Quote:
Originally Posted by speakingtohe
Just curious as to how?
Asssuming you are referring to content distributed with DRM, ebooks, Music and video DVDs etc. as not being accessible on any device in the near or far future, I find it a bit unlikely.
Ebooks in particular as they are generally distributed in more than one format including paper.
Also music/video. As many containers such as Vinyl, BetaMax, 8-track became inconvenient for the average consumer, the works themselves were remastered on CDs and DVDs.
Not saying that the death of epub or mobi would not be a blow to many consumers, just that the works themselves would probably not become totally unavailable to conservationists or anyone else.
Helen
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I'm talking long term there, literally hundreds of years. I think that in the "ebb" of civilizations, it will already be difficult for historians to read our data, and if it IS additionally encrypted, it will be completely impossible.
What if the Rosetta Stone had been encrypted ? Would we be able to read old Egyptian ?
Should we count on conservationists to keep our data ? Will that be enough ? Didn't the Ancient Library of Alexandria fall ?
And much shorter term, I'd like my children and grandchildren to be able to sift through my e-library without having to hunt down the "last remaining functioning Kindle" and maybe finding out the files unavailable to them.