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Originally Posted by RickyMaveety
Not really debating the issue here ... but I've got real problems with your analogy. If Photoshop is the software and the *.psd file is the data, then what is your memory of the image??
For me the analogy would be Mobicreator is the software, the *.prc file is the data, and your memory of the book is something else entirely.
But, even given that a ebook is data, you can never be absolutely guaranteed to have data with formatting or images and metadata to be readable across all software platforms. Companies are always going to be producing proprietary formats as long as there is a profit to be made from doing so.
You will always be taking a gamble of some sort in purchasing operating systems, software, or even data such as ebooks. There is always the possibility of obsolesence. It just goes with the territory.
For now ... I'm fine with the DRM protected books that I have purchased from Amazon, and I love my Kindle. If for some reason support for the Kindle goes bye-bye and I am forced to use some other reader that doesn't see the DRM protected files ... then I'll worry about stripping the DRM off at that point. Right now, it's simply not a big issue for me.
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Data would be the result of interaction with the software. As the the interaction with a book is reading it, the memory is the data (or result of interaction). Your Mobi.. analogy is also true. Your interaction with the conversion tool creates a data, a .prc file. But then the file becomes software as you interact with it and get new data (memory).
If you are defining data solely as the last bit created by a computer, then you have even less ground as every bit requires specific software to interpret it for us. As such anything with a file extension has a possible limitation (one day there will not be software to interpret the bits) and you are not necessarily griping about the file format but the ability for there to be a usable software interpreter (which again, the Kindle basically is and is the situation Amazon created for you to interpret its file format). You use notepad for .txt .. think of this as a $360 note pad
