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Yes, Amazon did not invent DRM with the Kindle, but I think the history of media providers over the past 30 years has shown time and again that they want to control how the public accesses the media they provide.
Consider the following:
1. The TV networks fought home video recorders for years; complaining that recording a television show to watch later was piracy.
2. The mini-disc was effectively crippled as a media type in the American Market because the media half of Sony was afraid that the technology would be used for the same purpose that tape cassettes were (how this would have cost them any more money is beyond me).
3. Region Coding on DVD's. Essentially allows the media companies to decide who gets to watch their content. After all, what if someone wants to watch a movie that isn't available in this country that is not available? Or worse, they might get it for less over seas.
4. Try using your iTunes with a digital media player besides the iPod?
5. The media industry lobbied long and hard to make breaking DRM a crime in and of itself, even if you did not do anything with the DRM'd media but activities that constituted fair use. Pirating Digital Media is already a crime; what need was there to make DRM cracking a crime other than making sure they stay in control?
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Bill
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