Amazon Quietly Lets Publishers Remove DRM (Update: Or Quietly Adds DRM?)

from the that-seems-like-big-news dept

While everyone was focused on the new Kindle app store or the new royalty rates, perhaps a more interesting new thing slipped quietly by: without telling anyone, Amazon is now giving publishers the option to remove DRM from ebooks. It’s odd that Amazon wouldn’t publicly announce this, but I’m sure it has its own reasons. I doubt many publishers will actually go DRM-free for now, but at least a few can, and I would imagine that will make some Kindle users a lot more comfortable about buying those ebooks. Update: Hmm. In the comments someone points out that another take on this is that it’s actually allowing some publishers who didn’t use DRM before to use it. That would explain why it wasn’t mentioned…

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Companies: amazon

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Comments on “Amazon Quietly Lets Publishers Remove DRM (Update: Or Quietly Adds DRM?)”

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11 Comments
Steve (profile) says:

step 1 complete

Step 1 to me buying an eBook reader is complete. Step 2 will be publishers releasing a good quantity of books I am interested in without DRM. It has to be enough books to justify the cost. I really like the idea of an eBook reader, but previous experiences with pre DRM free iTunes and Audible have scared me away from any service that can lock my purchases to a specific device.

Anonymous Coward says:

bob you are completely wrong. Steve makes a reasonable point – for him, an ebook reader should have particular requirements that are reasonable.

But Kindle with DRM is not a POS. It works very well and you are not tied to a specific unit with your purchases. You can have multiple Kindle’s on an account and share items between them. More importantly, it is clear what you are getting into when you buy it and when you buy the books. Kindle books are sold as Kindle books – not as “ereader books” – so the customer is well aware they are buying for the device.

While I appreciate the concept of a business model that does not use DRM, it is ridiculous to use that as a reason to mark a product a POS, especially when it is very clear to the buyer what he is buying.

/a

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