Last night National Public Radio's news show All Things Considered ran a piece about ebooks and digital rights management. The article basically presented an author saying that she disliked how DRM made it difficult for readers to access her novels.
Then an industry expert was quoted saying that publishers and authors would not be able to make money if the first copy of a book could go around the world in a day. I found that comment exceedingly wrong-headed, because digital distribution of a text (ebook) all around the world in a day makes me think "Wow! I can reach a vast audience and sell to them."
The article of course mentions Kindle because the media thinks Kindle is synonymous with ebook. It brings up the fact that many people are buying protected content to which they would lose access if Amazon discontinued Kindle.
An Amazon person was quoted as saying no one was complaining about DRM.
I personally have to agree with the author who disliked making the ebook buying and consuming process difficult. For most works, I think DRM is a waste of time. I suppose it is arguably needed for valuable nonfiction works that contain the knowledge of experts, but DRM still would only be a bump in the road to pirates.
Here's the link to the story. It takes just over 4 minutes to listen to.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...ryId=102330373