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The whole DRM thing is a complete nightmare IMO. Don't get me wrong I absolutely agree that an author/ artist/ producer etc should get paid when someone benefits by consuming their product, but before digital downloads it was so much easier to manage for the average Joe.
Quoth mentions DVD's, VHS etc DRM was never really an issue with them as hardly anyone would have tried to copy them, because you didn't need to, you bought them and you could use them wherever you wanted and lend them or pass them on to whoever you wanted. There was really no advantage to trying to get around the copyright on them as you wouldn't really be gaining anything of significance but you would be breaking the law.
Now I'm not technologically minded but to me instead of this DRM system they have now where you are severely restricted in use I can't see why they couldn't have come up with a system where you have say an e-book file that you've bought but instead of essentially 'copying' that file to an ereader (which I guess is kind of what happens when yo transfer a book to an ereader) the original file is moved to the ereader with a tag left in the originating file - so say you have Stephen Kings IT (my all time fave book) in Calibre and you want to read it on your Kindle, when you send it to your Kindle the original file is moved from your Calibre library and onto your Kindle - the file could leave an indexing file in Calibre so when you move it back it ends up in the same location in Calibre and any tags etc aren't lost. A system like that would allow you to read a book on any device you wish and even lend it to someone but you could only ever do one thing at a time as there would only ever be one copy of the book in existence for you, so if you sold it to someone say you would no longer have the file and if you wanted to read it you would have to buy it again. I guess what I’m saying in a long winded way is surely a copyright system that allows you to move a file wherever you want but doesn’t allow you to copy a file would be a better way to go about protecting ebooks?
Perhaps this is too simplistic a view and I missing something obvious (as I say Im not technologically minded) but its a thought
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