Apple's e-books to be fettered by our old friend, FairPlay DRM


Looks like Apple didn’t learn its lesson with the whole iTunes DRM thing. I suppose that they might consider some things worth DRM-ing and some not, but I think it’s more along the lines of they’ll do it whenever they think they can get away with it. And they seem to think that’s the case with their new e-book store, which will sell books laced with delicious FairPlay DRM.

Apparently they think that a different medium somehow deserves different treatment. I don’t think they understand that e-books, movies, music, and whatever else gets sold on a digital marketplace are all completely interchangeable as far as DRM strategy goes: you can do it, but people won’t like it, and eventually you’ll have to relent. And the fun part is that the DRM will not be effective — since the people who want to circumvent the DRM will always find a way to do so, and those who don’t want to do it wouldn’t try in the first place. So… who’s it for?