Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
The difference (as I see it, anyway) is that DRM encumbers our fair use of the intellectual property we have licensed.
Without any real good to society to compensate (since it doesn't stop real criminal infringement) it harms society by limiting our ability to use the IP in a way we legitimately believe we can and should be able to, such as by potentially locking us into one manufacture's hardware or by locking us out of our content entirely in the event of a corporate closure.
The locked display cases do deter shoplifting, at least a bit, and do no harm to society, so their minor annoyance-factor is acceptable.
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Perhaps bit out of context with the whole post as I was addressing the concept that if one can disable DRM, one is locked out of nothing. And in most areas of life's purchases, things we purvhase, break, become obsolete, stolen, or otherwise unusable. What happens if my eyesight fails, my paper boodk become unusable to me. Of course I could still sell them, which would make me feel so much better I am sure.
The security features in stores are no different in their intent than DRM. They are to try to deter theft. I am pretty sure that the purpose of DRM is not a nefarious plan to deprive you of your content in the near or far distant future. Or no more so than printing books on paper, which is susceptable to loss, fire, mold, or falling in a mud puddle.
We buy something, we own it until it is removed from our possession, which happens all the time.
We license something we have the use of it, which may devalue it insome peoples eyes, but we still can, under present circumstances, look forward to being able to read an ebook in the forseeable future.
I admit that there may be ebooks in existence that will only work on one device with no reading apps etc. and will never ever be readble on any other, but I am sadly unaware of them. Perhaps you have been unfortunate enough to own one and are understandably outraged.
And maybe all the ebooks will be reclaimed from even the devices they still wrok on. Perhaps many people would be seriously impoverished or deprived if this happened. But speaking strictly for myself, if I still owned everthing I have bought in my life, I would need at least two warehouses to keep it in, and I would never be able to find anything. Even the paper books would be costing me a few hundred a month to store.
Helen