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What is an E-Book?

This seems to be everyone's favorite question when they come to this website. An e-book is a book in digital form. It is a digital file, usually in a proprietory format, designed to be read by special reader software, either on a computer, or some sort of handheld palm sized computer. The files themselves are different. Usually, they're put together by software that converts the file into the appropriate file format. And if that weren't enough, these files are encrypted so that, even if you were to get a copy of the file containing the book, you wouldn't be able to use it on your computer. There are four level of encryption: sealed, signed, and owner-exclusive. Sealed e-books are what you get out of RMR. There is no encryption; anyone can copy the files and use them on any computer they want. With signed e-books, a digital watermark, bearing the purchaser's name, is inscribed in the e-book, to discourage illegal copying. With owner-exclusive e-book, once you download the book and open it on one specific computer, that's pretty much it. You can only use the e-book on 3-4 different computers on which you've registered the software reader. It is possible to get e-book software for free, via Microsoft. To make e-books readable for the Microsoft Reader, the software is RMR—Read in Microsoft Reader. For Palm, it is ebook studio. For exmaples of hardware, click here. For e-book reader software follow this link.