Massive wave of ebook piracy?

[GreenMonkey]

You guys have fun with your DRM. Sure. it works fine now. Just wait. itunes worked fine for the first couple of years for the wife too, until she went past her limit of devices (hardware crash required system re-install / repair). itunes would not let us access her library, no matter what. I warned her not to buy DRM'd music!

About 4 hours of mucking about and customer service, and the only solution was that itunes "let" us re-download all of the tracks. Of course, some of it was lost because it was no longer offered by itunes.

DRM only hurts legitimate customers and does little to stop piracy. It's always cracked (Sometimes before it is even released for games), it's always distributed, it never works.

Nope. No thank you. Some people never learn, until the DRM burns them, and they come begging to the techy to help them. Half of the time the way we fix it is to remove the DRM (I did this with the wife's itunes library right away after re-downloading it all). It's ridiculous.

[MrPLD]

In the end, if you're an indie... who cares what the rest of the market is doing, you get to choose your own status of DRM or no DRM (at least on Amazon you can choose now, thankfully).

I'm going without DRM, never found it any good in the software industry that I worked the last 20 years, other than to peeve off customers and increase support demands, so I don't see things being much different in the eBook realm.

At least this way we will be the bearer of our own choices.

Paul.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

So far, publishers are still in the slow lane (and some sit in the spectator stand) watching their bricks and mortar allies wilt on the vine.

Please don't be offended, but may I nominate this for the best mixed metaphor I've read this year?

Regards, Alex

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by sabredog

How would that be right? I am involved in writing and maintaining engineering contracts and it is the contractor that agrees to conditions set in an offered contract not the other way around.

Yes, but it is the author who makes the choice to sign different contracts with different publishers in different countries. Not the publisher, the author.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Yup, and it has been made easy. See below.



This is one of the main reasons it is difficult to get a ground swell of support for dropping DRM ... because for most customers, in fact, it doesn't get in the way. The most common "glitch" is "I can't lend the file" but the reality is you can lend the Kindle in exactly the same you you'd loan the paperback.

I doubt many Kindle users are even aware of DRM restrictions. They would only really become aware of them if Amazon removed a book while they were reading it.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, but it is the author who makes the choice to sign different contracts with different publishers in different countries. Not the publisher, the author.

Truly, that is splitting hairs.

A lot of agency 5 titles are restricted sale wise to Australia and other countries. One only has to see what is offered to US residents on Amazon to what is available to Australians. That is not Amazon's fault or the author's, rather those 5 publishers who offer such restrictive contracts purely to keep flogging a dying distribution model.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Please don't be offended, but may I nominate this for the best mixed metaphor I've read this year?

Regards, Alex

If it's not, that's the way the cookie bounces.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Truly, that is splitting hairs.

A lot of agency 5 titles are restricted sale wise to Australia and other countries. One only has to see what is offered to US residents on Amazon to what is available to Australians. That is not Amazon's fault or the author's, rather those 5 publishers who offer such restrictive contracts purely to keep flogging a dying distribution model.

I'm sorry to disagree, but it's not "splitting hairs". If a publisher does not have the legal right to distribute an eBook outside the USA, because the author only assigned them the US rights to the book, then the blame for that lies squarely in the lap of the author.

This certainly isn't the reason for all geographical restrictions - eg B&N simply choose not to sell books to anyone outside the US - but it's certainly the primary reason that sites such as Amazon impose restrictions on particular books.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

If it's not, that's the way the cookie bounces.

It's all clear as the edge of town.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm sorry to disagree, but it's not "splitting hairs". If a publisher does not have the legal right to distribute an eBook outside the USA, because the author only assigned them the US rights to the book, then the blame for that lies squarely in the lap of the author.

This certainly isn't the reason for all geographical restrictions - eg B&N simply choose not to sell books to anyone outside the US - but it's certainly the primary reason that sites such as Amazon impose restrictions on particular books.

I think it is exactly splitting hairs.

Surely you can see that offering contracts based on such as system that encourages geo restrictions is problematic and backward thinking in today's world?

An author simply wants to publish a book. If the publisher offered worldwide distribution of an ebook in the same way as a dead tree book, based on a newer more digital age distribution model then surely that is the way forward?

Contracts are offered to contractors based upon the current industry practice.

For the publishing industry that includes DRM and GR.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Surely you can see that offering contracts based on such as system that encourages geo restrictions is problematic and backward thinking in today's world?

I entirely agree. But the point you're missing is that it's the author who chooses to sign separate contracts for distribution in different countries, because they can make more money that way.

An author simply wants to publish a book.

No, an author wants to maximise his income from a book. And the way to do that is often to sign multiple distribution deals for different territories.

If the publisher offered worldwide distribution of an ebook in the same way as a dead tree book, based on a newer more digital age distribution model then surely that is the way forward?

I'm not sure what you mean by that. Paper publishing is geographically restricted in just the same way that eBook distribution is. Authors sign contracts for paper publishing restricted to (for example) the USA or UK just as they do for eBooks. Indeed, it's normally the same contract.

[paaThaka]

The publishing industry is going through huge changes, just like the music industry did 10 years ago.

I saw the writing on the wall when I started converting and uploading snippets of my favorite tracks in MPEG-Audio Layer II (mp2) to net in c. 1995. By 2001 it was already too late for the music industry to fight back.

The same is now happening in the publishing industry.

Changes coming:

- even stricter DRM (in the beginning), but it will fail (same reasons as before)
- worldwide publishing rights, because Internet cannot be geo-contained (not even in China)
- much smaller publishers at lower prices
- ebook only publishers
- lots of piracy and blurring of the line between right/wrong
- perhaps even a "Napster" for ebooks/magazines/comics (dedicate torrents and sites have already exists for years)
- commoditization of publishing (the entry price/difficulty to being a published book author will crash through the floor, just like being a musician happened for music)
- a youtube of books, magazines, etc (scribd.com or some future variant I can't even dream up yet)

I personally buy a lot of books and have a library of a couple of thousand physical, although I'm constantly re-selling stuff that I don't want to keep. Yet, my collection of Creative Commons licensed and copyright free electronic books is now growing much faster than my physical book collection.

So, even old farts like me cannot resist the tide and no matter how many DRM Amazon books I buy, the platform is likely to crush under non-DRM alternative within the next 10 years.

And that's a good thing, because just like GreenMonkey said, DRM will harm you the buyer, more than it hurts the corporations that push it, or stops the pirates who crack it.

So, for the next 10 years, for better or worse, be prepared to buy DRM, buy dead trees copies or pirate. All of those, depending on what you actually want (format, freedom, titles), because not everything will be available in all formats in all geographical locations.

It takes time for the industry to adjust. That's just the nature of the beast.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by paaThaka

Changes coming:

- even stricter DRM (in the beginning), but it will fail (same reasons as before)
- worldwide publishing rights, because Internet cannot be geo-contained (not even in China)
- much smaller publishers at lower prices
- ebook only publishers
- lots of piracy and blurring of the line between right/wrong
- perhaps even a "Napster" for ebooks/magazines/comics (dedicate torrents and sites have already exists for years)
- commoditization of publishing (the entry price/difficulty to being a published book author will crash through the floor, just like being a musician happened for music)
- a youtube of books, magazines, etc (scribd.com or some future variant I can't even dream up yet)

There's another possibility, based on the past performance of software sellers like Microsoft and Adobe: Both companies experienced years of piracy of their products; but they publicly turned a blind eye to it, while privately working on better DRM systems; and once they had an established market share, they rolled out the new DRM systems. The bulk of their customers grumbled, but most of them also stayed with the software they'd been using, thereby confirming that the MS/Adobe strategy worked.

Today, try to get a pirated copy of Windows, Office, Photoshop, InDesign, etc, and get full use out of it... you probably could, but the effort expended by most would be more than the equivalent act of just paying for the software. Many choose third-party SW to replace these, but they still hold significant market share, and hold it by refusing to allow third party SW to interact properly with theirs... forcing those who wish to work with the market to use the same SW as the market, whether they like it or not.

Based on that, there is a possibility of the following changes:

• Big Booksellers develop a customer-based DRM (as opposed to a device-based DRM), tied to individuals and device-agnostic
• Big Sellers convince HW makers to include HW/SW that supports their DRM (or will notify them/disable content if you disable or circumvent it), making it effectively universal
• Sellers will convince content producers it is in their best interest to offer their content only in their DRM system (or may offer significant incentives for them to do so/disincentives to avoid doing so)
• Sellers won't sell content to people who don't have DRM-supporting devices
• Customers, wanting the latest and popular books and magazines, and not being able to buy HW that allows them to successfully circumvent the DRM systems, will finally (grudgingly) accept them.
• As DRM system becomes fully universal and ubiquitous, customers will get used to the DRM systems, and after awhile, few of them will care what things were like without it.

For the record, I'm not saying this is the absolute best way for this to happen. But based on past commercial history, and the proven business strategies of MS and Adobe (and others), I think it's possible that the industries involved will eventually try this as the most effective way to establish workable DRM and safeguard their products, and that if they do, the bulk of consumers will eventually accept it.

The first of this DRM code will be loaded, bit by bit, into our present computers and devices through those ubiquitous updates we usually find we cannot avoid forever. The cynical, paranoid me wouldn't be surprised if it turned out it was already happening...

How will piracy fare under such a system? How strong is the pirate market for Photoshop, Office, etc? And there may still, in this scenario, be non-DRM'd products... but if the incentives for DRM'd products are significantly better for content producers, the DRM is shown to be effective, and fewer customers complain about it, how long will it be before all content producers simply knuckle under and go with it?

Obviously, there is a lot of speculation and a lot of "if"s involved in this scenario. But I believe it could happen just as I've described it, and piracy of ebooks could be rendered as not worth the trouble...

[Tattncat]

Originally Posted by queentess

I take issue with the fact that the filetypes are so branded. I don't have to have a Sony mp3 player to play Sony mp3's... why should I need a Sony reader to read Sony ebooks? (And Amazon and Nook, etc.) At some point this process needs to become painless for the consumer.

As for "the odd error"... I've read many legitimate ebooks that are chock full of errors. It doesn't make the 'real' product more appealing than piracy.

Hey, I have a nook and so far I can read anyone's ePub on it.

However, what I would like to see (In a perfect world, of course) is eBooks available for purchase (not rent) at a reasonable price. I would like to see all books old and new (ie all back lists - currently out of print) made available for purchase.

I am certain, that I am not the only individual out there who---
1) re-reads their books and---
2) would like to assemble a reasonably comprehensive library of enjoyable books.

[SensualPoet]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Please don't be offended, but may I nominate this for the best mixed metaphor I've read this year?

LOL. Yes, you may. It was rather off the rails, wasn't it?