Thread: DRMed textbooks
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Old 01-08-2011, 12:46 AM   #54
bhartman36
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Krytes View Post
A few publishers have tried offering non-drm books for sale. In the case of O'Reilly, their ebook sales actually increased. In the case of David Pogue, although the book was pirated, his sales stayed the same or actually increased slightly. Both experiments make interesting reading.

http://boingboing.net/2010/01/22/ore...ops-ebook.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/11...l#previouspost
You've also got the experience of Stephen King, though. He tried the same thing, and the experiment failed.

The problem is that non-DRM'ed e-books are trivially easy to copy, while paper books aren't. This makes it very tempting for publishers to stick with paper books, and resist converting paper to e-books with all their might. The more piracy they see, the more likely they are to say, "Screw it!" and go back to paper-only (especially when, on top of that, people are saying that the e-book version of the books are worth less than the paper versions).

Having a book "expire" (except for lending purposes) is an unconscionable solution, but it makes good sense to me that they'd want to make sure (unless it's being lent) that the person who has the file is the person who bought it.
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