Quote:
Originally Posted by MidnightBlue
Why would something like this attract the average consumer? I have never had a problem with DRM, why would I want to go out of my way to avoid it? Why would most people who only had one brand of eReader and who weren't pirates?
|
Around these parts, MidnightBlue, anti-DRMism is kind of a religion. Its THE most important ebook issue.
In any case, Charles Stross argues that the publishers made a big mistake by instituting DRM, because Amazon gained a stranglehold on the Ebook market, mainly through DRM :
Quote:
As ebook sales mushroom, the Big Six's insistence on DRM has proven to be a hideous mistake. Rather than reducing piracy[*], it has locked customers in Amazon's walled garden, which in turn increases Amazon's leverage over publishers. And unlike pirated copies (which don't automatically represent lost sales) Amazon is a direct revenue threat because Amazon are have no qualms about squeezing their suppliers — or trying to poach authors for their "direct" publishing channel by offering initially favourable terms. (Which will doubtless get a lot less favourable once the monopoly is secured ...)
If the big six began selling ebooks without DRM, readers would at least be able to buy from other retailers and read their ebooks on whatever platform they wanted, thus eroding Amazon's monopoly position. But it's not clear that the folks in the boardrooms are agile enough to recognize the tar pit they've fallen into ...
|
LINK
Apparently, someone listened, since Tor, an arm of the big publisher Macmillan, decided to sell its books DRM free and open a store. Frankly, I doubt this will make much difference , because as you noted, most buyers don't care about DRM, but we'll see.