Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
DRM is a just a silly idea. Changing DRM schemes is even sillier. How to really annoy even those customers who hadn't already been inconvenienced or worse by your DRM scheme - change it!
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For ebook sales cryptographic DRM is indeed silly.
For library checkouts, though, it is indispensable.
The big fail here is that Adept's sole added value is interoperability and anything that undercuts it renders it worse than useless because of the precedent; not only can they cut you off from the books you paid for, they will *have* actually done it. People trusted their devices would be compatible with the generic stores. That is no longer a guarantee. Now or ever again. The entire generic ebook ecosystem is built on quicksand.
They made the unilateral decision to effectively kill Adept and substitute an entirely incompatible replacement with no effort to accomodate users who've been supporting them for five years. The onus is going to be on the user, especially if you have an older generic reader. For a lot of people this is going to mean having to get a new reader if they don't know alf and if they do and the new DRM holds up it'll mean going to Amazon for ebooks. And even a small wave of defections could kill some of the smaller generic ebookstores.
And they already did it once before so it is pretty clear they will do it again whenever they feel like it.
Great way to build confidence in an "industry standard", huh?
Makes the walled gardens look even more attractive than ever.
