MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - DRM is necessary and good, stop complaining

Penforhire · 11-28-2007, 08:07 PM

I think the original poster has a valid point as viewed from the other end of the equation. He is rightfully concerned about how authors are paid for their work in a non-DRM digital world. I personally dislike DRM. I have modern programs with dongles because of it. But I understand it. What are the alternatives?

Baen exists in a small niche. I am not convinced their model would survive Joe Public exposure once e-readers are common.

DRM would be less onerous if the format never changed; If the books we buy today would absolutely "work" in ten years. But digital has proven to be much more fragile than that. Whether it is a DRM-server going down (or out of business) or a CD/hard drive failure, DRM is a disaster waiting to happen. Let's say it has too much potential for failure.

Paper books have the potential to burn or fade but they has a much longer track record of success than e-books. As a reasonable man I feel justified in stripping DRM out or avoiding it whenever possible in my possessions.

I suggested in other threads that the subscription model appears to be the golden path to me. You don't need DRM if any book I want can be delivered on demand. You don't need to own the books at all if truly on-demand. If you are an annotation freak we could have "sidecar" files so any time that book is loaded into your reader your notes get loaded too. As much as I like books, and my house overflows with books, I am having a hard time justifying my own resistance to the subscription model.

You could argue that in a real purchase I do not have any on-going cost. But if on-going expense is a burden them perhaps our governments can subsidize it for the poor, like anything else.

I think the strongest objection I have now is, who gets to maintain all the content and rake in the money? Clearly whoever that is would have to kick back funds to publishers and they, in turn, to writers. Amazon's Kindle looks like "version 1" of precisely the device (and company) that could support that business model.

Am I missing anything? (sorry for rambling)

11-28-2007, 08:07 PM	#79
Penforhire Wizard Posts: 2,230 Karma: 7145404 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Southern California Device: Kindle Voyage & iPhone 7+	I think the original poster has a valid point as viewed from the other end of the equation. He is rightfully concerned about how authors are paid for their work in a non-DRM digital world. I personally dislike DRM. I have modern programs with dongles because of it. But I understand it. What are the alternatives? Baen exists in a small niche. I am not convinced their model would survive Joe Public exposure once e-readers are common. DRM would be less onerous if the format never changed; If the books we buy today would absolutely "work" in ten years. But digital has proven to be much more fragile than that. Whether it is a DRM-server going down (or out of business) or a CD/hard drive failure, DRM is a disaster waiting to happen. Let's say it has too much potential for failure. Paper books have the potential to burn or fade but they has a much longer track record of success than e-books. As a reasonable man I feel justified in stripping DRM out or avoiding it whenever possible in my possessions. I suggested in other threads that the subscription model appears to be the golden path to me. You don't need DRM if any book I want can be delivered on demand. You don't need to own the books at all if truly on-demand. If you are an annotation freak we could have "sidecar" files so any time that book is loaded into your reader your notes get loaded too. As much as I like books, and my house overflows with books, I am having a hard time justifying my own resistance to the subscription model. You could argue that in a real purchase I do not have any on-going cost. But if on-going expense is a burden them perhaps our governments can subsidize it for the poor, like anything else. I think the strongest objection I have now is, who gets to maintain all the content and rake in the money? Clearly whoever that is would have to kick back funds to publishers and they, in turn, to writers. Amazon's Kindle looks like "version 1" of precisely the device (and company) that could support that business model. Am I missing anything? (sorry for rambling)