Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
Yes it is obscure fine print. Do you really think the vast majority of people know they won't be able to read the book they paid for on another device sometime down the line?
The Craigslist analogy is not to my liking. I'd say it's more like going to a store where things have always been done a certain way, and having the sales clerk mumble something incomprehensible while he takes your money. People are used to buying books and owning them, and that's what they think they're still doing.
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I find it really difficult to predict how the majority of people understand their ebooks (but then I find it difficult to predict how people understand the new mobile phones or facebook pages etc, certainly they seem to see such technology very differently to myself). Do they think that destruction of their reader is the equivalent to the destruction of the paper book? Or have they all read the assurances that they can get their purchase again from from the estore - at least for some limited time? Is it up to the purchaser to be aware of what they are buying (caveat emptor)? Or is it up to the seller to educate their customers? (Or some, as yet undefined, in between?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by rkomar
... I get hot under the collar writing these comments, but my ire is aimed solely at publishers and vendors putting DRM on their books. I feel that this discussion is good to have, and I'm grateful that you have initiated it and are carrying the load. I want you to know that I respect your efforts and feel no animosity towards you, whatever the tone of my comments.  |
Thank you for your assurances, much appreciated. I am slowing down now and trying to limit the length of my posts now - I have been accused of repeating myself and suspect it was accurate.
It would be neat if buying an ebook turned out to be much the same as buying a paper book (but as suggested in my OP, I don't think many people ever really considered what they were buying with paper books). I do think it is highly irresponsible of ebook sellers to not have useful provisions in place for what happens when the ebook store shuts down. Something more than a notice to download your purchases is required. That is the sort of thing that raises my ire - and that is the sort of situation in which I would condone the removal of DRM. Note that even formal corporate agreements have provisions for what happens if either party goes out of business, and it is this sort of provision that ebook sellers need to address.