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ha ha , i think we are going to have to agree to disagree here.
DVD's are a bad bad example, a DVD is a tangible product that you can purchase from a supermarket etc, if you copy a DVD and give it to a friend you know your breaking the law. Also the technology to copy DVD's like for like without compression and other techy stuff was not there for the layperson until of late. Add to this the fact that dual layer DVD's cost a fortune in comparision to their single layer and it all contributes to the reason why we dont have wholesale copying of DVDs etc.
However a downloadable ebook can be easily copied and passed betwen friends via email and is no bigger usually than a few MB at the most. A receipe for disaster for a publisher. I have heard it said that the physical book is the best DRM of all, and i agree... if you give it away you lose it.
I also disagree that you could not have an open DRM format, PGP is an open and well understood encryption technique but very hard to crack despite the fact you can examine the code in detail.
To me DRM has to be a balance between keeping the customer honest and providing the most flexible model for the consumer. To counter your 10 years from now scenario, with the correct open code, all you would need to remember are your keys and you will be fine.
Ha ha if only it were all this easy, and i see both sides of this argument, but open ebooks aint going to happen on the mass market IMHO.
Mark
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