Quote:
Originally Posted by mgmueller
Why?
If I go to the cinema, I spend 10 Euros for less than 10 hours. And I leave with nothing more than some fond memories.
If I go to the restaurant, I spend way more. Same for a vacation.
All without any physical remnants, only momentary joy and fun.
Okay, I re-read books or re-watch movies quite frequently. And of course it's more convenient to re-read on my Paperwhite, than re-buying the book again.
But still: If, in the worst case scenario, my eBook wouldn't be accessible anymore in 5 years - would this really be so troublesome?
What about my 600 DVDs, that sit uselessly in my shelfs, since I'm using iTunes instead since 2008?
What about the thousands of German Marks I spent on Commodore 64 games?
No technology lasts forever...
So, how is DRM any more troublesome than switches in technology, like from DVD to Blue-Ray or digital content?
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Because of what EowynCarter already mentioned.
DRM *makes sure* that at some point in the future, the product will break.
If I go to the movies, I *know* beforehand that I'm going to pay money to see the movie and that I can't keep the movie afterward. It still is my choice to do this. If I don't want to, I can wait for the DVD.
If I buy a book, I buy it to read it in my own time, as often as I want to: the same reason why I would buy a DVD (to watch it as often as I want).
And how DRM is more troublesome? It's more troublesome because there is a big chance that it *CAN'T* survive a switch in technology, making sure the product becomes unusable at some point.
DVD's and CD's can be converted to a lossless video/audio format if need be. Ebooks without DRM can be converted from one format to another. Old games without DRM can run in emulators or on a virtualized OS.
No, there is not a 100% assurance this will always be the case, but DRM makes sure that, at some point in time, it CAN'T be the case. I'd like to have the choice to be able to use this old stuff or not, rather than to have some company decide that I can't.