as it relates to reading and the backing up of ePub files.”
Kobo has not established a timeline when the backing up feature will be solved. But its nice to know that they are not following Barnes and Noble in eliminating backups altogether.
Michael Kozlowski has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past twelve years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.