Are Fair Use Rights coming to an end?

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I expect that when the dust settles, small publishers who don't use DRM will watch their businesses grow, while the large publishers who use DRM will continue to panic as bookstores go bankrupt and they fail to meet customers' interests for digital content.

Amazon has no incentive to make its files readable on the Nook. B&N has no incentive to sell to Kindle users. Both would rather people with different devices had to re-buy their books for the other platform. Since the purpose of the DRM is to prevent casual sharing, not piracy (which is going to happen no matter what they do; scanning the paper is always going to be an option), their solutions aren't going to be oriented toward customer usability but vendor lock-in, which they don't get from universal formatting standards.

[sadievan]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

Sadly, at present, the book situation is nowhere near where the music business was.

The money involved was huge, as was the scale of bootlegging, and the industry had to find an acceptable compromise with an existing fait accompli, so they they could still make money.

I fear the consumer side of the equation with books is nowhere near being in a powerful enough position to seriously affect any of the publishing side's decision. We just aint strong enough, in numbers or power.

I agree. I think it will be a long time before we see any change.

Carol

[DMB]

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

Of course not -- because DVD has become the standard for video technology (although Blue-Ray is now trying to edge it out). If I recall correctly, PAL and VHS had a battle over video format for quite a while before VHS became the industry standard.

Sorry, but you don't recall correctly. PAL corresponds to the US NTSC. PAL was the European standard for colour TV and NTSC the American one.

VHS and Betamax were rival videotape formats. So you needed to buy, say. NTSC VHS recording or perhaps a PAL VHS one, depending on your TV and your tape player. See this account of the struggle over format.

[PKFFW]

Hasn't it been argued ad nauseam that it is not possible to develop a DRM scheme that can't be broken? Something about the code for the key having to be in the code for the lock so the rightful buyer can access the content?

So really, what's the issue? Those who want to free up their content will be able to if they are just patient enough to wait for someone to crack the DRM. No different to how it is today really.

Of course if the issue is one of principle, ie: that DRM is evil and should never have been invented in the first place, that is another matter and I'd have to say I agree. In principle that is.

Cheers,
PKFFW

[taustin]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

Fair use rights are part of the rights package written into the United States constitution yes?

No. You are, as usual, incorrect.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by PKFFW

Hasn't it been argued ad nauseam that it is not possible to develop a DRM scheme that can't be broken? Something about the code for the key having to be in the code for the lock so the rightful buyer can access the content?

So really, what's the issue? Those who want to free up their content will be able to if they are just patient enough to wait for someone to crack the DRM. No different to how it is today really.

Of course if the issue is one of principle, ie: that DRM is evil and should never have been invented in the first place, that is another matter and I'd have to say I agree. In principle that is.

Cheers,
PKFFW

Before too many years the convergence of better and better displays together with better and better ocr software will end drm ebooks once and for all.

Because it will become possible to use a camera to rip books from a screen flawlessly. It may be four years down the road, or it may be sixteen years down the road.

Just as the development of wysiwyg word processors eventually reached the point where improvements for the purpose of printing documents became moot, this will happen.

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by PKFFW

Hasn't it been argued ad nauseam that it is not possible to develop a DRM scheme that can't be broken? Something about the code for the key having to be in the code for the lock so the rightful buyer can access the content?

So really, what's the issue? Those who want to free up their content will be able to if they are just patient enough to wait for someone to crack the DRM. No different to how it is today really.

Of course if the issue is one of principle, ie: that DRM is evil and should never have been invented in the first place, that is another matter and I'd have to say I agree. In principle that is.

Cheers,
PKFFW

I think you better read what the developers wrote one more time. It doesn't appear that waiting for someone to crack the drm is going to be the issue.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I'm sorry, I didn't intend my message to be read as asking for a specific link, I just wanted an idea of a heading or text to look for on the page. I apologize for inadvertently causing others to run afoul of the rules.

Read the comments to the blog posts, rather than the blog posts.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I'm sorry, I didn't intend my message to be read as asking for a specific link, I just wanted an idea of a heading or text to look for on the page. I apologize for inadvertently causing others to run afoul of the rules.

That's okay. No one's in trouble. That was just a friendly reminder to all of our DRM policy.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by PKFFW

Hasn't it been argued ad nauseam that it is not possible to develop a DRM scheme that can't be broken? Something about the code for the key having to be in the code for the lock so the rightful buyer can access the content?

It's true that all DRM schemes can be broken.

The question is how easy it is to do it. What the statement says is that it's becoming much harder to do. And there may come a time when it becomes practically impossible unless other things are broken first.

All DRM schemes rely on secrets that are hidden from the user of the software. By hiding the DRM secret behind other secrets, the layers of concealment need to be removed one by one to finally get to the DRM secret.

[sabredog]

My installation for K4PC updated a couple of weeks or so. Is there a way to stop it auto-updating, or will older versions simply cease to work with new Amazon ebook releases?

[poohbear_nc]

This announcement of beefing up Kindle ebooks DRM strength seems to me to tie in with the announcement of Amazon "renting" textbooks. To get publishers on board, Amazon has to be able to convince the publishers that students won't be able to rent one copy, strip the DRM & expiration mechanism, and then share one copy among an entire class. Or strip the DRM and start an "used" ebook market similar to that of pbooks. For this plan, Amazon would need to develop DRM strong enough or hidden enough to withstand cracking (remember how long it took to crack Topaz?) or to have DRM whose mechanism could be changed without warning (like the new releases of K4PC).
I see this as a serious move to establish a secure ebook textbook market. Just contemplate what students now pay for pbook textbooks.

[monkeygirl351]

I don't use the K4PC to get around the DRM issue. I use the actual books from the kindle and calibre to crack the books. Is that going to be affected? So far I haven't had any issues and I haven't even updated to the latest tools yet. I really hope amazon doesn't get dirty with this issue.
I buy my books legally and I want to be able to back them up my way and not rely on a company to do so. This will really suck if this becomes a bigger issue as I will not buy a book that I can't crack.
I am not pirating or anything I just don't want to be locked down to one store or device. I love my kindle and probably won't change devices, but I also buy books from a variety of places like BandN, kobo, ect plus I use the library. Amazon isn't my only source for books, but it is the easiest one. If they don't let me back up my books and convert them for my own purposes, well they will just get a lot less purchases from me. Right now I have over 200 dollars on my account with them for ebook purchases that I regularly add money to. I am a pretty heavy ebook buyer, but that will stop I am afraid if I can't release my books as I get them.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Is there a way to stop it auto-updating, or will older versions simply cease to work with new Amazon ebook releases?

"Yes" to the first question. Under options... uncheck the box to update automatically.

"I don't know" to the second question. I have 1.0.1-beta installed on a machine that's still working fine.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It's true that all DRM schemes can be broken.

If it can be displayed on a computer screen, it can be captured and written to another device (memory location or file). By definition, an ereader must break its own DRM in order to display the ebook, and it can be captured. It only depends on what layer the capture occurs at.

So, yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus! It’s only a matter of how deep into the innards you want to dig.