Quote:
Originally Posted by Boston
I understand the need for DRM to protect from revenue loss and that is what I use for my moral compass. Maybe its my wishful thinking that the courts and companies will have better things to do than chase people who are copying/modifying for personal use only that to which they are legally entitled and will focus on illegal distribution which is the intent of the laws to begin with.
|
One would like to think that the purpose of DRM is to prevent illegal distribution, but if that were the case, then I should think that the industry would have settled on a standard years ago. The mere fact that Amazon bought Mobipocket and then used it as the basis of Kindle's DRM without allowing the Kindle and Mobipocket devices to inter-operate suggests a different motive.
DRM is about control; content providers want to be able to control your access to the media. By ensuring that Kindle and Mobi DRM don't inter-operate (besides them being essentially identical), Amazon can force you to buy Kindles if you want to read their Kindle Books. Likewise, if you own a Kindle, it makes it harder to read books bought from another source.
And lets not forget, technically, circumventing DRM may be a crime in and of itself. But that being said, the numbers in this poll show that at least half of the people who answered the poll break DRM, some routinely. It is not an effective method of preventing illegal distribution of a book.
Quote:
|
Perhaps I misunderstood the choices, I voted "I buy books with device specific DRM (like Mobi and Kindle) and stick to the DRM terms" because I feel that is closer to what I am doing than the other choices although not strictly following DRM terms. I will alter the DRM (using igor's script) so that my Kindle can read books from other sources to which I have purchased elsewhere or borrowed from the library.
|
Just a point, there is no altering DRM; in the current models you either read it using a proper device or software or you strip the DRM from it. Now, you might be converting non-DRM'd books to read on the Kindle. But if you are reading books with DRM for which the Kindle is not a registered device, you are stripping the DRM.
Quote:
Likewise, I decrypt DVDs so I can covert them for my PMP. In all cases, I've purchased or rented. Likewise, I rip/convert the CDs I purchase. Otherwise, I wouldn't purchase at all since my listening/watching time is usually on the train.
But I don't do any of this to share/distribute as I believe revenues should go to the authors, artists and their backers.
|
Boston, with a few possible exceptions, I doubt most of the people who answered this thread are breaking copyright. Most of the people who strip DRM are stripping it so they can archive the book they are reading or so they can read it on a different device than was intended. Morally, I think this is fine; I don't think it is a great idea because it encourages the publishers to continue the practice, but illegal or not, if the book is not being distributed, there is no illegitimate loss to the income of the publishers and the authors. That being said, it might leave you on shaky legal ground.
--
Bill