[Leslie]

Lara,

Take a deep breath and remember...you are among friends here, and we get it.

Like others have said, you made your point eloquently and clearly. If the other poster decides not to get it, no amount of arguing from you will change his mind. "I've made up my mind, don't bother me with the facts."

Time for you to have a cup of tea and do a little Kindle reading. Maybe look at some Hugh pictures, too. 

L

 

[Leslie]

Whenever I read about how bad or evil DRM is, how you can't truly own your DRM files, how you might not be able to read them again if your format or store goes out of business, I like to remind people about the audio books on cassette tape I own. I paid for them and I did listen to them once, years ago. But I don't have a cassette player anymore and I'll never hear them again. Therefore: Are cassette tapes bad? Are they evil? Does the fact that I can't listen to them mean I don't truly own them?

Sure, it sucks I can't listen to them anymore, but the cassettes aren't inherently bad, the store that sold them to me aren't evil minions of corporate greed, and I'm not entitled to download illegal digital copies as recompense.

Very good point...although the DRM people would probably argue that when you did own a cassette player, you could play your tapes on multiple devices: the one in your stereo system, your car, the portable one you take to the gym. You were not restricted to listening to your tapes only on the portable device, for example. That doesn't mean I agree with this argument, I can just see how someone would come back and say that.

To me, part of the problem is calling the things we read on our Kindles "books." I think "book" should be restricted to the physical item made of paper and ink. Ebooks are not the same thing as a book and if you don't like some or all of the characteristics of ebooks, then maybe you shouldn't read them. I don't like some of the characteristics of books (weight, bulky, hard to hold) and for this reason, I have come to prefer ebooks. DRM doesn't bother me.

L