|
Absolute DRM is usually VERY obtrusive to the user. Casual DRM will at least limit the lazy ones who will find it easier to just purchase the product then to go through the trouble of cracking/pirating it.
Take iTunes for instance: when a person buys a song to put on their iPod, they don't really have any reason to go through the trouble of burning, ripping, then posting the song. In fact, it is easier to just spend the 99 cents and get it straight from iTunes Store than to search, filter, and acquire the song from P2P. While "Fair Play" is not absolute, it is good enough to greatly reduce the ratio of piracy vs sales.
I think Palm eBook Reader is the same way. It is easier for me to just buy the eBook and put it on my Palm or Mac and give to my close family then it is for me to try to find a clean copy on P2P. It is "good enough" to keep me honest while not really limiting my use, but not all people will be persuaded to pay instead of pirate.
This is mostly a free market. The only thing the industry will ever listen to is the bottom line ($). The first "Rocket Reader" saw what happens when you limit the user too much: nobody buys your books. So, PalmSource saw this and is playing a smarter game. However, the only way you are going to open the format any more is if you can show how to do it while maintaining or increasing profits. With a questionable honor system, that will be hard to do.
Hacking the protection is like breaking a person's house window: the person is not going to respond by leaving the doors open in the future. The person will probably just spend more money installing bars, alarm system etc. Will it stop all burglars? Of course not, but it might reduce the frequency of it occurring in the future. The point of this is that buying a format and then cracking it will only mean that format will get stronger encryption in the next version. You must STOP BUYING the format if you dislike it.
Buying lit books and cracking them gives MS the money and drive to make it tougher next round. Granted, knowing Microsoft's reputation for security, we will probably always have a solution for stripping DRM, but it will become exponentially more difficult each time. I think I would rather support the more "reasonable" standard (Palm eBook Reader) or keep my money out of the ebook loop and just buy 2nd hand paperbacks until a company puts out something I want. But, that may be a long wait as I see it.
|