Quote:
Originally Posted by wgrimm
If you're a publisher, and want to sell- don't worry about piracy. Add value, price fairly, if you really MUST use DRM, do it unobtrusively like Ereader, and you will sell. And watch the market- prices for information have been dropping steadily. If you keep your information highly priced, you are doomed to failure.
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From a content producer's point of view, this is the only viable option. I wonder if there are any solid figures on any of the "honor system" mass transit systems in Europe, because there seem to be a lot of parallels. If you hop tram in Prague without paying for it, you're violating the law. However, if you're taking a spot that would otherwise have gone empty, you're not costing the system any additional expense. It's relatively easy to "get away with it," but enforcement does exist and some people do get caught by random inspectors. (Setting aside, for the moment, that there are a lot of reports of abuse in the inspection system.)
The NYC subway, on the other hand, has a more obtrusive "DRM" system (Digital Rider Management?). If you don't pay, you don't get on. The card system and the turnstiles and the gate infrastructure costs a lot of time, effort, and money to maintain, and
still people hop the turnstiles.
So. Does the honor system work more often than not? Enough, that the savings from the light-weight "DRM" system balances any losses?