[stonetools]

I've heard of a lot more people who strip the DRM from their ebooks than who buy DRM'd books from several stores and leave the DRM on them all. Do you have any evidence that the "general public" is more likely to have multiple dedicated devices, with different books available to each, than they are to get Calibre with the third-party plugins that remove the DRM?

Hey, I'm not trying to attack or comment on anyone's lifestyle. My point is that the prices for dedicated devices have come down to a level that its not prohibitive to have more than one device. According to the recent Pew study , most avid ebook readers tend to have a couple of devices. some analysis:

3. One of the most startling data points reported is that both tablet ownership and ereader ownership had just about doubled over Christmas, from 10% in mid-December to 19% in mid-January in both cases. With overlap accounted for, Pew estimates that 28% of Americans 18 and over own one or both.

Device ownership is still climbing fast, although it is likely that the overlap, a single person owning both devices, grew faster over this Christmas than it had before. When people get a second device, a replacement or a complementary device, they probably don’t indulge in the same buying spurt as they do when they get their first device. The data summary I saw didn’t correlate the rise in ownership of each of the two devices with the rise in ownership of either of the two devices, which limits our ability to forecast how much content growth we should see following the increase in device penetration

9. One question delivered the most startling answers considering how far along we are in device penetration. The most commonly employed ebook reader is a plain old computer, on which 42% of people read ebooks as opposed to 41% on Kindles and Nooks. That’s surprising. Perhaps even more surprising is that more people (29%) read ebooks on a cell phone than on a tablet computer (23%).

Obvously there are lots of folks out there reading on multiple devices, including PCs, for Pete's sake.My guess is that the general public has never heard of Calibre, doesn't know what a plugin is and doesn't strip DRM. Since a third of Americans own smartphones and increasing number own tablets, I think DRM is becoming increasingly irrelevant anyway.

Even if I am wrong about that, its clear that DRM is a two edged sword here. On one hand, It plays a small part in keeping Amazon customers on the reservation. However, it also plays a role in keeping BN and Kobo customers on THEIR reservations, so its kind of a wash