A Format They Can't Refuse

I just learned a new term: "E-Babel"

From Wired.com:

Amazon's E-Book Strategy Re-Kindles Debate on Open Standards

While many salivated over this week's arrival of "the iPod of the book world," supporters of open e-book standards are opining anew that the Kindle's proprietary format is not only bad for readers but, in the long run, probably for Amazon as well.

"Either Amazon will succeed in locking people in, at which point it will become a kind of mashup of the worst elements of the Recording Industry Association of America, Microsoft and the mafia, or they’ll fail," said Cory Doctorow, open source advocate, science-fiction author and co-editor of Boing Boing.  

The issue isn't about DRM protections on the books, but on Amazon's decision to create — and now perpetuate — a non-portable format that a) denies readers the ability to read e-books they buy from the company on another device and b) books they might buy from an e-books competitor on the Kindle.