Quote:
Originally Posted by Penforhire
Put an Epub file on a USB memory stick and put it into a time capsule. Twenty or thirty years from now I will bet your PC (whatever form THAT takes, lol) will not read either that media (USB port, what's that?) or the file itself. And that is even with no DRM on that file! Backward compatibility has already bitten many of us in the field of digital information. There are NOT always adequate translators and hardware. Who do you know who has an 8" floppy drive today? Heck, the list of people with 3.5" floppy drives or, say, SCSI ports is dwindling.
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It's true that the average PC user does not maintain backwards-compatible file support systems, and this is something people must learn to accommodate, or lose their files. On the other hand, the same can be said about any media: Maintain it properly, or it will die off. Most people assume somebody else is on the job, so they don't need to worry about it. This is not a new problem, and some small effort on your part can preserve those files.
At the same time, scholars are very aware of this, and are actively maintaining backwards-compatible systems that can rescue old HW and SW formats. And with hardware adapters and cloud-based backup systems, about the only reason to lose files is outright negligence.