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DRM or not to DRM is hardly the question. Managerial control has dug its own grave, for DRM will not last the distance, it is doomed to failure, the only question is how long it will survive.
Five years? Ten? Substantially more, or substantially less, is a guess.
But crippled literature has no long term future.
If Kindle encourages more people to use ebooks, it is a good thing, in the end they will want something more reliable than crippled literature - it makes the market for alternatives and that is also a good thing.
Managerial stupidity knows no bounds, but it cannot ensure a stupid solution will forever stay in place. I will not buy any literature, unless by accident, that I cannot crack, format for other uses in other contexts, and be assured that I can get it to work on any device I may buy in the future.
Most people do not have this approach, for most readers the material is disposable, a consumer item to be used and then discarded, not something kept indefinitely.
But time will tell, the consumer approach will buy anything, but I will not, and there are many like me and we will outlive DRM. Besides which I give it about a year or so for "DRM cracking software" is developed when and if the Kindle is a success.
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