Quote:
Originally Posted by speakingtohe
So do you seriously think this is likely to happen? That there will be no readers or apps available in the next 50 years that will open our currently purchased ebooks.
|
If DRM is left in place, I not only think it will happen, I'm convinced that it will. And not in 50 years, but MUCH earlier. See what Adobe is doing with the new ADE 3.0 DRM: if they really followed through, all older readers (== all readers now in use) would not be able to open new books.
That means that at some point, there will be readers that cannot open old books. The chance that this happens will be a lot smaller if DRM is removed.
Quote:
|
No matter whether I lose something due to my fault or someone else's, the loss is still of the same magnitude to me.
|
Not in my case. If I lose stuff just because some third party thinks I shouldn't have it anymore for whatever reason, there will be trouble. If I pay for something, I want to be able to use it as long as I have the means to do that (in the case of ebooks, have a reader or program that can open them), not as long as someone else allows me to use it.
Quote:
|
I just can't understand the outrage over something that may never happen expressed by a few. My condo gets broken into (not my fault in most instances) and someone steals my books or TV and my insurance does not cover it. Nasty of course, but how much time and energy should I put into obsessing about the possibility.
|
The difference is that, if DRM-support is dropped, that this is done WILLINGLY by a third party. As hardcastle said, you don't have any power to stop them. Suppose Adobe wants to force everybody to the new DRM-scheme. They actually manage to force sellers to upgrade their servers, obsoleting your current reader. They also manage to force manufacturers to stop supporting the old DRM in their new readers.
Now you can't open new books on old readers, or old books on new readers. You can only read new books on new readers.
This stuff is not far-fetched. It has happened with computers and software, countless times through IT history.
Compare it to a TV. I buy a TV, and watch it for 8 years. Then, suddenly: *boom*. It breaks down. Meh. Shit happens.
What would you say if you suddenly don't have any image anymore, and when you start to investigate it, the manufacturer tells you: "Oh, that's the old model from 2006. You can't receive new shows on it anymore, because we have decided not to support that TV anymore. The providers are not allowed to send any signals to that TV starting Sept 1, 2014."
That would be ridiculous, and not accepted by anyone, but that is exactly what DRM does. For some reasons, this kind of stuff is often accepted when it comes to computers and software, but it would be unacceptable everywhere else.