PDF claims to be an open standard. (“Formerly a proprietary format, PDF was officially released as an open standard on July 1, 2008, and published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO/IEC 32000-1:2008.” wikipedia for more details).
Mobibook is another standard for publishing ebooks. Although, using proprietary extensions it is “based” on open standards. It says: “The Mobipocket file format is a binary format for the distribution of eBooks. It is one implementation of the Open eBook Publication format with a number of proprietary extensions. The Open eBook Publication format is developed and specified by the IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) an independent organization formerly known as the Open eBook Consortium.”
Know what? It turns out both aren’t that open. My ebook reader can’t display both legaly, as licensing each format requires entering an exclusice license, it seems. The irex community blog states:
Unfortunately the relationship of Adobe and Mobipocket DRM’s is an exclusive one, and both can not be supported on one device at the same time. In order to ensure that our customers are not limited in any way from obtaining the content they desire to view on their eReader, we have decided to keep the old firmware with Mobipocket DRM available. This means that you as a customer can decide if you like to run Mobipocket or Adobe DRM on your device.
What the heck are “open standards” if they require exclusive license. Shame on both Adobe and Mobibook.