Quote:
Originally Posted by OtterBooks
I haven't seen any such data, but I'm open to its existence. The only accounts of DRM hindrance I've heard come from people who own multiple ereader platforms, a minority of enthusiasts I've only witnessed on these forums, many of whom generally strip DRM anyway. Hindrance for them: zero, aside from the seconds involved in DRM removal. For every ereader consumer I know personally, their behavior involves a single device used to read a book and be done with it. Hindrance for them: nil.
I asked my mother if she felt limited by DRM restrictions on her ebooks. Her response: "The what?"
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DRM issues certainly have hurt large numbers of people in the past, and are likely to hurt many, many more in the future. Any time a store that uses DRM shuts down, customers get hurt. What about people who bought ebooks from Amazon prior to the Kindle launch? (yes, Amazon sold DRMed ebooks before the Kindle, and then they shut that down, screwing everybody who hadn't liberated their books) What about people who bought music from MSN Music or any of the other PlaysForSure providers when Microsoft shut down PlaysForSure in favor of Zune? Borders is on the brink of death and Barnes & Noble isn't far behind. What's going to happen to ebook customers of theirs when they go away. Even if you're an Amazon or Apple customer, you're not safe. Amazon has already proven that directly, as has Microsoft (twice! when they killed support for their .lit format and stores using that shut down). You're not safe even buying from the big guys.
Of course, today if you buy music from Apple or Microsoft you're getting DRM-free mp3s so if they ever shut down their services you're not left out in the cold. Maybe what the industry really needs is a high profile store shutdown. There have been plenty of smaller stores who've shut down and screwed their customers, but maybe if B&N dies and takes Nook with it people will finally get the point.