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Should ebook users have any rights?

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zridling:
ReadWriteWeb has a better question:  Do E-Book Users Need a Bill of Rights? (Librarians Think So.)
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/do_e-book_users_need_a_bill_of_rights_librarians_t.php



Publishers like HarperCollins are already jumping in and setting limits to what users can and cannot do with ebooks, viz., a lot less than you ever could with paper books! This includes broad DRM schemes that tie books to specific devices, composing them in proprietary formats, limiting the number of times they can be read, limiting whether they can be shared, and if so, for how long, and whether a distributor like Amazon can remotely delete your ebooks without your approval. Put simply, ebook consumers want to be treated with respect rather than as a pre-criminal. They suggest not buying DRM books in any form, which includes Google not letting you download the ePub file of purchased books.

Renegade:
Put simply, ebook consumers want to be treated with respect rather than as a pre-criminal.
-zridling (February 28, 2011, 12:16 PM)
--- End quote ---

That goes for a LOT of things. Airports anyone?

The market is really hosed. The ability to remotely delete? That's WAAAAYYYY too far.

Ath:
Let's see what happens if the book-salesman came back after, say, 1 month, and took back the books I bought earlier from my library, while I was sleeping. He wouldn't be selling books for some time then, he'd be in jail! (at least if I caught him, or in the hospital, I'm not sure yet :-\)

Renegade:
Let's see what happens if the book-salesman came back after, say, 1 month, and took back the books I bought earlier from my library, while I was sleeping. He wouldn't be selling books for some time then, he'd be in jail! (at least if I caught him, or in the hospital, I'm not sure yet :-\)
-Ath (February 28, 2011, 05:18 PM)
--- End quote ---

The unfortunate thing is that contract law is so entirely messed up. Basically, it allows for anything at all, and far from being ripe for abuse, it's main purpose (seemingly) is to abuse as much as possible.

So the book salesman who takes back the books isn't stealing. He's enforcing the contract (agreement/EULA).

It's approaching the same levels as patent law now. Not there, but getting there. e.g. "Spyware" isn't spyware if it discloses in an EULA what it does, and there's no recourse for the user as they've agreed to the terms of the EULA by clicking "I agree".

DRM is in the best interests of the company because the more limited your access to the product, the more money they can milk from you. A few little accounting tricks, and they can easily justify it because they "need to stay in business". Again, it's easy to see how the infinite growth model of market economics is very broken.

The problem goes very far beyond just DRM and ebooks. It's a systemic problem and what we're seeing here is simply 1 small symptom.

wraith808:
The problem with remotely deleting comes in large part from the comibination of hardware and software, I think.  I wonder if they have the same capabilities with the kindle app.

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