Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Let's consider two scenarios.
(i) 100 people buy a new book when it comes out. It has no DRM. They share it on facebook with 100 other people each, and those people also share it with 100 other people. Result: You get 100 sales but over a million copies out there.
(ii) 100 people buy a new book when it comes out. It has DRM. Only one of the 100 knows how to strip DRM, does so, and shares it on facebook with 100 other people. They share it on facebook with 100 other people each, and those people also share it with 100 other people. Result: You get 100 sales but over a million copies out there.
If mass casual sharing is a problem, then it's a problem with or without DRM.
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In that test, you forgot to mention (even though you do at the end of the post) the additional (ii) consequence : of the 100 people buying the ebook with DRM, 4 have problems with it.
- the first of them "returns" the ebook, and gets his money back.
- the second of them grumbles and swears never to buy DRMed ebooks again
- the third of them finds out how it's MUCH easier to strip the DRM out of it, and does so.
- the fourth finds out where to download the "illegal" version, and finds out how easier it is, and hence gets introduced-to/tempted-by the "dark side" of the Force.
Net result : on all 4 "problematic people" -> bad for the author/publisher.