[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I don't think that they are trying to prevent theft.

I think that the first objective is to create an ecology of ebook reading which is similar to buying a ticket to the movies. That is, they want to make a sale for each separate person who reads an ebook. In that context, what they are doing is taking advantage of DRM and, to some extent, proprietary file formats, to make it difficult for more than one person to read an ebook based on only one purchase. Not impossible - just difficult.

A second objective is to lock readers into buying from a single ebook source, each reseller hoping that the source will be itself.

All this stuff about DRM preventing theft is a smokescreen. What is being prevented is "more than one person reading per purchase" and "buying an ebook from my competitors."

Originally Posted by Catlady

What are these "many products"? And how are the restrictions built into the product? I'm not supposed to use my legally purchased and licensed gun to shoot my noisy neighbor, and I'll be in big trouble if I do, but there is no doohickey on the gun that prevents me from using it illegally. I'm not supposed to exceed the speed limit with my car, but my car still has the capacity to exceed the speed limit--it doesn't max out at 60 mph.

DRM is inhibiting my use of the product before the fact--before I do anything wrong. It's handcuffing me and preventing my legitimate use. Or it's trying to.