Quote:
Originally Posted by epiphany
They are shooting themselves in the foot because this decision will upset many current and potential customers who will then buy other ebook devices. If you think Amazon is in such a powerful position with trapped customers, why are Kindle ebooks always cheaper than the competition? My view is that Amazon made a blunder here but in general they are trying to offer the best product for their customers (to make money, of course; that's how capitalism works). Unfortunately this requires they impose a restrictive DRM scheme to appease publishers and hence guarantee the widest selection of books (although I do think it is wrong how they force DRM on authors and publishers that don't want it).
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Here is my take on this... Amazon says to the publisher... "We can sell for less because we'll sell more since Amazon.com is the only place the Kindle owners will be able to get your eBook."
Along comes kindlepid and kindlefix. Another eBook shop has a sale and the price drops to slightly less then what Amazon has the eBook for. So people go shop elsewhere, shift or remove the DRM and read said eBook on the Kindle. Or they see that it is available from their local library and get it that way.
Sure it's a popular eBook. But the problem is that Amazon cannot go back to the publisher and then say... "We sold lots of copies. Here is your nice profit."
Amazon can look at all your Kindles and see this eBook on there, but knowing full well it was never purchased from Amazon.com.
Now the real issue here is this... Since we know Amazon can see what's on your Kindle via Whispernet, will they someday decide to take action if they see content that they know should have DRM and is on your Kindle but was not purchased via Amazon.com?