http://www.defectivebydesign.org/dayagainstdrm/

I had no idea... kinda cool if you ask me unless it's just a marketing fad by merchants like Oreilly to promote an ebook sale :P (they link to the webside above from their sale).

However, I must say, I don't have much experience with DRMed ebooks (expect them occasionally putting my name on it, that's the extent of it). Mine have been pretty much DRM-free so far...

Yeah, I only just heard about this too.

Good luck getting more attention than "Star Wars Day".

The ebook world seems to be toying with the idea of ditching DRM as a way to break Amazon.com's stranglehold on the ebook world. This is one case where the publisher's and authors believe their interests actually lie in line with ours. Ironic that it took someone else beating them handily and bossing them around for awhile to realize it, but yeah...

Well, thank goodness for Amazon then. I guess that's a case of free market principles actually working for a change.

However, it's work is not done. It needs to kick their butts even further and force them to offer the ebook edition of hard copies that you purchase for free.

Atm, the only publisher who does that that I know of is Manning. Oreilly half does it (charges 5$ extra for the ebook once you bought the book, but it feels like robbery since you already paid for the intellectual property when you bought the hard copy).

Obviously, purchasing the ebook only would be even better, but until they can come up with something like the Kindle, but at least twice the screen size and an affordable price, it won't be a viable option. Because let's face it, a 6" screen might be ok for reading a novel, but when you read a technical book that was formatted for a bigger page with schemas, code and whatnot, you want that extra space.

WARNING ME RANTING!:

This is why I read books on paper and cover litirally I cannot believe people bought ebooks for the sake of conviniance and because of that the Borders in the mall I go to closed down because of f#ckin DRM ridden ebooks that bought "BECAUSE IT'S CONVIENIANT. I DON'T WANNA GO TO A STORE AND WAIT IN LINE AND PUT BOOKS ON MY SHELF"

RANT OVER!

........I apolegize to anyone I offended, I just despise ebooks with a passion

Really?

Actually, if there was a good medium to read ebooks that is eye friendly, I'd always choose ebooks because:

1) It helps the environment

2) It is more convenient. I don't know about you, but I have over 40 technical books in my library. Sometimes, I need to consult them for reference and sometimes, I work away from home. How do you fency carrying over 40 technical books wherever you go?

why would I want to carry 40 books with me when I am going somewhere instead 1 or 3? especially since books have a lot of pages which gives me alot of time to invest in one book

I find pleasure in the fact that the only reason Amazon has a hold on the e-book world in the first place is because the e-book world chose Amazon monopoly as its DRM. DRM was great until it came back and slapped them in the face, it seems.

This, some types of books I don't need physical copies and they'll be outdated soon anyway. I just need access to the material, sometimes a website will do (wiki or whatever) sometimes a book format is better.

I don't like ebooks for three reasons.
1: I find it much more easy on the eyes reading a book than staring at a computer screen.
2: Books are more fun the same way a boxed game is more fun to have than a digital copy. Put it in on a shelf and all that.
3: Cuddle up in a comfortable chair before a open fireplace with a computer or other digital device. No way. You need a book for that. :) I'm getting a little tired of people saying it helps the environment to buy digital copies of everything. Almost all electricity produced is definitely not good for the environment and producing computers ain't either. Using "dirty" electricity and buying new digital devices to use digital copies of stuff on ain't much better for the environment than physical copies. Not to mention most digital devices that are thrown away end up poisoning said environment.
I agree it's a little better but not as much as people tend to think.

I agree with Tarm especialliy the about that people will just dispose their old ebook electronic device just to buy another updated ebook at least with printed books you can recycle the paper

I find learning stuff on the internet to be a bit of a chore when I'm not well grounded in the subject matter.

The information is often incomplete and disjointed (and sometimes even contradictory) so you need to do a fair amount of research and stitch it all together. Not only that, you're not even sure that the information you gleened covers all the important bases.

In short, you need to do a fair amount of work per amount of information learned and my time is definitely worth something.

Give me a well written book written by an authority in the field (and all the personal insights that come with it) any day.

And once I've read the book, I'm familiar with it's layout, so looking for info (unless it's minor syntax stuff) in the book will still be faster than looking it over the internet (where I'll have to sort through pages of irrelevant information).

The internet is better for learning bits and pieces of a topic once you got a good mastery of the core.

Just popping up to say that e-readers that are actually e-readers, not tablets in disguise, like the early Kindles and stuff aren't computer screens. They use e-ink which is much easier on the eyes and works kind of like one of those magna-doodle toys.

And again, if we're talking about an e-reader that's actually an e-reader and not something like the new Nook, there's not much reason to get a new one since all it needs to do is let you read books. Also, it seems vaguely stupid to just throw away an old electronic device, but maybe that's just me. And the curling up thing is subjective, I'm perfectly comfortable with my Kindle (especially if I'm reading something really long like The Stand where the solid copy would be considerably less comfortable).