Word: drm
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...Stick to Harcover”), he glosses over the biggest problem with the new gadget. All books that are bought through the Amazon store—which is, of course, the only practical way to read full books at all on the device—come crippled with DRM (Digital Rights Management Software). This is the same type of software that is included on most tracks purchased through the iTunes Music Store. This is “copy protection” software, and he notes that it can complicate the loading and unloading of books from the Kindle...
...because it is unnecessarily incompatible with newer digital audio players. This situation actually happens all the time, and it’s not just fly-by-night retailers going out of business; in the past year Major League Baseball and the Google Video Store have both discontinued their proprietary DRM video services, leaving paying customers high-and-dry with useless video files. Consumers rejected a move several years ago to include DRM on music CDs; will we accept these restrictions on our entire library of books...
Perhaps more importantly, though, is the effect of DRM on fair uses of electronic media. Electronic copyright enforcement through software is a problem, because software is “stupid.” Fair use, in particular, is a complex set of laws that is meant to be interpreted by judges; to attempt to regulate fair use with a piece of software is quixotic and shortsighted. There’s still no way to loan Amazon e-books to friends, borrow them from libraries, photocopy sections of them for a class, or sell a used copy, rights which have...
...bring into stark relief a basic question that haunts the music industry: Can consumers be trusted to control their own music without pirating the record labels and the artists they produce right into the ground? The answer is yes. People have been buying and selling music for years without DRM, in a form you may have heard of called the compact disc. CDs have never had DRM attached. Off the record, most executives--on the technology side at least--will tell you that DRM is a dinosaur that's waiting for the asteroid to hit. It's just a matter...
...real consequences of DRM may have nothing to do with piracy. One side effect of Apple's FairPlay software is that music purchased on iTunes plays only on Apple products--i.e., on iPods. The result is that DRM helps perpetuate Apple's quasi-monopoly in the portable digital-music-player market, which ironically has a slightly Microsoftesque air about it. (The European Union is looking into an antitrust suit.) If--meaning when--Apple drops DRM for good, the playing field on the hardware side will get a whole lot more level and the iPod will have a whole lot more...