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I am not pro DRM or anti DRM. I am also not against circumventing DRM for legitimate usage (of which there are many)
I do not think it discourages organised piracy, but I am fairly sure it discourages casual distribution of ebooks in many cases. Especially the case of a person emailing all of their friends a copy. And I am certainly not implying that anyone on MR would do this.
I do think that it has raised consciousness in many people's minds towards the fact that authors/publishers/distributers would in general prefer to be paid at some point.
For example it never occurred to me that buying a book in a second hand or thrift store would not contribute directly to the author. I am not against buying second hand books as it is legitimate and does get the author more recognition and like a library book someone bought that book and it was was only traded, lent or sold one copy at a time because it was physically gone from the shelves.
I have seen people sell or give away ebooks and still keep a copy and sell or give them away again. Not saying that anyone here has ever done that.
And to flog a dead horse it is even harder to read a paper book on the device of your choice than to format shift.
Helen
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