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Originally Posted by bbpo8
Also I think people on this forum underestimate the difficulty most non-technical people experience in dealing with DRM and multiple formats. Caliber is great but is really only suitable for about 10% of the population.
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I would argue that most people here FAR OVERSTATE the difficulty that non-technical people experience with DRM. I bought my mom a Kindle, spent 15 minutes showing her how to use it, and haven't once had to deal with a technical support issue in two years, and she's nearly completely technology illiterate. Formats? DRM? She doesn't even know what that stuff is, she just knows that she goes to the store, chooses a book, and its reading it 30 seconds later. She's read hundreds of ebooks in that timeframe.
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Finally there is the fear, uncertainty and doubt about entrusting your books to private companies. Many companies have left the business, leaving their customers as orphans. Even Amazon has a dubious future, since it never seems to make much profit and the inflated stock price is unsustainable.
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And I think that this fear is overstated too... many people here love their books and keep them forever and re-re-re-read them, but I suspect that the majority read the book once and then move on. My to-read list is too long to go back and re-read books (other than technical books, which I buy in paper). If it's lost, so what... I paid a price that I was willing to pay to read it once and if it was priced too high for that purpose I skip it. I have very few of the paper books that I purchased 10+ years ago and I don't care and I won't care in 10 years about the ebooks that I'm buying today. Could Amazon disappear tomorrow? Sure, or they could blacklist me, but my lost e-books would be the least of my concerns. I'd spend more money to see the movie once at the theater, which I'd spend less time enjoying. I don't bother backing them up or removing DRM even though I'm fully aware and capable -- I'm also capable of getting a new copy "for free" if I feel so entitled some time in the future.