MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - For the few writers here that are not benefited by piracy and NEED DRM...

jabberwock_11 · 11-06-2012, 02:56 PM

I hate DRM, but I have to agree that there are plenty of folks who "lend" out their ebooks to friends or who do not realize that it is not legal to do so. The legal and copyright notices in the beginning of books are, for the most part, completely ignored by most people (myself included).

The big issue is that people see lending ebooks in the same way that they see lending paper books. This is, of course, not the case unless you delete your copy of the ebook after lending it. When you let a friend borrow a paper book you do not retain an exact copy of that book, but you do retain an exact copy when you "lend" an ebook.

The argument that DRM stops casual file sharing and decreases the average person from unwittingly pirating ebooks is the one and only argument that I have ever heard which actually makes a plausible case for the use of DRM. This actually gave me pause and forced me to examine my own feelings of anti-DRM sentiment. I am still against DRM for all of the reasons that I have already stated, but I can now at least see some of the merit of the other side of this debate, even if it is just a small sliver of merit. There has to be a better way than DRM to protect intellectual property rights. DRM is not the answer, and with so many of us focusing on DRM there aren't enough folks trying to come up with a plausible alternative.

11-06-2012, 02:56 PM	#60
jabberwock_11 Addict Posts: 231 Karma: 1591305 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Savannah, GA USA Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2, Aluratek Libre Pro	I hate DRM, but I have to agree that there are plenty of folks who "lend" out their ebooks to friends or who do not realize that it is not legal to do so. The legal and copyright notices in the beginning of books are, for the most part, completely ignored by most people (myself included). The big issue is that people see lending ebooks in the same way that they see lending paper books. This is, of course, not the case unless you delete your copy of the ebook after lending it. When you let a friend borrow a paper book you do not retain an exact copy of that book, but you do retain an exact copy when you "lend" an ebook. The argument that DRM stops casual file sharing and decreases the average person from unwittingly pirating ebooks is the one and only argument that I have ever heard which actually makes a plausible case for the use of DRM. This actually gave me pause and forced me to examine my own feelings of anti-DRM sentiment. I am still against DRM for all of the reasons that I have already stated, but I can now at least see some of the merit of the other side of this debate, even if it is just a small sliver of merit. There has to be a better way than DRM to protect intellectual property rights. DRM is not the answer, and with so many of us focusing on DRM there aren't enough folks trying to come up with a plausible alternative. Last edited by jabberwock_11; 11-06-2012 at 02:58 PM.