[NatCh]

Originally Posted by SpiderMatt

I don't take the average consumer to be an idiot (but even if he were, it's not the job of a government to protect him against himself). What those of us who are avid ebook afficionados find "hazardous," isn't necessarily so for the casual ebook reader. I think it's just ignorant to assume the average person doesn't know the restrictions of DRM. It's pretty simple to figure out. I imagine few people who own iPods buy music from iTunes with the expectation that it will work on any player. People definitely know what they're buying but they're don't care because they are content with the hardware they currently have.

I think I may not have expressed myself very well. I'm not assuming that the average consumer is an idiot.

The reason I think that the average person doesn't know about the less obvious ramifications of DRM is because I think that the average person simply doesn't ever bother to find out. Some due to lack of concern, some from simple laziness, the possible reasons are Legion. And probably some don't ever notice that it's there at all until/unless they bump into it. None of that is meant as any sort of condemnation or evaluation of intelligence, but rather as a simple observation of human nature.

When a person lives in a civilization as overloaded with information as ours is, he has to filter out a lot, if not most of it simply to stay sane and functional. If things don't rise above a certain level of importance, they generally get overlooked by most folks. It's a simple survival mechanism.

Originally Posted by SpiderMatt

They're simply not all that concerned with the future in the same way that no one worried about re-purchasing their libraries when vinyl records and VHS tapes were big.

This may well be true (though I do seem to remember hearing quite a bit of griping about replacing libraries of cassette tapes with CDs and VHS with DVDs), but in those cases, at those times format shifting wasn't nearly so technologically feasible as it now is to convert from one purely digital format to another.

What I mean by that is that there is no inherent bar to converting from MP3 to ACC (or whatever, pick two formats), and a proverbial butt-load of freeware applications to help you do it are out there just waiting to be Googled up.

But DRM imposes an artificial, deliberate bar on that process without any physical or technical need for it, other than that those who sell the content believe they need DRM for various reasons (whether they really do need it or not isn't really important to this point, nor is the true validity of those reasons, the reality of their beliefs on the need and their acceptance of those reasons as valid are the operative factors).

Originally Posted by SpiderMatt

As a consumer, I did my end of the job by looking into what I was purchasing. I want to know why anyone would buy any product without knowing a thing about it.

I'm very glad that you were wise enough to research your purchases ahead of time, but I'm afraid that you are, in fact, not typical in that regard.

For example, I couldn't begin to count the number folks who have shown up here, after purchasing a Sony Reader, railing at the injustice of the universe because they didn't know that their huge library of A4/Letter Sized (~12" diagonal) PDF files (which they specifically bought that Reader to read) wouldn't be readable on on the Reader's 6" diagonal screen. Those posts are still there in the Sony sub-forum, you can see them for yourself -- along with a bunch of us patiently, repeatedly explaining the matter and expressing our regrets that they didn't learn of it beforehand.

Once, I would have agreed with you in thinking that no one would purchase a ~$350 device for a specific purpose without doing some checking around to find out if that device would actually do what they wanted to do.

Around here, we knew about this detail for literally months prior the launch of the Sony Reader, and a plain old Google search for "Sony Reader" at the time returned mostly MobileRead results, so they would very likely have found us (and the relevant information) if they had troubled themselves to look.

That's with something that ran $350, I'm afraid I'm skeptical that a majority of folks would be more diligent about a 99¢ purchase at iTunes.

You ask why someone would do such a thing, it's the same reasons I gave above: lack of concern, laziness, information overload, etc.

I think it's a dumb move, but a person doesn't have to be dumb to occasionally do dumb a thing.


As to whether the government should decide the matter, being a good Texan, I'm generally of the mindset of "the government that governs least, governs best" -- also known as the "Leave me the &%$# alone" Party.

However, even I admit that there are some (few) things that need to be standardized throughout a large political entity -- telecommunications, roadways, power supplies, etc. -- for which a government is occasionally more help than hindrance.

Is DRM interoperability one of them? I can't say that I necessarily believe that it is, but I'm willing to consider the possibility that it may be. I'd prefer to see what happens with the several things that are on the horizon (such as .epub) which are likely to have an impact on the matter before going all legislational on the matter.

Also, keep in mind that this is the EU who is proposing this particular regulation: those folks just don't seem to be happy unless they're regulating something new today. But that's the perspective of a Texan, so don't take it too harshly.

Originally Posted by Alan

What rights are being taken away from you? You can lend and borrow DRM protected books and you can transfer them to a new reading device.

I've been around here quite a while, and seen DRM discussed a great deal (ad nauseum, at times) but this is the first time I've seen this claim made.

I'd agree that if I were to remove the DRM I could certainly do what you're describing, but with DRM intact ... lending is fairly complicated (usually requires lending the whole device or registering the lendee's device on my account, or some such), and transferring to other devices has similar complications, plus those related to format/device incompatibility that can't be overcome without DRM removal.

If you've found some ways through those obstacles, however, I'd love to hear what they are.