Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
If you're going to decry something you should be specfic about what you decry.
Encryption-based DRM is bad? Always?
|
Yes.
Quote:
|
You ready to decry library lending of commercial ebooks?
|
Yes.
Why? Because library books should be available to everyone* imo. I understand _why_ they use encryption based DRM and it makes more sense than for bought products, however, there will still be people out there who cannot read library ebooks because of the DRM and only because of the DRM.
Got a kindle? Our local library doesn't** support it. I have to check out the book, rip the DRM, (sometimes) convert and copy to the kindle.
Take DRM on DVDs.
This is an example where for the most part it's transparent to most users. It doesn't tend to get in the way as much as it did for music or ebooks. However, that is until you get to Linux users or users who want a media library (e.g on a central home server) who without the DRM would be able to play it fine or rip/convert it no problem. With DRM they've to break it which resulted in a criminal trial against the author.
Another example, iPlayer. For some time it wasn't available on linux because the streams were encrypted. This was a service that should be available to ALL UK license payers and if it wasn't for the DRM, it would have been even without the BBC directly supporting the development of a linux player, one would have been created for free by the open source community. The content would of course be pirated, but then it already is.
That said, I'm more against DRM on content we buy than on content we rent.
* Just to clarify what I mean by everyone. I mean, everyone who could legally read the content if it wasn't for the DRM getting in the way. e.g you have hardware that is able to view the content in that format, then an arbitrary technical restriction shouldn't prevent that. Even if your device doesn't support mobi or whatever format the DRM should not prevent the possibility of format conversion. If there's no way to convert formats at that time, assume calibre doesn't yet support it, then fair enough, but there should always be the possibility that someone could legally add support at a later date.
** Didn't last time I used it, maybe overdrive now supports kindles, however even if they do or add support in the coming year, there will always be more devices than overdrive have developers to support. Devices that their manufacturer or the opensource community could support themselves if only the DRM didn't get in the way.