There are plenty of people in the publishing industry shaking in their boots when it comes to the thought of making money from writing in the future. The much lamented, discussed and debated days of the ebook reader are surely nigh (even I want an iPad) and looking for a way to keep publishing profitable has plenty of people scratching their heads.

Turns out Apple hopes a range of digital locks will do the job. The devilishly-good designers are expected to use the same FairPlay locks it’s employed for the iTunes store when it rolls out iBook in March. It looks like these will limit the number of times the book can be downloaded or copied onto different computers, some publishers are sure to argue these locks will damage sales. But if the locks help protect the content while making it widely available, I’m sure plenty will welcome it.

It’s all interesting stuff, but not exactly the biggest worry on my writing list. That goes: 1) write something awesome 2) get someone who can help to read it 3) everything else.