Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
While I agree at the current moment, it seems unlikely that Amazon will discontinue Kindle support, I would not say in the slightest that it is unlikely in the future. Consider the whole flap of Walmart deciding to discontinue its DRM servers. True they reversed their decision, but for a while there a lot of people who bought music from them were stuck with music that would not be transferable in the future (and still may not at some point in the future). I believe Yahoo did discontinue its support for the DRM'd music they sold.
Lets say that in 5 years the industry finally settles on ePub or something else as a standard and ultimately Amazon is forced to support it... how long do you think they are going to maintain support for Kindle formatted books? And what if Amazon actually goes bankrupt?
As for the flood or fire analogy; those acts of God and ultimately there is nothing you can do about them. A company deciding to no longer support a DRM'd format is not an act of God.
|
Okay, lets say this happens. I was sitting here thinking about the books I already have downloaded. I realized, that with the exception of 4 Stephen King books, my most treasured are the classics I downloaded for free. If I am forced to buy another brand of e-book reader, what am I out? Meanwhile, I have instant access to whatever book I choose to buy. Or download free. I have access to mobileread, feedbooks.com, or mnybks.net whether I am at home or across the country.