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Originally Posted by MR. Pockets
Am I the only one who "likes" the current conflict over format? The way I see it, as long as you have the "hard-hitters" (Amazon vs B&N and Borders) promoting the opposite formats, and the ability to convert easily (easily being relative...) is available, the fight will prevent anyone from grabbing a monopoly and driving prices up. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but hey, someone will post and correct me.  |
The biggest problem with the current situation is that you currently have 4 monopolies. Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Apple all have their own specific DRM's that they control. B&N at least will license its DRM to other hardware vendors, but I don't think they will to other stores. In edition, Adobe has their own DRM scheme, so any other stores have to pay Adobe if they want to offer DRMed books.
The optimal solution (in so far as anything involving DRM other than its lack can be called optimal) would be for there to be a standard DRM solution that could be implemented by many different reader vendors and book stores. That way the customers won't get tied into any particular store.
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Bill