Jeff Bezos praises Amazon’s success with DRM-free music: Will he unshackle Mobi books next?

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By David Rothman

“Everybody loves the DRM free format, so selling MP3s is very successful for us. We have a lot of initiatives that we continue to work on. One of the things with our MP3 store is the way we look at it, the onus is on us to continue to convince music labels that this is a good way to sell their music.” – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos during an earnings call.

The TeleRead take: Amazon actually insists on DRM for the books it sells in the Mobipocket format. Is the DRM there to protect intellectual property or help keep at bay competitors who eventually want to use a core format standard such as .epub? The excuse that “The publishers want it” won’t fly. Publishers such as Baen and Drollerie Press dislike DRM as much as I do. Why should Amazon try to inflict DRM on the unwilling? One compromise could be the use of social DRM. (Spotted via Billtrippe.com.)

Technorati Tags: Amazon , Jeff Bezos , MP3 , music , music sales , books , publishing industry , publishing

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