Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Maltby
While there is probably some truth to the statement that authors and publishers often believe that DRM is needed to prevent loss of sales due to piracy and casual sharing; that questionable belief does not explain why several of the DRM scams are proprietary
to specific ebook retailers. Also, that these "DRM" scams are made to allow use only on the devices that they sell, not on any other dedicated ereaders.
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There are probably multiple reasons for developing an in-house DRM solution. They would include:
1) Increase tie-in/raising the walled garden.
2) Enable things not possible with the "standard" Adept solution/avoiding limitations of Adept.
3) Avoid paying Adobe 22c a book for something that they can provide for themselves for less.
None of the major books retailers use the "standard" Adept DRM scheme in all cases. So how standard is it, exactly?
Amazon don't, Apple don't, B&N don't, Kobo don't when delivering to their own devices. What %age of the US market is that, 95%+?
The Kobo example should give you pause in your conspiracy theories.
They are happy to sell you eBooks with Adept DRM, that you can use on any reader that supports it. Their devices support Adept, so you can read books bought from any other store that sells them. But even so, they use a proprietary DRM when delivering eBooks to their own devices. That would suggest that items 2 and 3 above are driving their decisions, not 1.