>I see the debate as being whether Amazon, Apple, etc. should be allowed to try to lock down their products. That's not really on the table. The very big playe

>I see the debate as being whether Amazon, Apple, etc. should be allowed to try to lock down their products. That's not really on the table. The very big players might get some monopolist/consumer protection heat for certain things, but I can't think of any general legislation. (And I think it would violate the first amendment.) Anyone can make software or hardware that does one set of things and is intentionally difficult to use for something else. I know of no law remotely approaching something that would make it illegal to produce an audio player that can only play one proprietary encrypted format. Interesting idea though.