Reasons to kill DRM

[jlg432]

I believe Adobe DRM users last year went through that issue. Adobe upgraded their DRM software and I guess they gave notice that once beyond a certain time frame they no longer supported the old method and it was not compatible with the new one. If you did not manage to convert over you were out of luck.

see url

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/533039?tstart=0

Another reason to remove DRM period!

[SensualPoet]

I'm not bothered by DRM on e-books; it works seamlessly for me, the reader. Almost everything I buy I am likely to read only once. If I lost my whole collection, and wanted to reread a handful off titles, well, so be it: the cost would be nominal in the grand scheme of things. And, for those feeling the need, stripping DRM in most formats is pretty simple if you want to make a DRM-free personal backup.

[jes1]

I resisted the idea of stripping DRM for a long time, until the Fictionwise debacle this April. Most of my DRM'd books are in the ereader format, and I believed it would be supported for a long time, so I did not worry. But after watching the Adobe PDF mess, and figuring pdb format and lit format are at the end of their useful lives, I decided to go to the effort of future proofing my books. I do re-read books I enjoy. I have read some many times, so this is an important issue to me. The whole mess has made me appreciate sites like Baen, Smashwords, A Writer's Work, and others. Many small press and independant authors are starting to get more and more of my money in appreciation for their courage to go DRM free. I want to support that attitude as much as possible.

[mikaelalind]

I tried to strip the DRM from an e-pub book recently, but I failed.

So I'll continue to buy DRM'd books.... Until I decide to give it another try.

[Valmore Daniels]

It's one thing I check whenever I make a purchase. If there is DRM, I'll pass. If it's a book I really need to read, I'll order the paper copy rather than risk losing access to the material if/when there is a technology shift.

[TMPoole]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I believe it already did. Fictionwise had an episode of this a while ago where a lot of books would no longer be available for download because their contract with Overdrive was terminated.

http://www.teleread.com/2009/01/08/o...-distribution/

BTW... there are proponents of DRM? Other than the copyright cartel?

So did Embiid. I had a bunch of stuff I'd purchased from there. Including their entire Liad/Korval catalog. Had to repurchase everything when they went down. They did everything right. Notified everybody, instructed how to backup everything, they even kept the servers up for months after they shutdown. Nothing is more obsolete than a DRM system that doesn't support current software or any reader at all. I can still read them on my Pilot, but I've moved on. As lessons go, it wasn't that expensive. Thank Baen.

I'll stumble on and fill in the missing pieces someday.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by TMPoole

So did Embiid. I had a bunch of stuff I'd purchased from there. Including their entire Liad/Korval catalog. Had to repurchase everything when they went down. They did everything right. Notified everybody, instructed how to backup everything, they even kept the servers up for months after they shutdown. Nothing is more obsolete than a DRM system that doesn't support current software or any reader at all. I can still read them on my Pilot, but I've moved on. As lessons go, it wasn't that expensive. Thank Baen.

I'll stumble on and fill in the missing pieces someday.

I downloaded them, removed the DRM and moved on. No books lost, simply the ability to re-download them.


But a good reason to kill DRM: DRM is making us all into felons, simply because we like to listen to music or read books, on devices we decide.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by TMPoole

So did Embiid. I had a bunch of stuff I'd purchased from there. Including their entire Liad/Korval catalog. Had to repurchase everything when they went down. They did everything right. Notified everybody, instructed how to backup everything, they even kept the servers up for months after they shutdown. Nothing is more obsolete than a DRM system that doesn't support current software or any reader at all. I can still read them on my Pilot, but I've moved on. As lessons go, it wasn't that expensive. Thank Baen.

I'll stumble on and fill in the missing pieces someday.

I really don't understand why you had to repurchase them. What format were these books in? Why did you not simply convert them to a format that you could read on whatever reading device you now have?

[Graham]

While it's a pain that support will disappear from pre-2008 purchases it's worth pointing out that Napster themselves moved away from DRM last year, and all purchases have been DRM-free mp3s since then.

I felt they were getting a little undeserved flak earlier in this thread!

Graham

[tompe]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

I'm not bothered by DRM on e-books; it works seamlessly for me, the reader. Almost everything I buy I am likely to read only once. If I lost my whole collection, and wanted to reread a handful off titles, well, so be it: the cost would be nominal in the grand scheme of things. And, for those feeling the need, stripping DRM in most formats is pretty simple if you want to make a DRM-free personal backup.

You assume that you will be able to buy a book later. This has not been true for paper books (the net based second hand market made it nearly true). I often by a book and read it years later. With DRM I cannot be sure to be able to read it years later.

[GreenMonkey]

These kind of events are exactly why I refuse to buy digital products with DRM.

The only DRM-ridden books I've bought since getting the Nook a couple of months back were for school. Any books I get I remove the DRM when I get some time. Otherwise, you don't really own it.

I buy a hardcover or paperback instead. I will not buy a book with DRM for anything more than a dollar or two - the price of a rental - because that is what you are really doing - renting the book.

Video game DRM is getting even worse - not better. Vote with your wallet, people! Buying DRM products just encourages them to keep doing it.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

These kind of events are exactly why I refuse to buy digital products with DRM.

The only DRM-ridden books I've bought since getting the Nook a couple of months back were for school. Any books I get I remove the DRM when I get some time. Otherwise, you don't really own it.

I buy a hardcover or paperback instead. I will not buy a book with DRM for anything more than a dollar or two - the price of a rental - because that is what you are really doing - renting the book.

Video game DRM is getting even worse - not better. Vote with your wallet, people! Buying DRM products just encourages them to keep doing it.

I will not buy DRM books, period. I'll buy a p-book, cut it apart and scan it instead.

[fumanchu314159]

Brazil recently made an interesting move on the DRM front by attempting to balance rights: it is equally illegal to lock media with DRM in a way that prevents users from doing legal things as it is for users to break DRM in order to do illegal things.

http://boingboing.net/2010/07/10/bra...yright-la.html

Also worthy of note is that a UN trade treaty is requiring member nations to pass laws against breaking DRM, so finding places where stripping DRM is legal is quickly becoming difficult to impossible.