Quote:
Originally Posted by JMikeD
Hardly seems like platform lock-in, since you don't have to own a Kindle to read books from the Kindle store.
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You still have to own Amazon-controlled software. You can't read a Kindle DRM-restricted ebook on a Sony PRS-300. You can't read a Sony DRM-restricted ebook on a Kindle. And any time they want to, Amazon can stop distributing that software -- and, given that it's Amazon (1984, anyone?), they can probably disable it by remote control.
Yes, you can strip the DRM (though that's a felony in some jurisdictions) so you can actually read your book on whatever you feel like reading it on ... but you shouldn't have to. You don't need a hammer and chisel to get the cover open on your paper book if you want to read it in bed instead of on your couch, and you shouldn't need the electronic equivalent to read it on your PRS instead of your Kindle.
I'm on the hardcore end of the anti-DRM spectrum. I won't buy a book and strip the DRM because I feel that buying DRM-restricted books gives the publishers a reason to believe that the market will accept them. "The market" might, but my tiny little corner won't, and I choose to spend my book budget at Baen, BVC, O'Reilly, and other vendors who don't use DRM.