Slings and Arrows question

[JD]

Don't a lot of the e-books have programing that prevents you from printing them?

 

[Sho]

They do, but it's usually fairly trivial to crack it. Whether it's legal to circumvent copy-protection mechanisms built into one's own property unfortunately varies by country, though. Morally I tend to consider it fair game for personal uses.

 

[JD]

Yeah, the whole cracking DRM thing has been a big issue here for quite a while.

 

[Sho]

Yeah. The music industry has mostly stopped using it again by now, and ebooks will probably follow suit eventually (at the end of the day it just doesn't do what it's meant to - prevent privacy - and instead causes all sorts of hassles and limitations for customers).

 

[captcalhoun]

don't you mean 'prevent piracy'?

 

[Sho]

Err, yep.