Talldog - first of all, welcome to these forums ... you came to the right place
I am not sure if someone here has already covered what I am going to mention (I have only read the first two pages of this thread and will need to finish later) ... so pardon me if this is duplicate information.
To answer what this means strictly for someone in your position (avoiding any discussion on why DRM is bad and why we shouldn't support anyone advocating more DRM
) - here is how I see it.
By buying a Kindle and by buying books only from Amazon, you are totally at Amazon's mercy for how long you have access to these books and how long you can read them. Amazon decided to use a (semi) closed format which no one else will (legally) be able to support. So you are in effect really "renting" the books that Amazon decides to sell, and only on devices Amazon approves of, for as long as they want to support you. You don't really "own" the books or the device. You can't return them to Amazon if you don't like it, but Amazon can take away your rights to read those books any time they so choose.
If Amazon decides to get out of the ebook business (they have done it before) and stop their DRM server, you are dead in the water. If Amazon decides to change the format going forward and for Kindle 3/4/5 decide to use the new format, you may not be able to get one of those devices couple years down the road and read the books you purchased today. If Amazon feels they have captured the market sufficiently and starts raising the prices of their books, you are still legally forced to buy books from them and them only for reading on the Kindle.
Worst case, if Amazon doesn't like what you have in your Kindle or what you are doing with a device you supposedly "own" (you can't return it after a certain point, can you ?) and determines you violated their "TOS" they can come and delete all the books you purchased and not let you read them any more.
So in effect, if you realize all these and are still okay "renting" the books from Amazon and realize that you have NO GUARANTEE WHATSOEVER from Amazon that you will have access to your purchased books for as long as you want ... then by all means go with it. Just don't be under the misconception that you actually "own" anything controlled by DRM ... and that includes the Kindle itself and all the books you buy on it
Quote:
Originally Posted by Talldog
I've been reading all of these threads about Amazon, DRM, KindlePID and everything, but I can't figure out what, if anything it means to me. The K2 is my first dedicated ebook reader, and I ended up choosing it because it seemed like Amazon has the largest selection of books. I have no specialized requirements (textbooks, professional journals or papers, etc.) or library of ebooks to convert. I have no issue with paying Amazon's prices, and I'm not interested in taking a principled stand against DRM (no offense to those who choose to take that stand). I just want to read books, and I wanted to be where I have the greatest chance of finding the books I want.
It seems like the books I'm most disappointed about not seeing on Amazon (Hobbit/LOR, Harry Potter, Nero Wolfe) aren't available anywhere because of rights issues, while most books that are available in ebook form can be purchased from Amazon or are available in unprotected format.
So what am I missing? Is there some significant selection that is available at MobiPocket or other sellers, but not Amazon? Do I really need to care about this?
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