Against Monopoly
defending the right to innovate
Monopoly corrupts. Absolute monopoly corrupts absolutely.
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Biggest Technology Flops
There is an amusing article with a list of "greatest technology flops." Interesting that out of the top three two involve DRM - the Digital Audio Tape: died because of a mandatory copy protection scheme built into every unit, and Circuit City's DIVX - the DVD you couldn't play for more than two days unless you paid them extra money to unlock it. Turning to page two we find e-books - funny but not so many people want to buy e-books that are DRMed for one and only one e-book reader...So it looks like three out of the top fourteen worst business ideas involved DRM. Coincidence? I think not.
[Posted at 04/04/2007 07:55 PM by David K. Levine on DRM 
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Comments
Re eBooks. It is worth pointing out that the only publisher to have any success with them is Baen. Baen publishes DRM-free ebooks (and an e-magazine) at relatively low prices (usually $4-$6). Within the SF community a number of leading non-Baen authors (e.g. Charlies Stross, Cory Doctorow, John Scalzi) and editors (e.g. Tom Doherty and Patrick Nielsen Hayden both from Tor) have repeatedly made the point that DRM and high prices are killing the market because the putative customers are not stupid enough to pay the high prices in most cases.
[Comment at 04/04/2007 11:40 PM by Francis]
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