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Friday, June 3, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
DRM, Ebooks, and Piracy- Ethics Post #3
Many of today's generation, age regardless are interested and mainly fascinated with the new technology that enable us all to empty unwanted pounds in our bags from the heavy books we carry with us on a day to day basis. Being that technology is constantly exceeding all our expectations, ebooks have now been invented for us to be able to carry around hundreds of our favorite books on a very light device that will not hurt our backs any longer. However, within these ebooks there is a special format that is known as Digital Rights Management, or DRM that only allows us all to purchase books or other entertainment of our choice at a certain limit. DRM is software that must be compatible with each device. This now means; movies, books, movies and other areas of literature are no longer going to be free. Items that we all want on our ebooks will now come at a price, like most things in this world.
Before ebooks, we were able to buy and rent movies or library books for a certain amount of time and price, but were not prohibited to lend the items out within that time period because at that point before it was returned, we "owned" it. However, that ship has sailed. We are restricted of purchasing and reselling these items from our ebooks in which we; own, having personal copies, sharing with our friends, and even to the extreme of not being able to back up the purchase at all even when in fact WE own them! This technology came to a stand point where we no longer have the control or opportunity to decide what is rightfully ours anymore because of the DRM laws. They know what we have, what we decide to do with it, and more importantly there is nothing we can do about it as we are refrained from privacy.
The technology of an ebook is so outstanding, yet disappointing at the same time. We were all so excited to have a small device that stored our entertainment wherever we went that it now is a thought through decision by consumers' and the customers, before making an ebook purchase being that it involves all these laws and restrictions within the device. The DRM laws affect the way users and consumers' purchase entertainment within their ebooks knowing that they might not be able to do as they please with something that they invested in. Since the restrictions are so high, the consumers' are aware that there is nothing they can do about it, the cost of the ebooks in general will no longer be the issue. Consumers' will not want to be told what they can and cannot do with a product that they own.
Generally, depending on the needs of the reader, they will just want one format. Now, they are more flexible when it comes to the formats that are available. Not only can they use the e-pub format, they are able to navigate through the other formats such as, MP3 files and PDF files as well. When consumers' are shopping around for the best prices of ebooks for their devices, they are extremely limited. At times, they are often locked out of the system completely. They will only be allowed back in by unethical features and unjust blocking removals. The consequences they believe are not fair, and because of that, Congress will be looking these laws over because of the lack of freedom users' and consumers' have.
Situations can come about where a user loses their ebooks regardless if they backed up their information. However, the license states that if you lose your information they will replace the ebook purchases that have been made within the last calendar month, if the time passes, the user will need to make new purchases. If a user decides to upgrade to a newer model, they will not have to purchase new ebooks. They simply need to use the same account they were using in the previous model they had.
The publisher or device manufacturer cannot truly assure that they are compliant with the epub format if they also have DRM restrictions that are applied. For example, if someone decided to buy an ebook off of Apple, they would only be able to use that on the Ipad. If that wasn't the case, the Epub would lose its original format. However, there are many companies such as Adobe, who are trying to make the formats compatible. The results, will not make customers happy because the prices with escalate immensely. In my opinion i don't think that this will encourage the consumers to want to be a part of such regulation. There are too many restrictions that will turn away their customers, especially the younger generations and senior who face retirement; it is just getting way too expensive for a simple book! Furthermore, I believe it will be nearly impossible to crack DRM protected ebook and save it in another e-book format being that it is such a restricted system, that it would only be normal for them to make it highly protected by anyone who wanted to mess around with it. It seems like a very put together idea, that took a lot of hard work to come up with a software that people potentially hate, they are clearly smart enough that they wouldn't make it so simple to crack through it.
The only ebook that enables users' to lend digital copies of their ebooks to other users' is through the Kindle. The way to lend the book is by looking up the selected books from the publisher's that are offered for lending use. Not only can you lend these books out to the public, but they can be lended out to friends as well. All the user needs to do is enter in the book they want to lend out, type the e-mail address and write a message indicating your lend. However, this lend is not permanent. The user has seven days to accept the loan, and will only last for fourteen days. I believe that this rule is pretty fair, the loan should not be an unlimited amount, because the word loan in general never defines being permanent. As for loaning ebooks to other Ereaders, I agree as well. Each device should be compatible with each other. There is no reason for other manufacturers to go through a mess in order to make sure each ebook works with different Ereader. I assume each Ereader would want to feel more dominant than the other rather than working together.
Ebooks are now able to be created from a physical book, whether it is donated or given from a library. I don't see why this shouldn't be allowed. It's a nice gesture, and there would be not reason for the book to go to waste or unread. However, the rule that they can only borrow the book for two weeks isn't so fair. People read at different paces, and it may take someone longer to read the book. Being that it was donated, there shouldn’t' be a limit to how long someone can use it, if the ebook wasn't bought by the publisher them self. Ebooks are viewed under the same property as a physical book; however, the publishers don't feel that way. They believe that their book that they have created is very precious and should be looked upon more highly than its digital copy. However, other people disagree particularly because the rate in which technology is going is so fast that everything is now being done through technological devices rather than a hard copy of references; so it would make more sense that the digital copy is extremely useful than its original physical copy.
Harper Collin's Position regarding the renewal of a book's license completely is in no offense to the librarians in my opinion. They have to continue to make money somehow and if the library is not going to continue what they want to do with the book, and it is disregarded without its renewal than there should be no reason for the book to be available for the library's use. It is the library's responsibility to provide renewals for the readers, and if they don't cooperate with the publisher, they shouldn't have much of a say. Rules are there for reasons, and if they people don't agree there is not much else to do other than to abide by it.
To be honest, after reading all this information about the Ereader it does not enable me to go run out to purchase one. I am not a big reader to begin with, but especially knowing all the complications are restrictions that come with the purchase of an Ereader; I am not amused. However, if I was to purchase one Ereader in specific it would be the Amazon Kindle; simply because it is the only Ereader that allows lending and borrowing of ebooks in an easy process. Also because they have a reasonable policy if someone was to lose or upgrade their Ereader, they would be able to access their information at a given time. Regardless in the fact that Ereader are inexpensive, the repercussions that come along with it turn me off. If I was a big reader, I might reconsider, but since that isn't the case I am not interested.
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