Tommy, going back to an earlier point,
Quote:
Originally Posted by TommyCooper
I'm well aware that they are being used. Unfortunately, I don't share your benevolent view of the role or intentions of government. As for people buying things - did they have a real choice about what they bought? How much surveillance are you personally willing to accept? When you wake-up one morning and find that you've changed your mind about some aspect of surveillance that you thought was benevolent, how are you going to change it back?
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Many people don't like the idea that they are being watched by surveillance cameras in their local grocery store. However, they value the convenience of shopping there enough to overweigh their dissatisfaction, and they shop anyway... and most of them eventually put the cameras out of their mind.
American cable TV users are generally aware that the cable box on their TV not only provides shows to them, but it can report back on what they are watching, in real time, can report on its own ID information, and if some information doesn't sgree with the info at the cable company, it can be remotely disabled. Sounds horrible! But their desire for cool TV overweighs their horror, and they gladly pay money for that box and watch TV, and the "Big Brother Eye" staring back at them is put out of their mind.
The point is, people will willingly put up with surveillance and monitoring, if they see it as convenient to do so. iTunes will tell you that they'll even put up with DRM to easily get the music they want. These lessons can be applied to e-books as well... and probably will, in one form or another (as I said, I expect it to be an ID and tracking system, not DRM, but at this stage, anything's possible.
Your last question is a lot harder, of course...