DRM issue exposed on NPR All Things Considered

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern

I partly agree and partly don't agree. Yes, DRM can be removed from SOME books but not everyone is going to be able to do it nor everyone is going to have the time and energy to do it. So, the effects of DRM that limits its distribution is not null. In other words, it's not a moot point.

I think Alisa's point was specifically about the availability of ebooks on the darknet. You're right, the average consumer probably won't be interested enough in removing DRM to learn how to do it, but someone who wants to pirate the ebook certainly will (and can). So DRM doesn't really hinder the pirates, it only hinders the average consumer.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

And here's another problem they'll have to face... free ebooks without DRM from upcoming writers and all the classics available from places like Feedbooks.

I wouldn't have to spend another penny and I could read for the rest of my life for free with just a smidgen of the wide PD catalogue that's available. I could also limit my choice to upcoming writers (lots of them about and lots producing good work) who refuse DRM on their works. Donating to them is worth the price if not only to support their talent, but also the ease of use of their products.

The free books definitely get me to try new things and I suppose it does take some sales away from other books because I'm spending some time reading free ones rather than books I bought, but ultimately books are not a fungible commodity. If they were, I'd have one and read it over and over again. I'm persnickety about what I read at any given moment. If I'm in the mood for a given book, I'll pay for it even if I have 100 free, interesting looking books queued up. Free doesn't really rate on what makes a book attractive to me. It will get me to download it and maybe I'll try it, just as the free Amazon samples do, but I won't persist through the book merely because it's free and I won't read a classic, no matter how great it is, if I'm in the mood for something more modern at the moment.

[kevindorsey]

I would think the average consumer might be interested in removing the DRM after getting annoyed by it for a bit.

[purl4peace]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Well, DUH .... no one is complaining about it because maybe 1 percent of the people who have a Kindle even KNOW about DRM restrictions. Are the people at Amazon really that stupid??

Um... yeah!

Here was the canned response I got when I sent an email protesting the DMCA abuse. (For what it is worth, I wasn't protesting DRM -- just Amazon's efforts to restrict where we purchase our DRM content for the Kindle...

Short version: "Don't blame us! Blame the evil publishers"

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http://www.amazon.com/kindlelicense
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Due to the nature of DRM, we do not comment on individual situations where we are protecting the DRM that publishers choose to have.

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[purl4peace]

Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern

I partly agree and partly don't agree. Yes, DRM can be removed from SOME books but not everyone is going to be able to do it nor everyone is going to have the time and energy to do it. So, the effects of DRM that limits its distribution is not null. In other words, it's not a moot point.

This year, I gave one of my friends a Sony PRS-505. In turn, her aunt got hooked and went right out and bought one. So I was obviously happy to share my (non-DRM) content with them. Despite very detailed instructions on how to import via either the Sony Library software or via Calibre, they both experienced the human equivalent of blue screen of death...

Even just giving them the content on an SD card and experiencing the delay associated with the reader... well, er... reading all the new content caused them to panic that there was something wrong and they both started hitting buttons like monkeys on crack.

Yeah, there are always going to be hackers who will take advantage of the system and steal content (like getting movies illegally over the internet). However, the vast majority of people aren't going to expend the effort to learn how to circumvent the system and would just prefer to plunk down 15 bucks for the instant gratification of buy the book legally.