Quote:
Originally Posted by avidone
It is not just a matter of costs being less or slightly less for ebooks versus printed books-- there is also the matter that these ebooks are DRM'ed in such a way that does not allow easily sharing them with friends or re-selling them-- something with which you have absolute freedom with a printed book
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Sharing with friends and reselling is exactly what DRM is supposed to prevent.
With a printed book, it's different. There is one physical copy. If you loan it to a friend,
you don't have it. The same holds for resale. Once again, once sold, you no longer have it.
With an ebook, that goes out the window. You still have it, whether you share it or sell it, and the producers are afraid of significant lost sales because readers will get a free copy from friends or cheap resold copy.
Ultimately, DRM is doomed to failure - it is only slightly effective is at all against copying and sharing. And I don't see resale happening for ebooks. If DRM doesn't exist, there's nothing to prevent someone from simply giving a copy away, so why should anyone bother to
buy a used copy?
Amazon's DRM isn't really intended to address either of those issues. The intent is to lock you into amazon as the vendor. Mobi format ebooks
not protected by DRM can be side loaded into a Kindle or Kindle app, but if you want to
buy a DRM protected title, you must purchase from Amazon. They want to sell you ebooks, and be the only one who sells you ebooks.
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Dennis