Quote:
Originally Posted by rationalbiker
Thanks for the info. Did they guarentee or claim (or disclaim) how long they would offer support for these books? Do you know if this venture resulted in a profit loss for them? (aside from perhaps the tertiary effect of loss of business due to loss of customer faith) How long should they have supported this venture assuming they were losing money on it?
Do you think they will drop support for the current scheme IF it remains profitable for them?
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This issue is the support for products sold. I am not sure if they guaranteed support for the eBooks but there is an implied support from a consumer. They did say that they had copies available for re-download but I can't remember if they specifically said how long they would keep them. It is standard industry practice to keep these kinds of things forever (well as long as the company exists anyway).
This issue is not profitability, it is a customer support issue. Customer support should not suffer even if a current product is dropped as long as the company exists. At least that is the reasoning some use to question the practice of Amazon. There are those who feel DRM only means that you rent the books for a while and this is the main reason that they feel that way. It is DRM that prevents you from being able to read a book as long as you want if the company decides to drop support. In a recent case one company that sold Mobi eBooks with DRM went out of business and at this point MobiPocket themselves are trying to pick up the pieces for that companies product. It is unknown whether they will be successful but it would go a long way toward stability of DRM if they can.
DRM is a sore point with many members of this forum and the behavior of those that enforce DRM is certainly being scrutinized for their current and past performance.
I have no idea how long Amazon will support DRM on eBooks they are currently selling. We only have history to go on. I hope Amazon has learned their lesson but only time will tell.
Dale