apple "locked" everyone into its drm for itunes songs and ended up removing it.
perhaps amazon is trying to do the same thing. promote the drm to get the publishers on-board, then once they have the market (though i think they do already), use their weight to convince publishers to ditch the drm.
Maybe. But iTunes, and sellers crippled digital music in general, was competing against free and unrestricted.
I am skeptical that Amazon or Apple will remove the encumbrances if there is no market pressure from having the same content available in an open format.
Which is why I don't understand the enthusiasm for this.
Getting more people locked into any digital restriction management scheme is a step backwards.
When I can get current digital books that use a non-proprietary format and can be read on my choice of hardware, then I'll be excited.