08-03-2011, 10:10 PM | #1 |
Media Bloke
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how do I add DRM after publishing it without?
This is going to ruffle a few feathers here but does anyone know how to add DRM to a book already with a LIVE status in Amazon.
After telling the authors months ago that I was publishing their books without DRM they have got cold feet now that they are finally on sale. When I go back to the EDIT TITLE area the "Do you want DRM" button is greyed out. I thought uploading it again might work but it didn't. Any help would be appreciated. P.S. we don't need another thread about the pros and cons of DRM. |
08-03-2011, 10:20 PM | #2 |
Wizard
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Might want to ask at the Writer's Café on kindleboards.com.... Lots of Kindle authors hang out there, and probably a few have an answer for you.
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08-03-2011, 10:28 PM | #3 |
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Probably you may need to contact "kindle direct publishing" to see if able to add DRM now that they are live.
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08-04-2011, 03:38 AM | #4 |
BrowseTheStacks
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Perhaps withdraw the books from sale and then resubmit?
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08-04-2011, 04:46 AM | #5 |
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08-04-2011, 06:10 AM | #6 |
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When people have asked the reverse question - how to _remove_ the DRM - all the answers I've seen say to withdraw the book & create a new one.
You should point out to the authors - not necessarily as an argument, but just to make sure it's understood - that this will reset the current sales rating and lose any reviews. |
08-04-2011, 07:44 AM | #7 | |
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08-04-2011, 08:07 PM | #8 |
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And will pis off customers who bought them DRM free just to get them back with DRM.
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08-05-2011, 06:14 AM | #9 |
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It'd be nice, if when someone asks a specific technical question, and admits that they know the action is controversial, they didn't have multiple replies landing in their inbox that tote the controversy and don't bother to consider the specific context.
Good: "If your authors are uneasy, here's a good resource for authors which explains the limitations of DRM." [Anyone got a good link? Something that covers "limitations" in the widest sense, e.g. including the failure to provide personal backups, which has been repeatedly demonstrated to allow large numbers of ebooks to spontaneously become unreadable. With multiple separate cases on Amazon, including what must have been at least tens of different titles less than five years ago. An article-style forum-post would do, if posted as a new thread rather than a reply to ongoing discussion.] Good: "You should say that the flip-side of these costs is that adding DRM may do less than they think. We know there's a publicly available crack for Kindle DRM which is convenient to run, well known, used by many for non-piracy purposes, and seems unlikely to be taken down any time soon. So the effect is that it only really deters casual sharing by email etc.; it doesn't stop the book being shared on well-known pirate sites." What we get on MobileRead: DRM will only lower sales, because I said so. You should tell your authors I said that. Well-meaning: "You've said that you know that some people are against DRM on principle. You should point out that if any of these happen to have bought the book, they will feel betrayed if they've recommended it to others, or if what they bought was the first book in a series. There's a risk that they'll leave a one-star review on the new version, which could put people off when they're looking at a list of books on Amazon." Well-meaning, albeit hypothetical and unchecked: "In case we have to fix some problems we missed in the first version, we might not have a way to send corrected editions to the people who bought it without DRM." What we get on MobileRead: An ambiguous post that either suggests people who bought the non-DRM version are somehow going to see it replaced with the DRM version. Or possibly that the author/publisher is somehow deciding to "get their own back" on the people who bought the non-DRM version. I probably meant something slightly different anyway, since neither of these makes sense, and I was in too much of a hurry to spell my swear words correctly. If you want to know what I actually meant, it's your responsibility to ask for clarification. Better be polite though, or I might take offence and just rush out a rebuttal with no connection to my earlier words. Last edited by sourcejedi; 08-05-2011 at 06:18 AM. |
08-05-2011, 07:01 AM | #10 |
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The forum has a policy against discussing the removal of DRM. Just like adding DRM, in certain cases, removing DRM for personal use is legal in the US. Nevertheless, when threads venture into the topic of DRM removal they are frequently terminated by the moderators. For many members of the forum adding DRM is more offensive than removal and is an attempt to circumvent the long respected first sale rule which allows a consumer to own and do as he or she pleases (short of illegal distribution or modification) with his or her copy of the work.
Perhaps if the forum moderators are going to prohibit discussion of DRM removal regardless of its legality, they should do the same with DRM addition. Personally I would like the forum to allow all discussions but, if you are going to prohibit topics that some find dubiously legal then you should should ban all such topics. I'm just sayin..... |
08-05-2011, 07:21 AM | #11 |
neilmarr
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I know that this isn't what you asked for, Mark, and that you've already explained the serious downside of DRM imposition. But I would suggest you try explaining again to your authors before taking such a drastic, unpopular and detrimental step. Good luck and best wishes. Neil (who would not sell or even touch a DRM-locked ebook with a long bargepole)
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08-05-2011, 09:15 AM | #12 | |
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The only still-valid exemption that can be used for e-books is limited to cases where it's strictly necessary in order to use text-to-speech software. Most of the discussions which are terminated on MobileRead are not focused on that case. On top of that, providing DRM tools is unconditionally illegal. The legal fiction is that each user should write their own circumvention tool (!). Linking to such tools may be a grey area, but either way it's not in the spirit of a DMCA-compliant world (spit). AIUI, MobileRead does allow to discussion of DRM-removal in general - whether it should be allowed, how difficult it is, etc - what gets shut down is any instruction more explicit than "look up Apprentice Alf". I understand it's very annoying for non-techy people who'd like to ask for step-by-step instructions on breaking the (insane) law, but the way the policy is implemented, it often strikes me as rather generous. Most of all, adding DRM in itself is not "legally dubious". The law is the law. The DMCA specifically overrides the doctrine of first sale. If it didn't, it would mean very little. The only thing that could override the DMCA is a later law, or a specific appeal to constitutional rights. Even if the DMCA is ruled unconstitutional, that has no effect on whether adding DRM is illegal! DRM could be ruled illegal by a new law, or because it was used in an anti-competitive way (which would be quite a high hurdle to pass, unfortunately), or because the DRM'd files were being advertised in a way that deceived buyers. First sale doctrine is irrelevant: it only says that you are legally allowed to re-sell; it doesn't make it illegal to build technical restrictions into the product. [Sorry for the lack of a citation for first sale doctrine - there's a big quality warning on the Wikipedia page - but that was not a contentious claim.] [Full disclosure: AFAICT, the law that applies to this forum actually doesn't include DMCA-style rules; the Canadian equivalent hasn't got anywhere. So at the moment, there's no absolute requirement forcing the forum towards this policy; it's just a house rule]. It would be pleasingly symmetrical to ban this discussion. But I suspect the justification would be more along the lines of "someone always turns into a jerk when we discuss it, and we don't have time to deal with jerks", rather than some concept of balance. There seems to be plenty of "balance" here already. |
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08-05-2011, 12:40 PM | #13 | |
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08-05-2011, 01:22 PM | #14 | |
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08-05-2011, 02:34 PM | #15 | |
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