I agree that the world would be better off if this were true. But considering it's their careers on the line, I imagine they do a lot of research into customers' behavior and how it related to DRM. I imagine that the biggest competitor to a DRM-ed e-book is the dead-tree version of that same book, in which case, it's all a win-win for them.
But again, while I imagine people do buy e-books, I agree that most of them don't realize the fine print of the transaction. Morally speaking this isn't fair, in a way, Amazon is facilitating a fraudulent transaction between their customers and the publishers.
But corporate law isn't written by ethics philosophers, it's written by lobbyists, lawyers, and politicians (hopefully). And so corporations don't behave according to a human's sense of morality, but according to corporate law.
I agree that the world would be better off if this were true. But considering it's their careers on the line, I imagine they do a lot of research into customers' behavior and how it related to DRM. I imagine that the biggest competitor to a DRM-ed e-book is the dead-tree version of that same book, in which case, it's all a win-win for them.
But again, while I imagine people do buy e-books, I agree that most of them don't realize the fine print of the transaction. Morally speaking this isn't fair, in a way, Amazon is facilitating a fraudulent transaction between their customers and the publishers.
But corporate law isn't written by ethics philosophers, it's written by lobbyists, lawyers, and politicians (hopefully). And so corporations don't behave according to a human's sense of morality, but according to corporate law.