Quote:
Originally Posted by Moejoe
We do have water troughs, they're called petrol (gas)stations and the horses were replaced with cars. We're fundamentally doing exactly the same as we did all along. And the problem with your 'adapting' model is that there's no real technical limitation unless we apply the artificial limitation of DRM.
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If, by "fundamentally," you mean we are still moving from place to place... yes. But the difference between getting around in a horse and carriage and driving around in a car is vast. Are petrol stations in front of every other building? Do horses require oil changes? Did horses come with warranties? Do cars drive themselves when you fall asleep? Did we need to lock up horses when we got off? Can a horse cover 500 miles in a day?
"Fundamentally," we are still reading. But beyond that, there are essential differences between printed and electronic books that can't be denied or ignored. Trying to treat e-books like printed books only holds e-books back (which, as it happens, is exactly what had happened to e-books for the past 20 years).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moejoe
This isn't about what we want, or what is easily doable with the technology we have in hand, but what they want. By they I mean those who control the media and place the ridiculous DRM on the products we consume.
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No... it's about what
everybody wants. Without readers, publishers have no market. Without publishers, readers have no (well, a lot less) content. If no middle ground is discovered, both sides will lose.
Other industries have ably demonstrated that DRM can be part of a middle ground solution. Only in e-books have customers remained mule-stubborn in accepting those solutions, and as a result, e-books are presently behind every other electronic media product. Even the music industry found a way to work DRM into their system, long enough to gain and train their customers into being regular revenue streams... after which they could begin to remove DRM and go to the next step.