Quote:
Originally Posted by rcentros
Then the publishers, who insist on DRM, need to insure that, when you buy a book at B&N or Amazon, or wherever you buy it, you get a button that says "Rent it Now," or "Lease it Now" instead of "Buy it Now." Because most book buyers don't speak or think in "lawyer-ize." And guess what. If publishers were honest it upfront about it, a lot of buyers might not "pull the trigger." Time for full disclosure. And, by the way, some Kindle books can be rented as opposed to bought ... err ... "leased?" What's that all about?
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When it comes to DRM and not-theft-but-just-as-bad (NTBJAB, my new acronym for "copyright infringement,") we needn't all go bonkers here. I have NO issue with Suzie or Fred lending an ebook to their (insert whatever here).
If it were trackable, I probably wouldn't even care if it was more than a single lend, as the average person/reader probably doesn't lend PBooks more than a single time--perhaps, say, 3x. If they're like me, they lent and never got BACK quite a few (speaking of honesty...).
But we all know that's just not the real issue. Folks on Amazon can lend their books; hell, Amazon has a big old "lend your copy" button, somewhere, on the webpage, to make it simple, IIRC. The issue is many-faced: you can "lend" copies of non-DRM'ed books whilst not losing your own use of your copy; and you can "lend" (give) copies to others who will in turn, lend them again, like ripples in a pond. Some of those ripples might not be Auntie Suzie or Uncle Fred or some equally mostly-honest person. That third party might be scum. And could be someone that, had you been asked, you'd never have agreed to "lend to" in the first place (as you mightn't with a PBook, either). I mean, I have a very good friend of whom I'm genuinely fond...but she breaks spines. (of books, of course). I can't bear to lend her my books. it drives me nuts to get them back broken. Yes, this part is OT, but you get my drift.
I would have ZERO problem with a scheme that would allow legal and understandable and not-too-prohibitive "lending." I normally have a book open on about 3-4 devices at once (my KFire, my PPW, my iPad [intermittently, usually if the others are charging] and my HTC1 smartphone in K4Droid). I could, if I wished to, lend out a device. OR, lend a book via the Amazon program, albeit, once lent, I'd have to wait to revisit the book, until it was returned (like a PBook, mind you).
I do--I
genuinely do--understand the desire to have real control over the content, so that an expired company can't take your library with them. I have NO issues with that very legitimate reason for loathing DRM.
But I do wish that some form of watermarking and viable tracking were in place, so this endlessly stupid and vitriolic and hyperbolic discussion of how "DRM is EVIL!!!" and how corporations are screwing people, etc., could END. Or that piracy doesn't hurt anyone. (Anyone who didn't read Steve Eisenberg's attachments, in his post, should). The idea that everybody out there is some latent MR'er, angrily trying to get rid of DRM is just daft, as is the idea that everyone out there is some angel who would NEVER make off with a book. Neither is true. And if we could all, at least, agree on THAT, and that the retailers, publishers and authors have legitimate concerns, we could move a lot further forward in
intelligent discussion.
Oh, AND: for those of us in the mostly-real world, it also has to be something that could survive being sold by retailers--because most authors will still have books going through Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Google, etc. So, it can't be something that would fail there, or be stripped. Not and have a viable chance of success. My $.02. You've all heard--or not--everything else I've had to say.
Hitch