Comment Number:	539814-00756
Received:	2/13/2009 3:41:49 PM
Organization:
Commenter:	James Blackwell
State:	PA
Agency:	Federal Trade Commission
Rule:	FTC Town Hall to Address Digital Rights Management Technologies - Event Takes Place Wednesday, March 25, 2009, in Seattle
Attachments:

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Comments:

DRM (also known as both "Digital Restrictions Management" and "Digitial Rights Management") has harmed me as a consumer. In 2005 and 2006, I purchased a number of electronic books from the website "fictionwise.com". These books, encoded with DRM, are now useless to me because the new device that I have purchased from Amazon.com (A Kindle 2) is not able to read these books. I am now burdened with worthless property that I can neither use nor sell, even though the company that sold me the old books is owned by the same company that sold me the new bookreader. The effect of DRM to me, and society as a whole, is that the content industries are working in collusion to force us to trade first sale doctrine for a rental. Companies should be required to both allow and ease efforts for me to move content, as often as I wish, content that I have purchased the right to enjoy. Companies should also have the same requirements when I chose to sell my right to a third party. By requiring these two things, the rights that society has become accustomed to with books, would be preserved with e-books.