Microsoft deletes e-library and Digital Rights Management Server: NPR
A man reads a book on his e-book reader device. In July, Microsoft will delete the e-book library and cease all e-book sales.
Joerg Sarbach / Associated Press
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Joerg Sarbach / Associated Press
A man reads a book on his e-book reader device. In July, Microsoft will delete the e-book library and cease all e-book sales.
Joerg Sarbach / Associated Press
Coffee poured. Pillow fluffed. E-book loaded. You are ready to start a wonderful afternoon on your e-reader when poof, the book disappears.
In July, the Microsoft e-book library ends and deletes e-books from all devices. Consumers will receive a refund for each book purchased.
The company can close its store – as it launched in 2017 to compete with the industry leaders Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble – due to a tool called Digital Rights Management or DRM
DRM allows businesses to control content to Protect licensees and prevent piracy.
"One of the things I think people don't realize is crucial, is that DRM and related software tools are embedded in all kinds of devices we buy," Aaron Perzanowski, author of End of ownership: Personal property in the digital economy, tells NPRs Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
"Your car, your smart appliances, your home security system – all these systems have software that gives this kind of control over how the devices are used, and I think we should see these same kinds of situations throwing in the context of physical devices used in people's home. "
It is time for @FTC to consider whether a refund is really sufficient when a seller confiscates the media or bricks on your device. https://t.co/DaO73bLoti
– Aaron Perzanowski (@APerzanowski) June 30, 2019
The way in which DRM is employed has been criticized by consumers and earned claims for regulating Big Tech companies .
"The first vision for DRM was to allow the sale of digital goods online in a way that reduced the risk of copyright infringement," Perzanowski said.
"As this technology has been implemented, we have seen that the major beneficiaries of DRM have not been copyright holders. They have been technology companies such as Amazon, like Microsoft, capable of controlling these ecosystems to do so. more difficult for consumers to switch to new platforms. "
In a University of Pennsylvania Law Review article, Perzanowski found that users are often misled when they click on the" Buy Now "button and think they've got permanent ownership of digital content
Other companies, like Amazon and Walmart, have had issues with DRM-related issues in
E-book and online shopping giant, Amazon, saw scrolls when it deleted some George Orwell books from the Kindle's DRM server, including 1984 . Apparently, the company did not understand the irony of deleting a book that famously describes the dangers of mind control.
Perzanowski worries that DRM erodes personal property rights and that scope extends beyond digital media.
"You can go out and buy a car and you think you own the car because it is parked in your garage," says Perzanowski. "But in reality – how it works, who can repair it, which replacement parts are compatible with it – all this is controlled via software code. And then I think that the line between the physical and the digital is becoming increasingly blurred. "
In an explanation posted on his website, Microsoft adds that anyone who wrote notes or marked e-books will receive an additional $ 25 credit.
Frank Scardera, a Reddit user, is one of the many Microsoft consumers affected by e-book flushing.
"I was disappointed when Microsoft announced that they shut down service. "" In the future I will buy books from sources that use DRM-free formats, so if a service is turned off, I will not lose the books or other media. "
NPR's Peter Breslow and Barrie Hardymon produced and edited this story for broadcasting.
