Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
But your proposal turns ebooks into library books. We need to get rid of DRM, not expand it!
Also authors or publishers make nothing from secondhand books.
Just accept that ebooks have no S/H value and any attempt to change it would actually be bad for consumers.
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It would be no worse than it is now and unfortunately getting rid of DRM would see a lot of publishers just withdraw from the eBook market. It's a necessary evil, though ultimately futile to the hardcore, and in principal I agree with you. Copy protection is necessary to protect IP. I have lost revenue directly to piracy across various media including DVDs, there's nothing ultimately you can do about it but stemming casual piracy does work.
Authors and publishers making money from 2nd hand books is totally moot - you have to separate copyright from physical ownership of a copy. Presently we do not not own digital copies, for which often we pay the same, as though we did. I'm only suggesting a system like Overdrive's technology. It would not turn a purchase into a library book, since they are time locked to 21 days, for example. You would only lose access if you sold it, to prevent you selling endless copies, naturally. It's an idle suggestion, of course, that is never likely to happen. But speaking as a content producer for both books and films, who has distributed and sold directly to the consumer, both physical and digital download, I would personally like and do consider that they should own that copy, as an collectable investment, not to be controlled and determined by an International conglomerate, who were never the creators in the first place.