I Own That 

Now that I've had my digital music player for a few days, I'm reminded of the primary reason why I only use the MP3 format, even though there are better ones out there. MP3 has been around forever, which means that it's widely supported. The format also provides everything I want, and nothing I don't. It compresses music pretty well, and supports embedded tags to mark the song. Most importantly, it doesn't support DRM (Digital Rights Management) in any way, shape, or form. That my friends is it's best feature.

Digital Rights Management is the prime reason why I only own one eBook. That book is The Book of Counted Sorrows by Dean Koontz. The only reason I own that particular one is because it was only made available in eBook format. Granted it is a hilarious book, and I enjoyed it very much. But believe me when I say that if I could have bought in paper format, I would have in a split second. I hate DRM for one main reason, it keeps me from doing what I want to do with what I own.

In order for me to read my eBook, I had to download a special viewer program. Then I had to register that viewer program as mine, because my eBook is also registered to only me. But here is the catch. I can only register that player so many times on different computers, and my eBook will only open in players that are registered specifically to me. So that means that every time I reformat my computer, or buy a new one... I have to think about whether I really want to register that. Can you believe that? I have to think carefully about whether I install a program on a computer! That also means that after some period of time, I won't be able to read a book that I bought and paid for any more.

Now then, most makers of media products probably love that idea. They love the idea of the technology enforcing a sort of temporary license that the buyer didn't know about. Isn't that sneaky? When I buy anything, digital or not, I believe that it is mine. I own it. I am not renting it from you. I want to do with it as I please. If I buy an eBook, I want to be able to print it so I can read it when I'm not in front of a computer. If I buy music online, I want to be able to download it to my MP3 player, burn it on a CD in CD Audio format so I can play it in my car, or anything else I want to do to enjoy my music.

So, I'm putting those companies on official notice. I refuse to buy any digital media product where I don't have a guarantee that I will be able to use it however, and whenever I want. I don't care about the people who illegally trade media. They're not my concern. Your concern is offering me a product that I'm willing to buy, not forcing a product you want to sell down my throat. The sooner you realize that, the sooner I will actually be willing to buy a digital media product from you.