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Lesson for Kindle fans and other e-bookers? ‘What if Apple stopped issuing DRM keys?’ Same danger?
August 3, 2008 | 12:36 pm
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By David Rothman
Paul Biba, a valued TeleBlog contributor, was spot on when he praised the Kindle‘s easy of use.
No need for geekdom. No transfers from your PC. You use the Kindle to shop for books and download them, not just read ‘em.
I actually want to see Paul write more posts like that. Amazon deserves credit for the positives. Meanwhile we’ll keep providing Kindle news and views from Joe Wikert, a Wiley exective and big Kindle booster.
But could Kindle ownership come with a serious risk—that you won’t be able to use your books the way you want in the future?
Same for all DRMed books. But the Kindle is a special case—right now you can’t even read Kindle Store titles on your PC.
MSN and Yahoo DRM horrors: The perils of DRMed anything
As if to counter Paul, indirectly, a CNet writer named Greg Sandoval has just asked a valid question that could apply to e-books, not just online music: What if Apple stopped issuing DRM keys? He notes how MSN (here) and Yahoo (here) stopped issuing DRM keys. The companies later made special arrangements with owners. But this happened only amid uproars.
Point is, you don’t own DRM music or books or DRMed anything for real. You’re at the mercy of the company with the DRM server. This is why, although I love e-books, having written about them since the early 1990s, I normally buy best-sellers as used p-books. I don’t want them to vanish.
Unlikely—but how about five or ten years from now?
In the case of today’s Apple, I agree with Sandoval that a shutoff of DRM keys is rather unlikely. "Still," he goes on, "things do change. Who can say what will happen at Apple in 5 or 10 years? That’s a long time from now. But the truth is, DRM’s threat to iTunes users’ music libraries is real."
Going by account of a former Amazon staffer, Bezos has even said in the past that his company may not be in the book business forever.
Stock prices vs. the durability of your library
Joscha Bach a member of the TeleBlog community member, put it well in responding to our post about the Bezos statement.
"Eventually, Amazon’s book business will stagnate. Even if it stagnates at a nice level: who is going to buy stagnant stock? So Jeff Bezos is right with considering to move on. Even if it would turn out not be in the best interest of the society at large. Such are the perils of capitalism." Exactly. Although a capitalist, I recognize the risks Joscha talks about. If Amazon wants to put customers at ease, then it should ditch DRM and sell nonprotected books in ePub or another standard format that will survive a change in Amazon’s business plans. Amazon sells nonDRMed music? Why not nonDRMed books?
Just one more example of DRM’s folly
This inconsistency, probably resulting from Amazon’s investment in e-book DRM, is just one more example of the folly of the technology. Face it. If a book is really popular, then pirates will can the paper edition. Should we ban p-books as well?
Simply put, DRM is a con against publishers, not just consumers, and I hope that the former will eventually wake up and encourage Bezos to ditch the technology. Otherwise, like consumers, they’d better hope he does not change his business plans and damage people’s faith in books as a durable medium.
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Comments:
Not only another reason why DRM is not good but another reason why the Sony — with all its “inconveniences” vis-a-vis the Kindle — is a better choice.
There’s a fundamental difference between Apple’s DRM model and Microsoft’s and Yahoo’s. MS and Y! required you to periodically return to their servers to re-authorize; Apple gives you the key permanently. In addition, Apple allows you to burn purchased music to disc, something that was rather more restricted with other services. So Apple owners have an out–burn to disc, and re-rip as MP3.
– C
Well you can of course take your Kindle books and run them through a Crippleware remover such as the Mobidedrm scripts available at various places on Teh Intertubes. That way you can also transfer them from your Kindle to whatever ebook reader you choose next. If I had a Kindle (which I don’t) and I’d bought a lot of kindle books I’d be storing uncrippled versions on a backup storage medium or two just in case.
(And yes doing this may violate licensing terms, the DMCA and possibly other intellectual property regulations)
Ive said it before add drm and it’s no longer a purchase but a leasing agreement. In principle it might be that the agreement cant be terminated but in practice well…
A lot of it comes down to people trying to frame new stuff into a old framework where it just dont fit, you cant trade ebooks the way you trade books and the same goes for music. Simply because the legel framework is’t the same.
Thanks, Cerebus. One thing to keep in mind is that Apple has a device limit. So if you want to go to switch in new devices, what happens if the DRM server is gone or kaput? Be great if you can enlighten us. Thanks. David
I had this happen to me: Anybody remember emBidd? Since then I’ve stopped buying DRM-books from eReader (or whatever Fictionwise will call it; I stopped when it was either still Palm or eReader’s property) and don’t buy “secure Mobipocket” from Fictionwise.