We finally get to a point where we lose the DRM on our music, and now we’re going to be getting DRM on our digital books. Apple’s apparently offered up FairPlay DRM to book publishers, and the publishers are probably going to bite and apply it to every single e-book they publish.
The idea is to protect publishers “rights” and ensure that people won’t turn around, and place the books on pirate sites. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but it didn’t exactly work out for the music and video industry did it? Heck, Apple’s own AppStore has been circumvented, and you can get every single application for free with a jailbroken iPhone.
What really worries me isn’t that the DRM will stop users from sharing their books with friends. It’s that the DRM might make it easier to censor books. I don’t mean censoring an idea here, or a thought there, I’m talking about making books go away entirely. You know, in that Fahrenheit 451 kind of way. It’s a slippery slope, and with governments like China’s still kicking around, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until we start seeing some books being banned from an iTunes store. Until DRM is completely done away with, I’m a little bit reluctant to purchase an e-book that could suddenly disappear.
Via Apple Insider
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