New
#130
Hi there
DRM is a desperately flawed business model these days -- it can even INHIBIT business -- for example if I want to buy an e-book from Kindle (Amazon) - but eventually want to read it on a SONY PRS e-reader or even a NOOK why should I be prevented from doing so -- after all If I buy a physical book it doesn't have a restriction for example that I can't read it in bed but can when I'm sitting on the bog. So the DRM could in fact LIMIT the consumers choice of where they get their books / music etc. from.
(The device might also break / get lost / stolen etc etc -- so you might buy a better value product to replace your old one -- so should your entire library now become useless).
Things like Calibre fortunately convert one format to another and removing DRM from e-books is simplicity itself -- but if you DON'T know how to do this (and I'm not saying here how to do it BTW) then your entire e-book buying range will be restricted to the particular store that the device is "tethered to" -- apart from Sony who use the fairly open standard EPUB.
In any case DRM is just another challenge for hackers out there -- when the price of the product is sensible Piracy is diminished quite substantially.
I've bought several e-books at 3.00 EUR -- but I wouldn't pay the 7.50 EUR (comparable to the printed copy) that these often were charged at -- and I of course removed the AMAZON KINDLE DRM so I could read it in EPUB format on my SONY PRS reader (which I prefer way over the kindle).
The same sort of thing will happen in Windows --If not only am I restricted to getting an application from the Windows store but also only being allowed to use it on a specific computer well then I'm off somewhere else. One can argue that the OS (Windows) should have some sort of restricted license --especially if it came as an OEM license pre-installed on your PC - but APPLICATION software should be moveable to a new machine without any problems --whether re-activation or not is required. Updates and releases of application software don't always follow releases in the OS or hardware - and in any case what happens if a software vendor goes out of business in the meantime --there's no reason why you should stop using the application - especially if it's a good one.
Computers do break or get upgraded -- I'd never pay Adobe ANOTHER 500 USD to use Photoshop for example on a new computer -- especially if the version hadn't changed. -- Adobe for once is actually fine in this --you can even temporarily transfer the license if you need to do some work on another computer.
OS software is one thing - but you should be allowed to move APPLICATION software between machines relatively easily.
If we look at what's happening with Office 2013 --seems Ms are making it IMPOSSIBLE to do this -- so I'm starting to look for alternatives.
Anyway the whole DRM issue is 100% B/S as it's not effective anyway, can't be sensibly policed and really irritates users when they find they can't move their music / video / e-books to newer devices.
Cheers
jimbo