Quote:
Originally Posted by toddos
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.
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I would hope that something is put in place to assist those who bought books from large retailers that went (or will go) belly-up, and if not, that's a genuine concern. I'm no universal fan of DRM (I feel DRM in products like computer games has been oppressive and counterproductive). I don't have an "I <3 DRM" bumper sticker, I just feel that for most consumers picking up on the ebook technology in today's market, DRM is largely invisible. We can speculate what-ifs, and if a big retailer goes out of business without making changes to allow the continued use of their books (I dont know much about the music side of this), then I'll take to the streets with ya. Figuratively. My what-if includes the likeliness that considering how mainstream the market has become, something will be done to prevent people getting shafted.
I mean, is DRM even valid of the rights holder of that DRM no longer exists? I don't think they would just cut and run without releasing those rights somehow. One could argue that DRM needs to be standardized across platforms, which seems reasonable. I understand criticism of its application, but not its very existence.