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Originally Posted by DMcCunney
I doubt it. There has been a used book market for many years, and an assortment of specialty stores which only sell used books. I can't think of any attempts to curtail it.
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Well they haven't had much of a way. If they can move on to a fully digital world and have everything DRMd, they can kill the used market.
In the video game industry we're seeing efforts to curtail used game sales by including codes for access to extra content that can only be used once etc.
For instance, in Mass Effect 2 new copies come with codes for access to the online "Cerberus Network" and so far that's granted a new playable character, new weapons and armor, one short mission, and one pack of five vehicle missions etc.
If you buy used, you have to pay $15 to sign up for that network.
Then you have all the download only games in the Xbox Live Arcade and Play Station Network that can't be resold etc.
So I think movie studios, book publishers etc. are also drooling over ways that moving digital can cut down on sales they lose to used stores etc.
Currently, DRM on books doesn't stop any second hand sales. But from the publishers standpoint at least someone who buys a DRM'd e-book can't easily sell it, loan it to 5 different friends over a few months etc. like they could if they bought a paper copy.
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Sorry, but this doesn't compute. How does DRM on a ebook help curtail sales on a used pbook?
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It doesn't until say 50-100 years in the future when there's super high speed wireless internet in every corner of the world and books, music, movies, games etc. have gone nearly 100% to digital versions.
Then they'll have near total control of their product as they can just charge fees to access their content vs. allowing downloads etc.
Pirates will still get it, but most will just pay for access like they do for cable TV etc. now, and the content providers will get more money from using a subscription model, killing the second hand market etc.
Will it happen? Way too soon to say. But as I said in another thread, I think that's the dream world of publishers, movie studies, record labels etc.