Michael Koby

In our last post (Get Your Reading On: eBooks), we looked at exactly what electronic books are and some of the advantages to using eBooks. We only touched on how to read electronic books by mentioning the MobiPocket Reader for PC and mobile devices. We mentioned some hardware electronic book readers but didn’t really go into too much detail. This post is going to change that. Today, we will look at electronic book readers, both software and hardware based. Read more »

Today via a Business Week article, Sony announced plans to drop DRM and begin selling DRM-Free, Mp3 tracks in Amazon.com’s Mp3 Download store.  This is the signal in the true death of DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Sony/BMG records was the final hold out for DRM-Free music after Warner announced in late December that they would be selling tracks on Amazon (I personally used that announcement to purchase the Juno movie soundtrack).   With this, the four largest record companies are now DRM-Free and Amazon has successfully grown its product base considerably in the last 2-3 months of it’s Mp3 Store’s opening.  This is partially due to the record labels wanting to get out from under Apple and it’s “restrictive pricing structures” (the record executives’ words, not mine, see my comments on this further down).  However, I am all for the “whatever works” model of getting rid of DRM.  If it means Apple is going to have to wait in line to get DRM free tracks, then so be it. Read more »