Some good commentary on the Amazon Kindle “wireless reading device”:
- Daring Fireball: DUM
- Dive into Mark: The Future of Reading
- /Message: Another iPod, or Another Newton?
Not considering whether they’ve created a good solution for reading eBooks and other online material, it sounds like it’s the same old digital rights management harassment. I’m amazed that no one has tried to come up with a good solution that allows casual sharing (close friends or family), while preventing wholesale pirating. Companies are still approaching it from the viewpoint of complete lockdown to the single customer who bought the product.
When I worked at Palm, we worked with ebook publisher Peanut Press (now eReader). They created a clever solution that allowed casual sharing: your credit card number unlocked the book after you installed it on your handheld. Using a credit card meant you’d probably share it with your spouse, family, or close friend, but certainly wouldn’t publish it beyond that.
Hopefully somewhere along the line, someone can come up with something that makes the publishers happy from a piracy viewpoint, but let’s their customers have a bit of freedom with the product.