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It's not just music anymore.
Less than charming, however, is the digital rights management (DRM) used for the project. Fifteen of the biggest Japanese publishers (and Sony) put their heads together to figure out how to offer a compelling collection of novels and other material while protecting their own financial investments in the work and the interests of the authors.
What they came up with is a sad business model that ties downloaded ebooks to a maximum of four devices, which is reasonable enough, but also ensures that the titles purchased (with your money, remember) lock up after 60 days, which is far from reasonable. Sure, the books are cheaper than their real-world equivalents, but who in their right mind is going to buy books that simply evaporate after two months? Periodicals might be suitable for this protective scheme, but none are yet taking advantage of it on the Libri?Ž.
As some of my readers have probably noticed, I read a lot of books. I can guarantee you that my consumption of books would dwindle to about zero if I were to lose the ability to reread or reference that book after 60 days.
Thanks to Simon for the tip.
Posted by Casper at June 24, 2004 12:18 PM