Eric Flint has publisher another episode on DRM (http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/salvos5)

Remember: electrons are not molecules. If you get nothing else from reading this essay, do yourself a favor and memorize those four words. They will serve you well as a shield against hogwash.

Very good read.

URL for non-subscribers:
http://preview.baens-universe.com/articles/salvos5

Eric managed to hit a whole lotta nails on the head with this one. I particularly liked his point about used and borrowed books essentially amounting to pir--uh, excuse me, theft, in the present system. But since, clearly, they are not considered theft by the industry, the system must be a bit more complicated at second glance, not as simple as publishers might suggest.

Electronic publishing is in exactly that conundrum. A lot of matters have to be considered to solve the commercial needs of e-publishing, many more than "He downloaded my book and didn't pay me first!" And I agree, the publishing industry could solve them, if they actually wanted to make a little effort... the kind of effort Steve Jobs made to create iTunes, and to show the music industry how e-music could be profitable.

The print industry didn't have all the details worked out in a week, or a month, or a year. It will take time for the e-book industry to work things out. We just have to keep them from doing too many stupid things until then.

Salvos 1-6 are all public with the link above posted by igorsk (with the appropriate number instead of 5), 7 I quoted and soon should be available for everyone, and I can quote 8 if people are interested; that one is quite funny too, the title is
"Spillage: or, The Way Fair Use Works in Favor of Authors and Publishers"

Incidentally Mr. Flint is taking the Grantville Gazette to a bimonthly (alternate with JBU) pro SF magazine starting May 1st, so he will be editor of 2 of the 15 pro (recognized by SFWA as such) SF&F magazines, both mostly online published with no drm and paying the highest rates of all SF&F magazines in the JBU case, and good pro rates for GG.

As he put it, a good stick to hit the drm preachers with.

"He downloaded my book and didn't pay me first!"

Their attitude, IMHO, is more like, "He paid for my book before he downloaded the DRM thing and now he can't open it on his device. Ha, Ha, Ha. He'll have to buy another version in order to read it."