[barryem]

Several years ago I was asked to participate in a special forum organized by Audible to bounce some of their ideas off us to get our reactions. It included a number of officers at Audible and a number of developers and also the heads of Audible in 2 or 3 countries. I participated for a couple of years and it was a very active forum. I think about 30 customers were asked to be in this.

One recurring topic was DRM and the guys at Audible always reacted with the same dislike of DRM that we customers did. They often said, and always gave the impression, that they hated it but it was required in order to get publishers to give them titles. I don't think I ever heard anyone at Audible ever defend DRM on any basis other than that.

I have no idea if they were just spouting the company line or saying what they thought but I always felt like it was the latter. They often did stick with the company line and it didn't take long to be able to recognize that.

My guess, and I don't recall if any of them actually said this, is that DRM was expensive, in terms of development, support and direct costs, and that they'd love to be rid of it.

I should mention that this all took place long before Amazon bought Audible so I have no real reason to think Amazon's opinion is similar. I'd be a bit surprised if it isn't, though.

Barry