Posted by Peter Ceresole on July 22, 2009 at 17:36:18 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: How very Amazon - like posted by Dave Thewlis on July 22, 2009 at 01:10:31:
To find an AR connection is difficult - except that I'm pretty sure he would have no truck with such things, given that he was strongly oriented towards choice, even if wrong.
But AR didn't need DRM, because in his time printing was an industrial process that required far more means than an individual, or a small group, would command. So his living was protected.
However, I'm sure he would have viewed systematic unauthorized publication with a very jaundiced eye. And nowadays, that's what DRM is intended to prevent, however imperfectly.
The trouble is, technological change does make for far reaching changes, many of which spill over into the moral field. The reality is that Amazon's actions over the Kindle are quite understandable. After all, it's their living too, and that of the authors who provide their stock in trade. It doesn't mean that what they did was right in every way; it's just that there is a knee-jerk reaction against DRM, and often I think it's just plain wrong. A bit equivalent to complaining about people who lock their front doors. I certainly lock mine, and I don't feel at all bad about it.