Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
If you look how the DRM was dropped from music, basically Apple with iTunes was in the same place that Amazon is in for ebooks now, i.e. 80+ percent of the market. So the music publishers wanted to push people to Amazon in order to create some sort of competition to Apple. The carrot they offered was no DRM.
To get rid of DRM, the publishers have to buy in. To a certain extent, the Apple iBook was suppose to be competition for Amazon, but Amazon successfully blocked that move via federal lawsuit against Apple and the publishers. Now, we are in a situation where there is sufficient start up cost as to discourage anyone from entering the market in a meaningful way. I'm not sure that simply removing the DRM will move the needle much.
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The 'no DRM' (or social DRM/watermarking*) would also be tied to allowing different formats, ePub or Mobi. This would allow customers to purchase the book from Apple and read it on any device they owned: phone, tablet, e-reader or laptop. That could pull in folks like me that don't own an Apple device at all.
It wouldn't need to be Apple. Google could do it instead. It just has to be a company with enough weight to counter Amazon.
For serious readers, it would be a blessing.
But I'm realistic enough to acknowledge that books just aren't as popular as music and from what I've seen, publishers are even further behind the times than music executives.
(*Please don't start the 'watermarking is/is not DRM argument. It's tiresome.)