Quote:
Originally Posted by Kumabjorn
Confession time.
When I first joined and started to read about DRM, something I'd never encountered before, my initial thought was, "a bunch of whiners who wants everything for free". Now I know better. Can't believe how ignorant I was.
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That's ok. Most people aren't even aware of DRM until it bites them. It's definitely not that we want things for free... we just want to be able to keep what we paid for. Imagine if you owned an Oldsmobile or Saturn and when GM dropped those brands, you could no longer drive your car or you could only drive it until it had an issue and then you could no longer find parts for it (which may not be far from reality).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
Often, it wasn't even possible to play songs outside the player the seller offered, or they only worked on select devices. (So, they were comparable to non-stripped eBooks.) Many, maybe most of the non-iTunes stores died within 1-3 years, and it was "big news" that many people lost the content they paid for.
Therefore, I already am in the know from the very beginning, before I started to buy digital-only content. I started to buy digital-only content in 2009 or so, when GOG.com launched, and later, eBooks in 2011, after making sure I could get the DRM off of them. For music, I still go the second-hand CD-route to create my own digital music; FLAC files, this time around.
Many people, especially younger and older persons and not too tech-savvy people, are not that lucky. They sometimes get very nasty surprises with regard to content not being readable or available.
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Even with DRM-free content, it's always wise to download and store it locally just in case. Baen's deal with Amazon could have been exclusive and we could have lost all of the books we'd bought from them. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. Hopefully the ebook industry will catch on soon. Baen and Tor are leading the way.
