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Comment by jtrip | Hacker News Reader

How did they succeed?

Rumour is, Amazon threatened to stop selling CDs for record companies who wouldn't let them sell DRM-free MP3 files. Certainly they used their massive sales presence to negotiate a deal with the record companies.

I think that was the major tipping point for DRM on music. Apple followed after that.

I wish Amazon would take the same stand for ebooks.

My understanding, talking from a few folks who worked on that sort of thing, is that they tried. Of course this is all rumours and chit-chat, so I have no idea how true it is.

But the book publishers would apparently be happy for ebooks to go away, Amazon to stop selling books, and their higher margin deals with Borders to come back. So they called Amazon's bluff.

No shit!

The only DRM that should be on ebooks is there should only be one version of it at a time. Just like a printed book.

Jobs' open letter on DRM came out seven months before Amazon even started selling MP3 files.

Negotiations for this stuff happen long before features launch.

I don't know much about Apple & Amazon's timelines, as such things would be secrets.

That's not what happened. Around 2006 all of digital music services were failing because thier DRM was incompatible with the iPod. Once Jobs refused to license FairPlay and gave the record industry the alternative of licensing music DRM free they had no choice but to either allow DRM music or let Apple keep a stranglehold on the market.

By demonstrating they could make money without it. When nobody else could.

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