Posted by Adam Quinan on April 03, 2012 at 15:46:44 user Adam.
In Reply to: Re: S&A in Kindle ebook posted by davidm on April 02, 2012 at 11:49:32:
I feel that the problem of DRM arrives because current technology can't match two separate sets of expectations. It is all based on the fact that E-books are very easy to copy and distribute widely compared to a paper and ink book.
The publishers and authors deserve to be paid for their products and have put DRM in place to ensure that is what happens rather than have free copies spread far and wide.
However, purchasers of books also have a set of expectations generated nover the centuries that once they buy a book, that DRM has killed in the case of E-books. For paper and ink books, purchasers have the right to move that book wherever they like, they can lend or even give it to a friend once they have read it. They have the right to re-sell it again. DRM kills all these understood rights.
If E-books were significantly cheaper than paper and ink, then I expect people would feel happier about these restrictions, but as paper and ink is a fairly low proportion of a books price, in some cases it is cheaper to buy a paperback than an E-book.
However, people's ownership rights should also have some value and I feel that publishers are setting themselves up for piracy in the same way that music companies did by pricing E-books as essentially the same as traditional books. DRM can be broken and the more price pressure that readers are put under, the more likely they are to cross that ethical barrier if they determine that the publishers are not treating them ethically.