Quote:
Originally Posted by Barty
I forget, how was music DRM done away with? Did apple twist the industry's arm? Or was it Amazon? Did the industry achieve enlightenment by itself?
I think the situation there was different because Apple didn't own the DRM scheme and it was not tied to their hardware so they didn't have an incentive to keep DRM. Amazon IIRC was trailing itunes so they had an incentive to drop DRM to differentiate themselves. Otoh, apple wants to tie people to their iBooks and iThingies and Amazon wants to tie customers to their store and kindle. So it seems we're unlikely to see book DRM dropped absent significant customer revolt. For now, most people either are unaware of it or believe there's nothing they can do about it. I know six people with either a kindle or nook; they all think (aside from free and library books) they can only get books from amazon/BN resp., but they're ok with it since their chosen store works well and has all the books they want.
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For the basic background, read
my post over in this thread. In fact, Apple
did own the DRM scheme (their "FairPlay" DRM, whose terms were considered unbelievably permissive back when it was originally introduced). Apple favored dropping DRM from the start because they viewed it as an added expense for them and an added hassle for their customers. Remember that Apple is all about making money by providing a better experience for the customers. Also remember that Apple isn't a music label, so they're interested primarily in how to sell more Apple hardware. I make no claim that they were motivate by anything other than profit.
Xenophon