Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
Now who's talking about something that doesn't exist. 
If the publishers/industry can implement something like that to force ebooks to emulate pbooks and everyone agrees this is how it should work and it's a common format etc. I'm all for it. ... DRM may change to allow selling, lending, or burning just like pbooks but it's not there yet |
B&N has a method for sharing DRM'd ebooks.
But they only allow you to use it once, for two weeks, and only for some publishers--unlike your physical books, which can be loaned for any length of time, to any number of people, regardless of publisher.
That's a pretty solid indication that publishers aren't interested in allowing people to treat their ebooks like pbooks; they want to discourage sharing as much as they can get away with.
There's no reason Adobe couldn't create a transfer-of-DRM option... if it costs to maintain the servers, maybe charge $.50 or $1 to move ownership of an ebook to a new account. If they did that, people could resell their DRM'd ebooks for $2, make a bit of profit & cover the expense of moving the file... but the publishers don't want people reselling ebooks.
Everyone doesn't have to agree on how it should work, for publishers using current DRM to offer the ability to legally transfer ownership of an ebook. Right now, none of them are offering that option--all claim that the original purchaser is the only lawful owner/user of the book. Some even claim it's not legal to sell your ebook device with ebooks still on it.
They're not seeking to prevent illegal copies; they're trying to prevent the secondhand book market from going digital.