4 ms·
"Thus why you should only buy ebooks where you get easily transferrable formats, like unencumbered PDF or ePub" But is there any big player in the ebook market
by maayank 16y ago
"Thus why you should only buy ebooks where you get easily transferrable formats, like unencumbered PDF or ePub"
But is there any big player in the ebook market which comes even close to Amazon (collection-wise) and sells non-DRMed books/PDFs? From what I've seen there are no viable alternatives for non technical reading... (and no, shopping at several small publishers' websites is not a viable alternative)
- zdw 16y agoI'm betting we'll get there in a few years, the same way it happened with music - DRM for a while, then once people get used to paying for stuff, the DRM goes away in most cases. Unfortunately, if history is any indication, the last place this will happen is in school textbooks which is honestly where the ebook revolution should start.
- maayank 16y ago"the DRM goes away in most cases." It seems to me tough that music is the exception to the rule. Computer games mostly have some form of copy protection. Most computer programs have copy protection, minimally with a serial number, many with activation schemes. One of the "features" of web applications is that it's practically impossible to pirate them. How can we know that ebooks will be any different?
- bcaulf 16y agoWith music and books, there is always the analog hole and then once one good copy is made, it can be duplicated forever. Also they are both naturally suited for self contained offline access which is less costly and cumbersome than requiring a network connection. So I think the parent poster is right and copy protection will not be successful in ebooks just as it was not with digital music files.