Fictionwise speaks out- eReader is safe

By Jan. 13, 2008, 8:24pm PT 11 Comments

One of the cool things about having a highly visible forum like jkOnTheRun to speak my concerns about different topics is that sometimes we get responses from those involved in the topic.  This happened today because I recently voiced my concerns that the Fictionwise purchase of eReader might spell disaster for eReader customers like me.  Steve Pendergast, one of the founders of Fictionwise, recently posted a comment to my concerns that is so significant it must be bumped up to the front page:

Hi,

I’m Steve Pendergrast, one of the founders of Fictionwise.

Just to set the record straight, we are absolutely *not* going to shut down the ereader format or the ereader web site.

The eReader format and ereader.com web site are both extremelyimportant to our strategy going forward. We love the easy, flexible DRMmethod, and we won’t change it or make it incompatible with pastpurchases.

Fictionwise has a long history of going out of our way to protectour customer’s investment in their purchases. By owning the eReaderformat, nobody can ever take that format away from us. Every other DRMformat we support is owned by a competitor of ours who could pull itaway from us at any time. When you think about it that way, I think yousee how important the eReader format is to Fictionwise after thisacquisition, and how it would be inconceivable for us to throw thataway.

What we do plan is to port the eReader software to a much widerrange of devices, giving everyone who has ever bought an eReader ebook,or who will buy one in the future, as many choices as possible on howthey read their books.

Hope this puts your more at ease!

-Steve P.

That you did, Steve, and I appreciate your reaching out to our readers with the facts.  I hope the merger of eReader goes well for you guys and I will continuing to patronize the eReader store.

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