I wonder if they track you? Some other companies who sell digital downloadable products insert your name, address etc. into the files somewhere.
Selling downloadable digital products strikes me as a bad business model. Bad for either the companies or the consumers. DRM is bad since it won't last forever. When the company goes out of business, "your" products will no longer work. Personally, I don't like tracking either. What if my computer gets hacked, stolen or that I simply forget to securely wipe a disk before throwing it away - will the company who sold me stuff blame me for pirating, if the files end up on some pirate site? On the other hand, if a company does neither DRM nor tracking, then they're very vulnerable to piracy.
Seems to me that rentals/streaming is a better business model. Would it be better if publishers like No Starch Press sold time-limited access (like say 5 or 10 years) to a website where you could read the books? Of course, dedicated pirates would be able to pirate that, but it would be inconvenient for ordinary people.
Selling downloadable digital products strikes me as a bad business model. Bad for either the companies or the consumers. DRM is bad since it won't last forever. When the company goes out of business, "your" products will no longer work. Personally, I don't like tracking either. What if my computer gets hacked, stolen or that I simply forget to securely wipe a disk before throwing it away - will the company who sold me stuff blame me for pirating, if the files end up on some pirate site? On the other hand, if a company does neither DRM nor tracking, then they're very vulnerable to piracy.
Seems to me that rentals/streaming is a better business model. Would it be better if publishers like No Starch Press sold time-limited access (like say 5 or 10 years) to a website where you could read the books? Of course, dedicated pirates would be able to pirate that, but it would be inconvenient for ordinary people.