> It’s just optional for books to support it or not.
Translation: It's optional for the publishers to enable DRM restricting it or not.
If I buy a paperback book, there is nothing stopping me from building a machine I can insert the book into that scans the page, OCRs it to text, and then converts the text to audio.
DRM'd ebooks are a travesty, which is why I immediately remove all DRM as soon as I buy one so that I have full freedom to do whatever I want with it.
> If I buy a paperback book, there is nothing stopping me from building a machine I can insert the book into that scans the page, OCRs it to text, and then converts the text to audio.
Nothing except the extreme hassle of doing so.
Digital is different, because it’s so much easier and cheaper to perform such transformative operations.
The point is, there are no real restrictions to use of paperback books. I can whiteout words, tear out pages, cut out quotes and tape them on my wall, photocopy, etc. Basically you have the freedom to do anything you want with it because you own it. You would probably get into hot water if you tried to start selling/distributing unauthorized copies, but as far as private use goes, the sky is the limit.
eBooks are extremely restrictive by comparison. They are so locked down that you can't do any of the above things I mentioned. You only have one basic freedom: to read it with approved software on an approved device with the publisher in complete control.
Translation: It's optional for the publishers to enable DRM restricting it or not.
If I buy a paperback book, there is nothing stopping me from building a machine I can insert the book into that scans the page, OCRs it to text, and then converts the text to audio.
DRM'd ebooks are a travesty, which is why I immediately remove all DRM as soon as I buy one so that I have full freedom to do whatever I want with it.
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