Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
Well, sure its about control and property rights but the MRers seem to have a view of property rights which is contrary to reality. When you buy an ebook, you buy a software license. You may not think you are doing that, but that's what you are ACTUALLY doing. If you doubt it read the Kindle licensing agreement. That means that DRM is not the unconscionable invasion of "first sale " property rights that the MR true believers think it is.
To me, what's extraordinary is the vehement, "all or nothing": character of the MR true believer's insistence that the publishers should ONLY offer a DRM free "download and sale" model. Anything else is just verboten- a nefarious scheme of the publishers to infringe on our "property" rights.
It might be helpful to take a look at the movie market- not the least because the price points are closest to the book market . There we see, peacefully coexisting, several models of consumption, all of which include DRM
There is:
1. The sale of physical DVDS of movies-going for between$5-20.
2. The RENTAL of movie DVDS
3. The sale of digital copies of movies -think Amazon and ITunes
4.The rental of individual digital copies of movies
5. Cloud subscription services in which movies are streamed to various devices
The last model is becoming the most popular.
Now I don't see anyone going round screaming that Netflix is somehow a dastardly plot by movie studios to deprive people of their right to DRM free copies of movies, but the same accusation was made earlier in the ebook context.
" If the publishers and booksellers offer a [ Netflix type] service for books, I'll resort to piracy!"
"Only a moron would use a cloud subscription service which didn't provide for local copies of an ebook!".
Kind of weird, I think.
In the ebook business I can see room for a :
1. A download and sale service
2.A service offering individual ebooks for rent
3.A cloud subscription service offering reading access to x number of books per month
DRM would be optional for the first. Most publishers and authors will continue to insist on it, Im afraid, and you can vote with your dollars and avoid buying their products.
DRM would be necessary for the second. Again, you can opt not to rent, because of that evil DRM.
DRM would be unnecessary for the third. This is the option that publishers will most want to get behind, (for security reasons)and may likely be the version that proves most popular to the average consumer ( who remains blissfully unaware of all this stuff).
I think publishers will want to make the subscription option especially attractive. The dream would be $15 per month all you eat for the entire catalogue, but it's likely not going to be THAT good. I think Netflix type tiered subscription plans may be more likely, from a one book a month plan for the light reader up to the deluxe all you can eat plan, with maybe options to download one or more books per month. Anyway, I say, bring it on.
For those with strong control issues, you can always buy an actual pbook. That's ULTIMATE control.
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That's because none of us are very trusting of ceding control. Remember the Kindle is Amazon's
second pass at e-books. Years before they sold DRM PDF e-books, decided they were too much bother, and shut down the business, leaving the existing customers high and dry. There is a lot of defunct small publishers, leaving DRM'ed books in their wake that can no longer be transferred to a new reading device. The first e-book readers came out in the late 1990's...
Look at Personal Media Players (PMPs). Find me a current production model PMP with a user replaceable battery and a external flash memory reader. Just one. No market? There are a lot of people fed up with spending $100, $200, ($600) for a player they will have to throw away in a couple of years just because of a dead battery. But no manufacturer wants to address this market, because then people won't have to buy a new one every 2-3 years. Why do I digress? because I can see the e-book market going that way, with only the rental market being allowed. Even though there is a clear purchase market. Why? control...