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Originally Posted by WillysJeepMan

You bought a DRM'ed book knowing that it was locked into that particular store.

I think that is a fair point to make against someone on this thread who visits these forums. I think we can all agree that the people who are interested in the discussions on this web site are probably better informed than the majority of the population that is out there. Most people who purchase an e-reader and e-books are probably fairly ignorant about what DRM is or the nature of the legal agreements they enter and agree to on some website or when they first start their new device. Take, for example, the famous checkbox on web sites that says something like "I agree to abide by all the conditions laid out in Terms and Conditions [Click Here]". Most people just check the check box and never even pull up the web page with the Terms and Conditions.

Furthermore, many people aren't good at thinking a few years into the future. If you are interested in buying a Kindle today then it may not occur to you that there is something three years down the road that may lead you to wanting to purchase a device from another company. Maybe you were really freaked out about the incident where they pulled copies of George Orwell's 1984 off their devices without their consent. So now you want to buy a Nook or Kobo or Sony device? But you didn't listen to the friend who warned you about DRM (or didn't have anyone warn you) when you first bought the device and have spent over $400 in buying Kindle ebooks that you are basically throwing away unless you continue to use the Kindle platform.

What would you advise for a person in that situation? Should or shouldn't they crack their DRM to recover there $400 investment in ebooks?

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

DRM is never going to go away because the majority are "ok" with it.

They are okay with it or ignorant or a combination of both since some people can't draw the line between DRM and having their choices for purchasing a hardware device limited in the future. You could convince everyone who comes to this web site about boycotting DRM materials and it would hardly make a dent in the market. To realize how tiny we are here just look at thispoll thread asking people about DRM. Less than 300 votes since early February 2012.

Consumer power is a nice thing to talk about it, but the reality is it doesn't work in a lot of cases. You would need a concentrated effort by the mainstream media to really have any chance of getting to a critical mass here and don't count on that since a lot of these media companies are owned or part of the same parent company of major publishing houses.

Actually, about the only hope I have for DRM going away right now is if the DOJ wins their lawsuit against the publishers on agency pricing. If that happens then the publishers may want to try to weaken Amazon by taking steps to prevent the problem of device lock-in. That means dumping DRM and maybe, if possible with their intellectual property rights, only allowing selling e-books in the epub format. I'm not holding my breath, but its the only opportunity I see.