[stonetools]

OK, I asked a staight forward question above and so far no one has answered it or even tried to answer it (although they have been busy trying to point out that a lock is NOT EXACTLY like DRM). Here is the the question again:

Can we assure that writers and publishers can make a good living in a post DRM world?

Before we answer that lets hear what the publishers actually think about DRM (Yes, I know its strange to actually listen to what other side says, but bear with me)

1. Do you think DRM is necessary to protect the sales of ebooks for popular titles?

2. Do you think DRM is an effective check against piracy?

3. Do you think the main benefit of DRM is that it prevents casual sharing?

I was transparent: I told people that my own opinion was “yes”, “no”, “yes”. I am quite certain that whatever I think doesn’t influence any of these people one iota.

Eleven of the 13 agreed with me that DRM is necessary to protect sales. Ten of the 13 agreed with me that DRM is not an effective deterrent to piracy. And 12 of the 13 agreed with me that DRM’s main benefit is to prevent casual sharing!

I don’t know how many DRM opponents have the interest or patience to read this blog, but please take note. It is either disingenuous or unsophisticated (or both) to use “it does nothing to deter piracy” as an argument against DRM. Most of the people supporting the use of DRM know that and agree with you. The news is “dog bites man”. You might as well try to persuade the other side by proving that DRM doesn’t cure cancer. We agree on that as well.

THis was a surprise to me as well, but it does meant that the megabyes of oppobrium visited on the supposed arguments about piracy were wasted. Other surprises:

QUOTE]Two of the four agents said they don’t believe DRM is necessary (at all, or hardly at all) to protect the sales of ebooks. (None of the publishers voted that way.) Four is too small a sample to leap to any conclusions, but it could be that my supposition that publishers promote the universal use of DRM because agents make them do it might be overblown.
[/QUOTE]


So agents (and presumably) authors aren't clamoring for DRM protection-maybe!

One top executive at a Big Six house who is an analytical person and who is a very fact- and data-based thinker reported that “of the key titles of ours that have been pirated, all have been scans or electronic copies of MS, none have been DRM protected eBooks.” (I find this rather startling. It undermines the frequent contention — which I’ve always tended to accept — that DRM is a futile barrier to piracy because it is so easily broken. If that’s true, why wouldn’t the pirated versions publishers are finding not come from jailbroken ebooks? Something’s not adding up here…)

I'm confused too. Apparently, it's scanners , not software, that are the main piracy problem.

The writer (and at least one agent) bnelieves that the main way DRM works to protect sales is to prevent casual sharing, ie. passing your ebook along to friends and family. The agent supported DRM for best sellers alone.
Finally, here's the take from a publisher:

I got my most colorful answer from a publishing executive who believes, as I do, that the problems of piracy and the need for DRM will diminish as we move increasingly to cloud-based ebooks and away from downloadable. In a most provocative turn of phrase, this executive said that he supported DRM for downloadable ebook sales because “if you put The Da Vinci Code out there sans DRM it would be passed around like a 5 dollar whore at a frat party!” But his explanation of the cloud was more suitable for a family audience.

“There isn’t really a piracy problem but there isn’t really an alternative to DRM except for the cloud. The cloud means that you buy a product (NB: I personally would say you “license some content”, not you “buy a product”) and you get to access it on every device that you own — so long as you provide your ownership credentials. The cloud effectively means that you work only within a platform and that platform requires your credentials to access your works — so it is, in effect, DRM — but it really isn’t. That said, in order for this to work, it does need to protect files when they are downloaded — and that is true DRM.

“The whole world is moving away from download and own, so DRM is a moot point — only the library fanatics and the digerati care. The library folks are freaked out by the fact that they have no place in a world that makes all content accessible to single users anywhere, anytime — and they think that DRM is the enemy of the good. The digerati hate DRM because, well, they believe it is hindering their utopian digital realm.”

Wonder if there are any digerati around these parts.

Anyway, I shared this in the interest of promoting informed discussion.

http://www.idealog.com/blog/what-the...-of-the-cloud#

I'd suggest you read the whole thing, then have another crack at my question.