Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Russell
But DRM is a familiar issue and well-debated in many places. What I desire to do in this thread is give a little context to the format issue in real life for technically adept individuals. It might just not be as big a deal as you thought it was. It's not really a big deal for me most of the time. But for others, it may be a big deal.
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No, technically it isn't a big deal for me either, I'm reasonably competent and a lot of my reading material is converted from other sources anyway. However, having to convert because a format is unsupported still makes managing a library more complex, and still wastes my time.
Imagine if before viewing a DVD you had to convert it to a specific format that your player could handle - you'd never watch anything. Its hypothetical, as the market wouldn't tolerate it. We'd think it was crazy.
And I'd suggest that is one reason why mobile video took so long to get under way - the transaction cost of getting the video onto your device was just too high. (Apple as usual have pretty much solved this problem).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob Russell
In the market and with respect to mass adoption of e-books, however, it is a BIG deal. I think that will be naturally borne out by the market, and highlighted by commentary and reviews on products that appear.
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I agree but would also point out that to a large degree, people reading MR and Teleread are very much early adopters (even though ebooks have been around for years!) and in this immature market it is possible that we can influence future directions by the actions we take personally. For me, that means not purchasing formats that I would prefer not to support (even though I could convert them) - that sends the wrong message to the publisher, since they do not know what format I'd actually use it in.
Manufacturers sometimes
are responsive to market reactions - look at how Sony introduced the original Librie reader (60 day "rental" DRM!), and how they evolved from there. But I'd suggest that they are going to be most responsive in the early stages of a product's life.