Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathlete
I just don't understand the mentality where some people on these forums see their purchase of an epaper device as a commitment on principle to never read anything other than ebooks for the rest of their lives.
|
WP:Sunk costs :P.
But yeah, I imagine that GA Russell has it right: most who have found that they prefer paper don't stick around Mobileread for very long.[/QUOTE]
+1. I don't read the posts here as being defensive in tone. I do think it's funny people kept feeling it was worth adding their own "No, I didn't" posts, without talking about DRM which was the OPs real point :-).
in answer to that question, there are three options
1. Keep on buying DRM'd books, and DRM readers, from the same source. Assume you can trust them to keep compatible readers in production indefinitely. (Or assume that you won't be annoyed by paying twice for books if you want to read them again in 10 years time).
2. Crack the DRM. (If you don't crack it now, you won't know for sure whether it's possible in the future). That makes you a criminal under EU and US law, and dependent on the continued availability of technology which is suppressed by law. But it is at least physically possible for you to do this with all the major formats right now.
2 b) Grab the books off the darknet (and try to find alternative ways to reimburse your favourite authors). IMO this is morally superior to cracking DRM yourself, but it's more risky (if publishers crack your darknet).
3. Buy only books without DRM. In practice, this currently means p-books + a very restricted selection of e-books. Wait until e-books become more popular, and either the DRM goes away, or a single DRM format becomes dominant enough that you can expect it to remain readable for as long as you like.
I don't see anything wrong with 3). It's just saddening if all this only sinks in _after_ you've bought your e-reader. Hopefully you can afford to chalk it up as a learning experience about technology and markets.
I bought my e-reader because I'd already read so many free e-books online. So it gave me the opportunity / excuse to re-read them on a reflective screen, and download them for archiving purposes. That said, I probably wouldn't have gone ahead if there wasn't also at least one author I was interested in buying, either from Baen's Webscription (which is all DRM-free), or from Fictionwise (which offers less popular books as DRM-free "multi-format").