Some of us knew this 30 years ago [LWN.net]

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 26, 2013 12:29 UTC (Fri) by Trelane (guest, #56877)
In reply to: Some of us knew this 30 years ago by pboddie
Parent article: Android 4.3

> But notice that DRM is not a credible excuse for the book business.

Indeed, books have a long, long history of being The Way of Conveying Information that DRM on them easily maps to well-known instances of dystopias (nineteen eighty-four (revising published books is much easier when e.g. Amazon can recall the old edition, delete your notes and you can't save the old verision), Fahrenheit 451 (You no longer have permission to read this book), etc.)

Movies are sufficiently recent that they don't carry as much cultural cautions that have grown around books (book burnings, libraries, censorship).

Unfortunately, many libraries seem to be abdicating their responsibilities on the DRM front, as are the general public.

to post comments

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 26, 2013 12:32 UTC (Fri) by Trelane (guest, #56877) [Link] (1 responses)

Fahrenheit 451: also, they had only vapid TV shows and electronic magazines (iirc). Indeed, all physical books were banned.

Some of us knew this 30 years ago

Posted Jul 27, 2013 18:39 UTC (Sat) by mathstuf (subscriber, #69389) [Link]

Fahrenheit 451 was about more than a dystopia where books get burned; there was a lot of nostalgic and Ludditic feelings expressed in it. Physical interaction was described as inherently better and as being a lost part of the family workings (in 1953!). I think the vapid TV was more a statement that *all* TV is vapid compared (not just reality shows, but also the news, documentaries, etc.) to books and newpapers, family time, and other activities of old.