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Way back when I thought there could be rational discussion of this topic, I argued that one way of showing whether going no DRM would work for major publishers would be if a bestselling major author were to offer their books DRM free,and that such an offering would proceed without major loss of expected revenue or profit. It seems that such an experiment is about to happen.
Now Ms. Rowling's approach isn't considered DRM free for the purest of the anti-DRM purists, but it's good enough for most people. Ms. Rowling has used her unique clout to exert maximum control over how her ebooks are offered to the public (apparently getting even Amazon into line). Since she is running everything through her website, she can pull the plug right away if things go wrong.We therefore have a pretty good control experiment on whether a bestselling author can profitably offer her ebooks DRM free to the general public( or, to be more precise, with minimal, "social" DRM).
If this experiment succeeds, then we will see the major publishers and authors begin to experiment with DRM free offerings (or at least with social DRM). If it doesn't succeed, then the major publishers and authors will stand pat and the burden of proof will remain with those who argue that DRM free can work for everyone.
OK, back off the Topic that Cannot be Rationally Discussed....
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