Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyR
While that might be true of internet piracy, there is also "casual" piracy (which DRM is really aimed at stopping). Basically buying a book and giving it to all your friends.
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Giving the users options to lend books through the DRM scheme can go a long way in stopping that casual piracy. Implementing piracy the "right" way can also do the same. Extending the features of a book, and building in "bonuses" such as keeping track of pages across devices or automatic edition updates for using the DRM can encourage people to use the legitimate copy. Making the copy free of DRM might then turn it "static" so it's great for being backed up, but it's "frozen" at the point where you removed the DRM. You still have the same copy that you bought and you could put it on other devices at that point, but only the DRMed copy would have those extras that you get from the store knowing you own the copy of the eBook.
Of course Apple also removed the DRM from their music store completely, and I have yet to hear anything about sales decreasing or casual piracy being a huge problem. Having iTunes manage the music and making it less obvious to the average user where the actual files are stored probably has a lot to do with it in the same way that the kindle and nook files can be downloaded, but it isn't immediately obvious for most users why they would download the files in the first place when they're delivered to their iPhones, nooks, kindles, etc.