Quote:
Originally Posted by SensualPoet
I agree that if I buy an ebook, I ought to be able to read it on any device I happen to have. That day is coming: we've seen it in the shift in music purchases from Apple locked AAC files to completely open mp3 files. I have no intention of buying a book for this reader or that.
Where we might disagree is that -- given how good the Kindle store and customer service is, and how elegant the Kindle 2 reader is -- there is no reason to boycott Amazon / Kindle on the chance that, sometime in the future, a few present day purchases get "locked out".
Onerous DRM has never survived: not in computer software, not in music files. One way or the other, in a year or two or three, e-books will follow this trend and be open and, in the meantime, the reader fussed by DRM has under the table options for a safety zone.
In the meantime, I'd simply remind everyone with a Kindle and buying from Amazon: there is no reason to believe Amazon will fold up its tent and trundle away in six months, or two years or five years. Anything you are buying today ought to have a reasonable timeline to consume the purchase. Backups are gravy: and nothing suggests they won't continue to be available through coming software updates.
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I'm with you and I believe its too late for Amazon to back out now. However, you do need to understand where some of us are coming from. Many years ago Amazon was in the ebook business and they sold books protected using Adobe's technology. Then they withdrew from that business and eventually went with a mobipocket approach. If you purchased adobe ebooks from them you couldn't read them on your Kindle.
So the concern is that eventually the industry will settle on a new standard (epub?) and that all of your Kindle books will be lost.
My belief is that the market is now too large for Amazon to abandon its kindle customers. Also, Amazon owns its own book format so they will be in control (unlike their earlier experience with Adobe). I'm not forecasting that Kindle/AZW/Mobi will die; however if it does I think Amazon would make the conversion for you. You would be able to redownload your books in any new format that became available. Sony recently did this when it changed formats.