At Digital Book World, Google announced Google Editions, a platform-agnostic e-book system that would let users read a single version of a digital book on any Web-connected device, and that would let users buy a physical book from within the e-book. Meanwhile, everyone expects Apple’s tablet to mainstream e-book consumption. Thus Google, Apple, Amazon, and even Acer are all moving into the e-book market, suggesting that — believe it or not — there is going to be a serious, mainstream e-book market.

So who keeps all your online books safe? For those files kept on your hard drive, there are plenty of conventional backup services. For those files kept almost exclusively on a dedicated e-reader, as is the case with the Kindle, you’re at Amazon’s mercy (and they can erase at their whim, even without a file failure). If nothing else, that may be what sees tablets overtake dedicated e-readers; the ability to save and transfer files to your satisfaction, not Amazon’s.

But what of those files kept in the cloud, like Google Editions wants to see happen? Yes, Backupify would very much like to backstop your Google bookshelf as soon as it exists and there’s an API for it. That said, the difference between us backing up your Gmail and your Google Books is rather significant; there’s likely to be a significant dollar value attached to e-books that most people don’t associate with e-mail.

My Gmail archive may ultimately be more critical and valuable than my Google Bookshelf, but on a visceral level, if I’ve got $500 worth of bestsellers stocked in my Google Editions account when it goes down, I’m going to feel that loss more acutely.

DVD software heavyweight Sonic Solutions has quietly rolled out a Google Editions-like movie-management system called Roxio CinemaNow, which manages paid virtual licenses for rented and bought video downloads. The value proposition is simple: Buy a movie once, stream or download that licensed content to any Roxio-compliant device — forever. While the service looks impressive, and it has the backing of partners like Best Buy and Blockbuster, what happens if Roxio loses your license “locker” file?

Content creators are very much pushing cloud-based media consumption as a means of battling back against privacy, but if all your media content migrates from the bookshelf to the cloud, who fireproofs your virtual library? Something to think about as we transition to anytime/anywhere media.

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