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Amazon has already demonstrated that it's more than willing to sell DRM-free products, as evidenced by its DRM-free MP3 downloads. I think the issue here is th
by acabal 16y ago
Amazon has already demonstrated that it's more than willing to sell DRM-free products, as evidenced by its DRM-free MP3 downloads.
I think the issue here is that publishers are the scared ones. I suspect that ebooks will follow the same path that the music industry did: first with terror, paranoia, draconian restrictions, and maybe even lawsuits; next with acceptance of copying as a way of life, but refusal to make it easy for people by lifting DRM; finally, by realizing that it's usually in their best interest to remove DRM, and then allowing certain distributors to do so--like Amazon.
If the music industry is any kind of parallel, we still have a few years to go before publishers agree to lift all DRM. In the meantime, clever people will simply use any of the Kindle-DRM-breaking scripts out there to unlock the books they've purchased (usually for nearly the same price of a physical book, I might add) or just download them from torrent sites.
- InclinedPlane 16y agoAmazon has publicly stated that they want to move to DRM free e-books eventually. However, as you say, the sticking point is the publishers. This is all the more relevant because the profits on most books for authors and publishers are not nearly as good as with music. And also because e-books are far, far smaller and that much easier to share or pirate than albums or movies (even in pdf form a full e-book is likely to be smaller than even a single mp3). Which I think helps explain some of the skittishness of book publishers. Though a few have already made the jump. Manning (a technical book publisher) allows you to buy DRM free e-books (which come in pdf form and are watermarked with the purchaser's name).