[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

The "middle ground" here is opening your eyes to the millions of high-quality non-DRM ebooks available, and not disdaining them because they don't come with a big-publisher marketing campaign that labels them as good.

You're making an enormous assumption here that those of us who buy from the mainstream publishers do so because of a marketing campaign. Gee, maybe I buy from them because I like the authors and books they publish. Maybe I was reading their books in paper and now I am simply continuing to read them in digital form. Maybe I like reading a book that meets certain minimal standards of competence.

It takes more effort to find them; whether that's worth it to you depends on how much effort you're willing to spend to communicate with publishers. If you think DRM is non-problematic enough that you're happy to encourage it, go ahead & keep buying DRM'd books and treating them however you feel is best. If you think DRM *matters,* that it's important to get rid of it, stop paying companies who use it.

The idea of "but then I'll have to read something I might not like!!" is ridiculous. If your taste in books is so limited that only DRM'd editions could possibly keep you entertained, your opinions about the future of literature are irrelevant.

Pretty harsh, don't you think? I read for enjoyment, not to make some grand statement about the future of literature or publishing. You complain about the big publishers dictating what we should read, yet you yourself are letting them do exactly that--you're refusing to read their books simply because they are DRMed.

If you can't suss out from a blurb and few pages of sample whether you expect to enjoy a book, you're not competent to discuss the value or quality of literature. If you don't have *TIME* to spend to decide that... you've decided convenient purchases are more important to you than eliminating DRM.

Are you "competent to discuss the value or quality of literature" when you summarily dismiss all books with DRM? DRM in itself does not affect the quality of the writing, so aren't you shutting off a whole world of wonderful books by your dogmatic stand?

Don't know what your point about time is. Buying from the major publishers means I spend extra time to strip the DRM, but I'd rather do that than avoid a good book for something as silly as DRM.

For a lot of people, convenience trumps a lot of other issues. But don't try to convince people that you're anti-DRM when what you really mean is "I want one less inconvenience in my shopping." In other words: Put your money where your mouth is. Support the authors and companies who act in ways you approve of, and stop supporting the ones you think are unethical or too greedy.

See above. I put up with the inconvenience of DRM in order to read what I want, in the way I want. And that is exactly what I will continue to do.